Williamson sets sights on more glory after England parade: ‘This story is not done yet’ | OneFootball

Leah Williamson promised England supporters the “story is not done yet” as 65,000 fans packed on to the Mall to celebrate the Lionesses’ successful defence of their European crown.

The captain and her teammates partied with stars including the soul singer Heather Small and Burna Boy – who danced on stage with the head coach, Sarina Wiegman – two days after they defeated Spain in Basel to become the first senior England football team to win a major trophy on foreign soil.

After an open-top bus parade down the Mall, Williamson was visibly moved by the sheer size of the crowd in attendance outside Buckingham Palace. “I’m in the trenches, I’m holding back tears,” she said. “I’ve been crying all the way down the Mall. This is unbelievable. Thank you for coming out.

“My message is, everything we do, obviously we do it for us and our team, but we do it for the country, and we do it for young girls. This job never existed 30, 40 years ago and we’re making history every single step. Thank you so much for being with us. Stay with us, this story is not done yet.”

Williamson, who also led England to glory at home in 2022, was asked how this victory felt different to their first piece of silverware three years ago. The defender said: “There are lots of ways to win a football match and we repeatedly did it the hard way, but I think you can see how much we care about playing for England and how much we love it.

“I don’t know, 2022 was a fairytale but this feels really hard‑earned. We’re very proud of ourselves and we hope you are, too.”

The Lionesses lost their first match of the campaign, against France, but defeated the Netherlands, Wales, Sweden and Italy on their route to the final on Sunday against Spain, which was won 3-1 in a penalty shootout.

Williamson said: “The first game maybe rocked us a little bit, but they’re just special people and we love each other, and we’ve got each other’s backs. We had tough moments and nasty things to deal with and still we rise.”

The team’s next challenge will be to win a first Women’s World Cup, when that event is staged in Brazil in the summer of 2027, a gauntlet that was thrown down to them by King Charles when – in his congratulatory message on Sunday – asked the team to “bring home the World Cup in 2027 if you possibly can”.

In the meantime, the team’s celebrations will continue. Among the other star performers of their run to glory in Switzerland was Hannah Hampton, playing in a tournament as the No 1 goalkeeper for the first time. She saved two penalties in the final and told the presenter Alex Scott on stage on Tuesday: “They [her teammates] got me through the whole tournament, when it didn’t start off the way I wanted [it] to and they just kept me going.

“To be standing here with this group of girls is amazing. Don’t let people tell you what you can and can’t do. If you’ve got a dream and you really believe it, just go out and do it. I got told many times that I’m not good enough, that I shouldn’t be playing football from the start, so just keep doing it and, if it makes you happy, go follow that smile.”

The award for young player of the tournament was given to Michelle Agyemang, the 19-year-old striker who scored two crucial equalisers for England in the quarter- and semi-finals. Given a rapturous reception by the central London crowds, the Arsenal player said: “I’m so grateful to be here. It’s still surreal. It doesn’t even seem real seeing people down there, it seems fake! It’s crazy to see what we’ve done and be here today.”

Header image: [Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian]