Leah Williamson will be expecting to be part of the team to walk out in Lisbon for Saturday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final against Barcelona.
Go back to 2007, she was walking out with the team for our last European cup final as a mascot for the UEFA Women’s Cup win.
She recently sat down to reflect on what that experience was like and discuss her memories of the second leg at Borehamwood.
“I remember it just being packed, like Borehamwood was rocking,” she recalled. “And there never used to be the stands, so everyone was just stood on the steps. It was really warm, I remember that.
“I just remember standing with all my mates and my mum, just thinking this is, I picked the right team, basically.
“From the day I joined Arsenal, the academy was so tightly intertwined with the first team. Like Jayne Ludlow, Emma Byrne, they would come with us when we went on our tours and stuff. So it was really nice that then we were just involved all the time.
“I think the main thing that stands out for me is that I just, I grew up in Arsenal. Like they were, they just won everything and they were this force. And I just wanted to be on that side.
“I knew that everybody enjoys winning and everyone enjoys being part of the winning team. And I could never have in my head this dream of being a footballer. It's never, I didn't write it on my paper at school when they used to ask you what you wanted to be.
“I just liked playing football and conveniently for me, it turned into a job opportunity and that's turned into a career. So I just used to enjoy everything and just have a good time. But I appreciate my mum did a lot for Arsenal.
“And like I've said before, we used to do the turnstiles at Borehamwood for the women's matches and stuff. And I think that was her way of one, giving back to an organisation that was helping me, but also just taking me and putting my role models in front of me all the time in this subtle way. It's something that you don't really think about and you don't necessarily connect to all the time when you're in the moments.
“Because you can't do, you know, we have a job to do and we're athletes. But then I think in the moments like that, you realise, and I'm probably not going to associate that with the position that I used to be in. So it's cool to be aware of something that you're doing on that grander scale at the time of doing it as well.”
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