England fans gear up for Lionesses' Euros final clash with Spain
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Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Liverpool confirm transfer exit with clever clause to boost Alexander Isak hopes
Liverpool's busy summer continued on Tuesday evening with the Reds announcing their latest departure less than a fortnight before their first game of the new league season Tyler Morton has completed a £15m move to Lyon from Liverpool. The England U21 international departs the Reds having come through the academy at the club. Morton, 22, has been angling for a move away this summer in search of first-team football having had two successful loan spells at Blackburn Rovers and Hull in recent seasons. The Reds have allowed him to leave due to the amount of senior options available with Alexis Mac Allistter, Wataru Endo, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboslai blocking his path. They also have other young stars in James McConnell and Luca Stephenson while teenager Trey Nyoni has impressed in pre-season games and is now pushing to be considered a full-time member of the first team. Stefan Bajcetic has also returned from a loan spell away at RB Salzburg and Las Palmas with the Spaniard considered ahead of Morton in the pecking order. Liverpool have a 20 per cent sell-on clause in the deal to sell to the Ligue 1 club with the deal rising to £15m if add-ons are triggered. The fee itself, meanwhile, helps increase the Reds' funds for further transfers. Summer target Alexander Isak remains a Newcastle player for now, with Liverpool seeing a bid knocked back. They could yet come back in for the striker if Newcastle land Benjamin Sesko, though, with the RB Leipzig man expected to make a decision on his future this week. Morton's Liverpool exit comes off the back of success with England's Under-21 side at the European Championships in June. He played in all but one of the Young Lions' matches, setting up Jonathan Rowe's extra-time winner in the final. He barely featured under Arne Slot last season, though, with shoulder surgery limiting his opportunities. The midfielder got a run-out against PSV Eindhoven in Europe and played several domestic cup games, but didn't earn any Premier League minutes. Lyon have had a busy summer, but more players have gone out than come in. Two of those departing players have moved to the Premier League, with playmaker Rayan Cherki joining Manchester City in June and goalkeeper Lucas Perri making a more recent switch to Leeds United. Liverpool, by contrast, have spent more than £200m since winning the Premier League in May. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike joined in big-money moves, with full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong also completing Anfield switches. The Reds have also cashed in on a number of first-teamers, with the total sum recouped climbing up above £100m even before Morton's exit. The bulk of that came from Luis Diaz's move to Bayern Munich, while others to depart include Trent Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher. Arne Slot's champions will kick off their Premier League campaign at home to Bournemouth, with the match taking place on August 15. Lyon's Ligue 1 campaign kicks off the same weekend with the club travelling to Lens for their opening fixture. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
We owe it to the Lionesses to invest in women's football and realise its potential
The Lionesses are simply the most successful England football team in history, winning back-to-back European Championships and becoming the first England senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. It is an incredible achievement and one that will reverberate through the women's game for many years to come. The head coach, Sarina Wiegman, is simply world class; it's an overused phrase but absolutely fitting in this case. To reach five major finals in a row (including a European Championship win and a World Cup final with the Netherlands before joining England) is a record that may never be surpassed. She was an inspired choice by Kay Cossington, the former Football Association technical director who targeted her for her ability to build a strong culture and sense of team as much as her obvious tactical acumen. The Lionesses, like their manager, also demonstrate exemplary leadership qualities on and off the pitch. On the pitch, they are wonderfully resilient and determined and simply do not know how to give up. In the semi-final, as even the most ardent England fan was losing hope, they found a way in the 96th minute to claw themselves back into the competition. They had to come from behind three times in the competition and emerged victorious from two penalty shootouts (how very un‑English) to retain their trophy. Off the pitch, they are visible and vocal ambassadors for the game, demanding equal access for girls to play and ensuring that when the baton is passed on to the next generation the game is left in a better place. They utilised their platform to speak out on a range of issues from periods to autism, mental health and bereavement and also took a stand against the abhorrent racism directed at Jess Carter. The Lionesses are the powerful role models our young girls so desperately need. While the England men's team, under Gareth Southgate's leadership, embodied a more inclusive vision of Englishness (captured beautifully in Dear England) the Lionesses have embodied a strong powerful sense of a modern young woman. So, congratulations Sarina and the Lionesses, I couldn't be a more proud English woman. But, with the players now on a well-deserved break, attention will soon turn to the launch of the Women's Super League season and the need to maximise the momentum from the summer. The Lionesses captured the imagination of the nation. TV audiences peaked at 16 million for the final, the biggest audience of the year and something that would have seemed unimaginable not so long ago. More than 65,000 fans came to London last Tuesday, in unprecedented scenes for women's sport, to congratulate their heroines and celebrate their achievements. Even the most ardent naysayers have to admit – women's football has a passionate and growing fanbase. And it is this very fanbase that presents football with its biggest growth opportunity. A recent Nielsen report estimated that women's football fans worldwide will reach 800 million by 2030. The women's football fanbase is young, diverse, female skewed and passionate about the women's game, its values, its inclusiveness and its accessibility. Clubs' marketing and PR strategies need to reflect this and understand that the way the women's game is consumed is different from the men's game. Targeting this fanbase in this way will bring clubs new fans through the turnstiles, new brands and new revenues. Now who couldn't get behind that opportunity? The challenge for WSL Football (the new company overseeing women's professional football), working tirelessly to grow the game, is the varying levels of commitment, expertise and investment from the clubs to do just this. Arsenal offer proof that investing in a great product, marketing it to this new fanbase and providing a great match day experience can create a viable women's football team. They have already sold 15,000 season tickets and, come the opening fixture, the Emirates Stadium will be sold out with Gooners welcoming back both their Lionesses and their Champions League‑winning heroines. But many clubs are just scratching the surface, focused on the behemoth that is men's football. And I do understand. If you are responsible for a global brand where the majority of revenue comes from the men's game, this will be your main focus, but forward-thinking leaders of clubs cannot miss this new growth opportunity. A modern progressive club, attracting purpose-driven brands and engaging the next generation of young fans will need a thriving men's and women's team. The younger generation expect better. And if you can't or won't invest in it there are plenty who will. Women's football is becoming fertile ground for investors and private equity as club audiences, revenues and valuations grow exponentially. Michele Kang's purchase of London City Lionesses and Alexis Ohanian's 10% investment in Chelsea is only the tip of the iceberg. These investors bring in much needed revenue to bolster the first team as well as a start-up mindset with the capability and focus to drive commercial growth. The worst thing that clubs can do now is nothing, whether that's not selling a stake to attract the expertise and investment required or not investing themselves. Put bluntly, it's time to put up or sell out. Women's football, in my lifetime, will become the second biggest sport in the world behind men's football. If you cannot see this after Euro 2025, then you need to take the blinkers off. It's time to step up and invest. The Lionesses' legacy depends on you. Kelly Simmons is a consultant for Run Communications' women's sport division, Run X, and former director of the women's professional game at the Football Association. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Lionesses star explains why she skipped trophy parade after heartbreaking admission
The Lionesses squad celebrated defending their European Championships title with an open-top bus parade in London but one of their star players missed out on the festivities England defender Jess Carter explained she was keen to get back into action as soon as possible for club side Gotham FC just days after winning Euro 2025. The centre-back played the full 120 minutes as the Lionesses beat Spain in Basel, but flew straight back to the United States - meaning she missed Tuesday's trophy parade in London. The other NWSL players in Sarina Wiegman's squad joined the celebrations in the capital. However, Carter said she sometimes struggles getting back up to top speed after a lengthy break and wanted to keep her momentum going, adding that her England team-mates were "super supportive" of her decision to return to club action. "I was just itching to get back," Carter said at a press conference ahead of Gotham FC's match against Chicago Stars. "I want to be part of this team, helping this team win games. She added: "We speak a lot, especially with the national team, about that post-tournament decompression and figuring out what the right thing was for the players. For me, I think it was that I struggle sometimes to have time off and then have to go again. "So I always find it easier to come back and get going. They [the Gotham staff] manage my training well and adapt to what I need, and obviously we've got a few weeks where we've only got maybe a game at the weekend, where maybe I can be managed in the week before a game." Carter started all but one of England's games at the Euros, coming off the bench in the semi-final against Italy. She also had to deal with the off-field pain of being subjected to racial abuse on social media, with her team-mates and the FA lending her their support. 'Throughout this tournament I've not felt that and I've been really quite sad and disappointed at the fact that I've not been the relaxed Jess I know," Carter said after the final 'I'm someone that is what will be will be. We go out there, give our all, and either it'll be enough or it won't. "That's not how I've played this tournament until I got to this final where I thought 'I'm going to give it my all. If we lose, we lose and if we win great'." The defender spoke of the support manager Wiegman gave her in extra-time against Spain, with England triumphing on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Basel. While her social media hiatus means she hasn't seen all the fall-out from the win, she has seen some of the boss' celebrations. "I did see the clip of Sarina, that's one I couldn't miss out on," Carter added. "I haven't really seen much so I can't really say I feel like I've missed out too much yet, but from what I've heard - and we still have a bit of a group chat - it looks like they've had the most amazing time with the most amazing experience and I'm so happy they all got to go back and have the celebrations that we all deserve to have." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Lionesses Bring It Home Again - Souvenir Edition Sarina Wiegman's legends have made history and brought football home once more after defending their title and winning Euro 2025 in Switzerland. We have produced this special souvenir edition of the Women's Football News. It is crammed with interviews with the Lionesses, special features, their match-by-match road to glory as well as dozens of amazing images. Click here to buy
