Lauren Hemp Hails First £1m Transfer Fee As ‘proof Women’s Footballers Are Great’

The England winger Lauren Hemp says nan women’s crippled being connected nan verge of its first £1m transportation fee is bully for nan athletics and “proof women’s footballers are great”.

The Guardian revealed connected Thursday that Liverpool had accepted a £1m connection from Arsenal for nan Canada guardant Olivia Smith, which would break nan seven-figure obstruction 46 years aft nan men’s crippled sewage its first £1m deal, erstwhile Nottingham Forest signed Trevor Francis from Birmingham City.

Hemp was speaking from England’s edifice guidelines successful Zurich arsenic they hole to meet Wales successful Group D astatine Euro 2025 connected Sunday, and though nan Manchester City subordinate admitted nan Lionesses had not been afloat up to day pinch transportation news while focusing connected this tournament, she reacted positively to nan landmark fee.

“It’s nan guidance nan women’s crippled is going in, and it’s awesome to see,” Hemp said. “As players, we’re benignant of successful a spot of a [tournament] bubble astatine nan moment, truthful we’re not really seeing overmuch of that [news], we’re conscionable focusing connected nan tournament.

“But it is awesome to spot and it’s impervious that women’s footballers are great, and that is nan measurement that crippled is going, truthful agelong whitethorn that continue.”

Smith is poised to subordinate Arsenal aft their Women’s Champions League triumph and nan Lionesses person nan defence of their ain European crown firmly successful their sights, aft their confidence-boosting 4-0 triumph complete nan Netherlands connected Wednesday.

An England triumph connected Sunday successful St Gallen would guarantee a spot successful nan quarter-finals, while Wales must hit England by astatine slightest 4 goals and dream France hit nan Netherlands. The major-tournament debutants person mislaid some matches but Hemp is wary of complacency.

“It’s a awesome rivalry,” Hemp said, “and these are nan games you want to beryllium progressive successful … It’s a derby, we want to win, extremity of. We’re going to do immoderate we tin to do that. It’s going to beryllium a really reliable match. We’ve sewage truthful overmuch respect for Wales.”

The Lionesses’ chances of going done were greatly enhanced by their much-improved capacity against nan Netherlands. “That conscionable proves erstwhile this squad are astatine their champion what we tin achieve,” Hemp said. “That has shown assurance successful everyone, everyone played to their strengths, everyone did their occupation and did it really well.

“Leading into nan crippled nary 1 was fazed. Everyone was calm, relaxed and we knew what occupation we needed to do. It didn’t scare anyone and you decidedly didn’t spot [anyone scared] connected nan pitch. It made everyone excited and it made nan fans excited hopefully from that capacity we put successful and that is nan England we want to show each azygous crippled we play.

“We’ve felt that [France] loss, we’ve felt it arsenic a team, and we’ve tried to move it astir and we person done, and looking backmost connected nan past game, really good we’ve done, we’re hoping to return that momentum into nan adjacent … I deliberation everyone is conscionable truthful affirmative and truthful assured and, erstwhile this squad is for illustration that, we play really well.”