Agent 'no idea' Hampton in conference when he rang
Paul Crockford, who is Hampton's agent, decided to FaceTime her shortly after she saved two crucial penalties against Sweden and secured England a place in the Euro 2025 semi-finals last Thursday.
Mr Crockford, who has managed the Birmingham-born goalkeeper for seven years, said he was keen to congratulate her and just wanted to tell her how proud he was.
"We had all been watching in London, and as you can tell, we were a bit excited. When she showed us we were on her screen, we were like, 'Blooming heck'," he said.
Mr Crockford described Hampton as "an incredibly determined person" and said she was "a joy to work with".
The 24-year-old, who was brought up in Studley, Warwickshire, and later went to school at Erasmus Darwin Academy in Burntwood, Staffordshire, made her debut for England in 2022.
Mr Crockford said she had been "fighting" for the number one spot as a goalkeeper since then, but her performance in the quarter-finals against Sweden had changed things.
"What the other night did was seal and cement her position as a number one keeper for England," he added.
"It's been a very long journey for us... we first met her nearly eight years ago, and we've seen her ups and downs and just been with her every step of the way," Crockford said, who previously managed musicians, including Dire Straits and Tears for Fears.
"She's fantastic to work with and an inspiration to other players and fans - she's been a dream."
The Chelsea goalkeeper's agent described their journey together as "incredible" and said he was "unbelievably proud".
England will face Italy on Tuesday at 20:00 BST for a place in the Euro 2025 final.
Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
'We knew Hannah would be England's Number One'
'Don't ever write us off!' - Hampton on England win
Related internet links
UEFA Women's Euros
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Defending champions England beat Spain on penalties to win Women's Euro 2025
Chloe Kelly converted the decisive kick as England beat Spain 3-1 on penalties to win the Women's Euro 2025 after Sunday's final had finished 1-1 at the end of extra time, allowing the Lionesses to avenge their defeat in the World Cup final of two years ago and retain their continental crown. It looked as though Spain would repeat their victory over England in Sydney two years ago as they dominated the game at St Jakob-Park in Basel and led through Mariona Caldentey's first-half header. But England did not panic, having already trailed against both Sweden in the quarter-finals and Italy in the semis before finding a way to win. Alessia Russo headed in their equaliser just before the hour mark, and no further goals meant a shoot-out in which Kelly -- who once again had a huge impact off the bench -- netted the winner. It was an agonising way to lose for Spain, but they failed to score three of their spot-kicks, with reigning Ballon d'Or Aitana Bonmati seeing her effort saved. Sarina Wiegman's England are therefore back-to-back European champions, with this triumph coming three years after they defeated Germany in extra time at Wembley to win a first women's major tournament. Defeating Spain here helps make up for the agony of losing that World Cup final in 2023, and the victory also confirms Wiegman's place among the coaching greats. She has now won three consecutive European Championships, having led her native Netherlands to victory in 2017 before doing the same with England three years ago. Spain, meanwhile, fell short in their quest to add a maiden European Championship title to the World Cup they won in Australia. La Roja dominated possession as expected, but ultimately paid the price for not putting the game to bed against an England side who never know when they are beaten. Wiegman's team had been 2-0 down against Sweden in the last eight before scoring twice to force extra time as they eventually won on penalties. Then substitute Michelle Agyemang's 96th-minute equaliser denied Italy in the semi-finals in Geneva, when Kelly netted the winner in extra time. England had ultimately not played well during much of their run to the final, but it did not matter. Wiegman had taken a gamble on the fitness of Lauren James which paid off, but not quite as planned -- having come off with an ankle injury against Italy, the Chelsea winger did not last until half-time and was replaced by Kelly. - Caldentey and Russo exchange blows - By that point Spain were already in front, scoring when Bonmati and Athenea del Castillo combined to set up Ona Battle and her cross from the right was headed in by Caldentey. Montse Tome's Spain, with seven players from Barcelona in their starting line-up, had already been in control before that and it felt like England's best hope was for complacency from their opponents. The best example of that came with the game still goalless, when Spain goalkeeper Cata Coll played a careless short pass to Laia Aleixandri in her own area. Lauren Hemp was alive to the opportunity and pounced, but Coll reacted well to make the save. Yet even at 1-0 it felt like England were still in the game, and they took their chance when it came in the 57th minute when Kelly crossed from the left for her Arsenal teammate Russo to level the scores. England -- with more fans on their side in the crowd of 34,203 -- now sensed yet another comeback win was on the cards, and it took the fingertips of Coll to prevent a Kelly effort from finding the far corner midway through the second half. Agyemang then came on for Russo, hoping to once again play the role of super-sub, while Salma Paralluelo was among those brought on for Spain. Paralluelo found herself in a promising position on several occasions as the game continued into extra time, and from there to the gripping tension of penalties. Beth Mead's first kick for England was saved after she was forced to retake, and captain Leah Williamson also had her effort stopped by Coll. However, Alex Greenwood and Niamh Charles both scored, while Patri Guijarro was the only successful taker for Spain before Kelly stepped up to win it. as/ea
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hannah Hampton: How a goalkeeper with almost no depth perception helped England win the Euros
This is an updated version of an article published on July 15. Hannah Hampton was not supposed to make it as a professional athlete. The doctors told her it would not be possible. That professional sport was not meant for someone like her. In Hampton's case, 'someone like her' meant someone born with a condition called strabismus or eye misalignment, meaning one eye is turned in a direction that's different from the other. By the age of three, Hampton had undergone three operations in an attempt to correct it. None of those proved wholly successful but as she grew up, it seemed she was largely unaffected by the condition. Football seemed to come easily to the young girl who was fast on her feet and naturally used both to control the ball and, by the age of 12, she was training as a goalkeeper in Stoke City's centre of excellence. It came as a surprise then, when a doctor's check-up revealed she had a depth perception problem, meaning her ability to tell how far away she is from one thing compared to another is compromised. Or, as she explained when appearing on the Fozcast podcast with former England goalkeeper Ben Foster in December 2021: 'I basically have no depth perception, so I can't judge any distances.' 'How does that work as a 'keeper?' asked Foster. 'I really don't know,' replied Hampton, who saved two penalties in the European Championship shootout on Sunday as England beat Spain to retain their title. 'It just does.' Former goalkeeper turned coach Matt Pyzdrowski believes Hampton's story is a 'remarkable' one considering the specific challenges she must face as a goalkeeper who struggles to judge distances. 'I think it would impact every single thing she does on the field,' he says, because 'everything that you're doing is judging distances. The biggest thing is being able to judge the ball and know when you're supposed to move your hand towards it and at what angle and what speed and that's before you take into account all the other players who are on the field in front of you. 'At the very top level where she's playing, the game is moving really fast and the players in front of her can do some really amazing things with the ball when they shoot. It's really a remarkable story.' Pyzdrowski believes the fact she was born with the condition might actually be something that has helped her in learning how to work around it. He compares her situation to that of legendary England 'keeper Gordon Banks, who was Stoke City and England's No 1 when a car crash in 1972 damaged the retina in his right eye, robbing him of his binocular vision (ability to see out of two eyes). He retired from professional football the following year, although returned to action for two seasons in the North American Soccer League with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. 'I'd think it would be harder having had two eyes that work for your whole life and then being limited to only one,' says Pyzdrowski. 'Hannah doesn't know anything different, and she's obviously found a way to compensate. The brain and human body are so miraculous, she has probably just found her own way to read the flight of the ball, and it works.' Hampton's recollection of her early days in goal lends credence to this view. In an interview with the i Paper in 2022, she explained how she suffered 'many, many nose bleeds' and 'a lot of broken fingers' because she was constantly putting her hands in the wrong place to catch the ball. 'I've had to adjust my set position to have my hands out to take the ball,' she explained. 'Trying to catch a ball is quite hard!' In her day-to-day life, Hampton can sometimes feel self-conscious when she sees photographs of herself that show her eyes from a certain angle. And she has to be careful when pouring drinks: 'When pouring a glass of water, I'll miss the glass if I'm not holding it,' she said on Fozcast. 'The girls do it to me all the time at training: 'Can you make me a cup of tea?' And hold the cup, saying, 'Can I have some milk, please?'. I'll just spill it on their shoes and then they moan at me. 'Well, it's your own fault, isn't it?'.' On the pitch, though, there is no indication that the Chelsea and England No 1 is in any way impaired. Her former club Aston Villa were not concerned about it and it was not even part of the conversation during negotiations with Chelsea. Even taking into account Hampton's reasoning that time and experience have helped her to find a way, it is still hard to grasp exactly how she is able to overcome such a hindrance. A conversation with sports vision specialist Dr Daniel Laby provides some fascinating insight. He explains that when strabismus occurs at a very young age (as in Hampton's case), the brain is able to effectively 'turn off' the central vision from the misaligned eye (the peripheral vision remains active). 'The medical term for it is suppression,' Laby tells The Athletic. 'The vision comes into the brain from the eye, but the brain says: 'This isn't lined up properly, I'm going to ignore it'.' Providing the other eye works well, this does not affect one's vision (you can still qualify for a driving licence with one working eye, for example), but it does mean you lose a specific form of depth perception; binocular stereo depth perception. 'There are two forms of depth perception,' explains Laby. 'There's stereo depth perception, which comes from both eyes, but there is also depth perception that you can appreciate with just one eye; monocular depth perception.' To illustrate, he advises raising the index fingers on both your hands, then making one vertical and the other horizontal. Put the horizontal finger in front of the vertical one and close one eye. 'You can tell with just one eye that the horizontal finger is closer to you than the vertical finger,' says Laby. 'You do that because of something called overlap. The horizontal finger overlaps the vertical finger, therefore it must be in front of that or closer to you than the vertical finger. 'Think about a goalkeeper. If one of your defenders is closer to you than the ball where the play is happening, and their arm or leg occasionally covers up the ball, you can tell that the ball is further away than the defender; that's through overlap, which only requires one eye.' Monocular depth perception creates what Laby calls inferred depth, or depth derived from other cues (overlap, shadow, relative size and speed, etc). Binocular stereo depth perception is actual depth due to the parallax difference between the two eye views (the fact that our two eyes see slightly different images of the same scene, and the brain combines these images to create a 3D perception). Is one form better than the other? Laby uses the analogy of stereo depth perception being akin to high definition television. It is finer and more precise than the monocular version. Stereo depth perception only works well to a distance of six to eight feet (1.8metres to 2.4m), though. 'A perfect example of that in the extreme is when you look up at the stars in the sky at night,' says Laby. 'When you look at them with both eyes, they look like they are all the same distance from us. But we know that many of the stars are much further away than the others.' This limitation means that when play is happening further than six to eight feet away from Hampton, her lack of stereo depth perception actually has very little impact on her ability to detect depth. She will instead depend on the monocular or one-eyed cues to depth. 'So she doesn't really lose much by not having stereo depth perception because any ball that's coming to her within two or three feet of her face, she's not going to have time to react to it,' says Laby. 'Nobody is going to react fast enough, even if they have perfect vision, because you can't make the motor action that fast to put your hand up to stop a ball that's two feet away from you and moving at those speeds.' Doctors have told Hampton there is still an operation that can be done to straighten her eyes, but it would be for cosmetic purposes only; her vision would be unchanged. If it was successful in aligning her eyes, Hampton would then have to undergo a period of vision therapy during which a specialist would try to teach her how to stop suppressing the eye that her brain had turned off for so many years. To do that, Laby explains, images would be presented to the brain that are just outside of her central vision. Over time, those images would be gradually worked in towards the centre, challenging her central vision to start recognising them. 'It's using neuroplasticity to get her brain to adapt to something new,' says Laby. 'The problem is, if it doesn't perfectly line up, you're going to end up with double vision, and once you've taught someone to turn off that suppression, you can't go back and suppress again.' He describes the chances of Hampton getting back to using both eyes together as 'very slim' and questions whether it is something worth pursuing, especially for someone who is right in the thick of a hugely positive career. For her part, the 24-year-old is determined to use her story for good; to show others that no matter what you might be told, there is always hope. When she first decided to speak publicly about her eye condition in 2021, a former coach questioned why she had made that decision, given the important stage she was at in her blossoming career. Hampton remained bullish. She had already achieved more than anyone expected her to, and knew there was more still to come. Her experiences could act as a positive example to others and that was enough to make her believe she had done the right thing. 'I wasn't supposed to play and I wasn't allowed to do certain jobs,' Hampton told the BBC in 2021. 'It was always my passion to do sport and it was my dream. I've always told the younger generation that if you can't follow your own dreams, what are you going to do in life? You've got to follow your dreams and, sat here right now, I can say that I've done that.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Chelsea, England, Premier League, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Padraig Harrington wins Senior British Open for his second senior major title this year
BERKSHIRE, England (AP) — Padraig Harrington was so focused on his game that he didn't notice a leaderboard or see Rory McIlroy walking in the gallery Sunday at the Senior British Open. He closed with a 3-under 67 to win his second senior major of the year. Staked to a two-shot lead, Harrington made eagle on the first hole on the Old Course at Sunningdale and no one got closer than two shots the rest of the way as he became the fifth player with a Senior British Open and a British Open title. He won by three shots over Thomas Bjorn (67) and Justin Leonard (68). 'I'm thrilled to have won but very satisfied that I've won a Senior Open with my two Opens,' Harrington said. 'The fact that only five people have ever done it is quite special. I'm quite proud that I've managed to survive this long in the game.' He joined Darren Clarke, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Bob Charles as players to have won the British Open and the senior version. McIlroy walked around for a bit on the London-area course, though it wasn't much of a show. Harrington seized control late in the third round and never gave anyone much of a chance. Bjorn made a late charge to get within two shots, but that ended with a bogey on the 16th. "The only time I saw a leaderboard was on 18," said Harrington, who said he asked his caddie for an update on the 17th hole. 'Was fully focused on what I was doing. The Irishman was surprised to hear McIlroy, who is building a home in London, was at Sunningdale for the final round. 'I didn't see him out there. Was he out there?' Harrington said. 'I had the head down all day. I never saw anybody. I had no idea.' Harrington now has 11 titles on the PGA Tour Champions, and he has won multiple times each of the last four seasons. He won the U.S. Senior Open last month at The Broadmoor. And he nearly won the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional until a late two-shot swing gave the title to Angel Cabrera. ___ AP golf:
