It’s a chilly September afternoon in Walhamstow, and Hannah Hampton is in goal. It’s her first day off in weeks, and she’s spending it on a football pitch with a puffy-coat-clad crew in east London for her Glamour Women of the Year 2025 cover shoot.
It’s been exactly 61 days since the 24-year-old footballer won the UEFA European Women’s Championship with England, better known as the Lionesses, and the plaudits, quite rightly, are still rolling in. Just four days before we meet, Hannah became the first female goalkeeper to win the Trophée Yachine at the Ballon d’Or, the world’s most prestigious football awards ceremony. Prior to the Euros, Hannah delivered a momentous performance for Chelsea Women FC, keeping 13 clean sheets in 22 league appearances to secure the club’s sixth consecutive Women’s Super League title. Not to mention an FA Cup win (and another clean sheet) over Manchester United in May. At this point, ‘Woman of the Year’ feels like something of an understatement.
“I don’t think I’ve heard everything that happened this year just rattled off like that,” says Hannah, when I put these achievements to her. “It’s obviously lovely to hear,” she continues, “but I know I’m nowhere near done.”
At Hannah’s request, Olivia Dean’s Man I Need reverberates through the air as she volleys a ball back and forth with one of the production assistants on the shoot. I am constantly resisting the urge to duck. Hannah’s warm blonde hair is loose, no trademark ponytail today, and falls like a sheet down the back of her custom-made Glamour football shirt, designed exclusively for us by Hattie Crowther, which she wears with black Studio Nicholson trousers. Four hours and two outfit changes later, Hannah sits next to me at a plastic table in the old-school clubhouse just off the pitch, wearing a Tala sweater, trackies, and McQueen trainers. “I just like going subtle,” she says of her style.
I initially get the impression that Hannah – like the vast majority of footballers I’ve interviewed – prefers to let her on-field performance do most of the talking. As the shoot wraps, she’s the last to leave the pitch, kicking a ball high into the air while the production team shuffles inside for warmth. But when she’s actually sat across from me, we relax into an easy conversation – each dipping into the tub of Cadbury’s Heroes nearby. She’s an endearing mix of funny and serious, always the first to laugh at herself, but answering all of my questions with real sincerity.
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