Niamh Charles was England's surprise penalty taker: ‘I don't remember the moment I took it'

New York Times

a day ago

Niamh Charles was meant to be floating on Zurich's blue Limmat River. Those around the England and Chelsea left-back, including her brother and sister, were buoyant, not really needing their candy-coloured floats as their legs dawdled below the surface. But the 26-year-old was struggling.
'I don't know what I was doing under the water, but it wasn't efficient,' Charles tells The Athletic, laughing.
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'And it's interesting,' she says, leaning forward in her seat. 'I was speaking to my family afterwards and they're like, 'Less is more'. You don't work harder. You can stay afloat more.'
It's Friday night, a golden sun sets over a windy Wirral, Liverpool, and in Charles' childhood stomping grounds, we're considering the human condition in a lazy Swiss river.
'I'd watched everyone, all ages, cruising down,' she says. 'And, listen, I can swim, but there's an art to just floating. They make it look so easy.'
There's also an art to not floating. Or, more specifically, stepping forward in the blinding pressure of the Euro 2025 final penalty shootout against Spain as England's third penalty taker and executing exquisitely — despite playing just 77 minutes over the tournament; despite not scoring a penalty in a shootout in her senior career; despite Charles' mum in the stands averting her eyes from the scene. 'She apparently looked at my family and was like, 'Why would she do that?!'.'
'I missed one when I was with Liverpool,' Charles adds, recalling a 2017 Continental Cup group-stage match with her former club, when the then-17-year-old thumped her spot kick against Durham's post. Liverpool eventually scraped by 5-4.
'That was my only shootout experience.'
If fate had taken the road most travelled, it would have continued to be. Before the tournament commenced, travelling England players were sent a penalty preference form asking if they would take a penalty and, if so, at what point.
'I didn't fill it out for ages, which probably shows that I hadn't put myself up there,' Charles says. 'I think I put six (penalty taker) onwards, like I do for Chelsea. I'm comfortable taking one, but if someone who has more experience wants to take one before me, that's fine.'
For the past two years, penalties have been part of her post-training regimen: hours spent lining up shots, experimenting with run-ups, with placements, with breathing techniques, asking Chelsea and England team-mate Hannah Hampton how certain penalties might impact a goalkeeper and attempting to outsmart the Women's Super League (WSL) Golden Glove winner despite her knowing 'all of my preferences'.
Charles says: 'Coming up against a 'keeper I don't know, with the knowledge that I've beaten a 'keeper who knows me inside and out, is reassuring in a sense!'
Still, in the middle of England's huddle at Basel's St Jakob-Park as penalties beckoned, Charles didn't expect her name to come out of England head coach Sarina Wiegman's mouth when the third penalty taker was named.
'It was a surprise,' she says. 'It's very weird, I don't remember the moment I took it. I remember so clearly putting the ball on the spot. Because I put the valve down and was like, 'No, I don't want to kick the valve'. So I moved it.
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'We'd spoken about it throughout the tournament about making it your time. I kept repeating in my head: 'Just do your job'. Take the emotion away from it. That's where it changes if I was in the first five versus when I wasn't. Against Sweden (in the penalty shootout), I supported the people who were in the first five more, I was more conscious of their feelings.
'When I was in the first five, as well as helping people before me and after me, it was focusing on my job. I was so aware of what I was going to have to do. You have to take the emotion out of it. We spoke about that as a team: make it methodical. Staff go there. Players there. Remove the emotion.'
Emotions deployed as tactics is part of Wiegman's genius. Take the Dutch manager's decision to unveil a pink wash-bag bedazzled displaying the words, 'B**ches Get S**t Done' with various objects laden with metaphor on the night before the semi-final against Italy, which England won thanks to two late goals.
'Rumour had it she had it for a long time, but before the semi was the perfect way to get the serious message across while also giving us all a bit of a laugh and release that pressure,' Charles says.
'She doesn't use that language regularly, which is why it had such an impact. She's not saying that word every other sentence.'
The scene was an example of Wiegman not wasting words. Charles admires the candour, even if sometimes it does not bear what she wants. Before the tournament, Wiegman held conversations with each player, detailing how she envisaged their role. For Charles, a regular starter for Chelsea, minutes would be limited.
'My mindset was making sure that I was as ready as possible,' Charles says, 'So I was controlling what I could control. I wanted to make sure that I was ready to step up and contribute to the team. That's where our tournament was decided a lot.'
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Charles' moment could not have come at a more crucial juncture. After Hampton saved Mariona Caldentey's effort, England and Spain were level with a penalty each. Had Charles missed, that might have released the pressure on Spain's next taker. Instead, Charles fizzed her shot low and left. Hampton palmed away Aitana Bonmati's effort. Chloe Kelly powered home.
Charles could spend hours reflecting on England's shootout, digging through the multitude of individual emotions, a penalty shootout as a Richard Curtis film.
There was her aunt and mum in the stands unable to watch; Hampton allegedly throwing Spain goalkeeper Cata Coll's water bottle, swathed in all of England's spot-kick secrets, into the England crowd before the shootout began; how some team-mates worried Charles had bolted to the spot too quickly when she herself felt the walk forward lasted a full tax year; how Keira Walsh met Charles after her penalty with arms outstretched and Charles suddenly remembered how lame her celebration was.
'I started laughing because I just ran back to the halfway line. I always do,' she says.
Many days elapsed before Charles could watch the clips back. 'My mum said to me after, once she knew I'd scored, she went back and watched it. 'It was so much nicer when I knew you won'. But it took me a few days. I really try not to watch a lot of stuff. Because in the moment, you're living it, breathing it.'
If there is a lesson Charles gleaned in Switzerland and over the past year, it is the value in working hard at working less, in acquiescing to the float.
Eleven months ago, Charles suffered a dislocated shoulder in a pre-season match against Feyenoord. Corrective surgery forced her to the sidelines until the end of December. The forced pause, coinciding with a change in manager as Sonia Bompastor replaced Emma Hayes, was agonising.
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'You can think you're prepared mentally for how it's going to go, but it's a lived experience,' she says. 'If it happened now, I'd be more prepared. But I went into it blind. I wanted to do everything 100 per cent because that's how I am always. From the second I came out of that surgery, it was like, 'OK, when am I getting back?'. Which is a really great quality but sometimes a strength can go too far and I'd be like, 'OK, come on Niamh, take your foot off the gas a little bit'. It'll come, but it won't come tomorrow.'
For now, Charles is spending her final days before pre-season with family — even if her childhood home's supply of cerulean floating rivers is lacking.
'Maybe if I had a big pay raise, I could change that,' she laughs. 'The Euros was an unbelievable dream. I've used this break to let that soak in and reflect, then when I head back into pre-season, it'll be a clean slate and really wanting to put my best foot forward.'
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