Women's Footballer of the Year contender Hampton

Hannah Hampton was named the world's best female goalkeeper at the 2025 Ballon d'Or ceremony after her penalty-saving heroics helped England win Euro 2025.

She was also pivotal as Chelsea achieved an outstanding unbeaten Women's Super League campaign and lifted the title last year.

Hampton has stepped up to the task of replacing Mary Earps as England's number one. She regularly started ahead of Earps before her international retirement and has proved her worth for Sarina Wiegman's side.

She saved two penalties in the victory over Spain in the final and did the same in their quarter-final success over Sweden.

Her 13 clean sheets in the league for Chelsea also meant she shared the WSL golden glove with Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

At the age of 24, she has already won the Women's Super League twice, the FA Cup and League Cup once, two European Championships and reached a World Cup final.

Hampton on defying the odds after being born with a serious eye condition:

"I don't think doctors would have ever predicted - or anyone would ever predict - that your national goalkeeper has got no depth perception and was born with a squint. I don't think that would have ever come into people's minds that it would be possible.

"But I think I've just always tried to prove doctors wrong from the get-go when they said that I'm not allowed to play professional sports, and I just wanted to do what made me happy and put the smile on my face."

On playing for "mentality monsters" Chelsea:

"I think just being at Chelsea as a whole, it's a club of mentality monsters. They want to win everything, from the coach to the players to the backroom staff, to everyone involved at the club. They just want to win everything possible. You can't help but join their feelings and join what they want to work towards. I want to succeed as much as I can in this game and bring trophies to this amazing club."

On the Euro 2025 penalty shootouts:

"I had pressure on my back. But in that moment, I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about doing it for the girls. They'd run around for 120 minutes, and I had it simple, just standing still in my own 18 yard box. It was almost my way of saying thanks to them for being defensively secure and riding it out to those penalty shootouts."

On the advice she would give to her younger self:

"I'd say embrace every opportunity you get. I didn't know I wanted to become a keeper. Ultimately, I probably didn't choose it. It chose me. And I kept with it and I stuck with every opportunity. But I would say just embrace it and enjoy every moment, and live it to the fullest. Never have regrets."

Hampton played a huge role in Chelsea's unbeaten Women's Super League campaign, keeping 13 clean sheets in 22 games.

She then went on to play just as big a role for her country at the Euros in the summer. Throughout the tournament, her heroics were often all that stopped England from heading home as she prevented three more goals than expected, given the number and quality of chances she had to face.

Hampton's shootout performances ensured England won the Euros this summer, but you may have missed a small detail in her technique that allowed her to save as many penalties as she did.

Hampton knew which side she was going to dive towards given her preparation using data analysis. As the opponent started their run up, it was the planting of Hampton's foot closest to the side she was diving towards that was key to her success.

Some keepers bring their foot inwards so they can use it to push off before jumping towards the corner of the goal. This allows keepers to get down quickly but, in practice, the inward movement of the foot takes the keeper away from the corner of the goal. This means they need to cover more distance.

Hampton often took a large step to the side before pushing off of that foot towards the corner of the goal. This is known as a 'power step' and her execution of this technique enabled her to dive impressively towards the corner, covering much of the goal.