Leah Williamson will lead England out against Austria in their Euro 2022 opener on Wednesday
(Picture: Getty Images)When Sarina Wiegman asked Leah Williamson if she could speak to her one night after dinner in September last year, the Arsenal defender assumed she was in trouble.
Wiegman had just taken over as England head coach and the team were preparing for their first game under her against North Macedonia.
Williamson was not in trouble, far from it. Instead, Wiegman had pulled her aside to offer her the captaincy for a set of World Cup qualifiers in the absence of Steph Houghton.
The 25-year-old has never let go of the armband since, and in April she was handed the role permanently. Tomorrow, she will lead England out at a sold-out Old Trafford against Austria as the Lionesses begin their quest to win this summer’s Women’s Euros.
“Walking out as captain at a home Euros will be the biggest honour of my life, so I’m really excited,” says Williamson. “I feel like I’m ready.”
Since being made captain, Williamson has made a point of not changing how she is — and those in the squad have noticed that.
“She is still the same Leah,” says her England and Arsenal team-mate Lotte Wubben-Moy. “I think that is probably what Leah brings as a captain. She won’t change, she will be herself to the best possible version. I don’t think we expect anything less.”
When it comes to training and matches, Williamson likes to lead by example. Both those at Arsenal and England recognise her as one of the most professional players, with an exemplary work ethic.
She is fiercely competitive and vocal on the pitch, but away from it she can be quieter. Her spare time is often filled doing Sudoku and studying for accountancy exams.
Williamson is humble, almost seemingly unaware of her own talent, which perhaps explains the mix-up with Wiegman before she was named England captain in September.
Williamson has had that humility all her life, and those at her old school, Ousedale, in Milton Keynes, noticed it when she returned recently to visit them, as she asked staff: “Will the kids all know who I am?”
They did, of course, and those at the school have fond memories of Williamson, who was a natural leader back from an early age.
“She had the rest of her peers running warm-ups, doing drills with no bother whatsoever, they completely had respect for her then,” says Jo Green, who taught Williamson PE at Ousedale. “That was in Year 9 — and now she’s England captain!”
Green remembers Williamson as being a natural athlete, capable of turning her hand to anything — “we had her running the cross country, playing netball” — but football was her best sport.
Ousedale had a successful girls’ team, who often made it to County Cup finals, and Williamson was at the heart of the side. A key quality was her ability to stay level headed, and that calming influence is now being felt at England, with Williamson coming across as an unflappable leader.
“We would travel to some fixtures with a challenging environment and moments where you felt like, can we play this fixture?” recalls Green.
“Miss Omand, the teacher in charge of girls’ football at the time, would encourage them all and things like a wonky pitch, or nets held out by bins, didn’t faze her, because she always had this focus and would embrace this with the team.”
Williamson’s leadership qualities continued to flourish at Arsenal, where she came through the ranks playing in midfield and defence.
She decided to focus on being a centre-back to help cement a spot in the Arsenal first team as a teenager, but Wiegman has been using in her midfield, which has come as little surprise to her old coaches.
“On the ball, she was brilliant, she had personality to play,” says Pedro Martinez Losa, who coached Arsenal Women from 2014 to 2017. “We could see her versatility. She played as a No6, she did a good job, but she could play centre-back.
“I thought she was going to be one of the icons for the future after all these players like Rachel Yankey, Kelly Smith and Alex Scott who were coming to the end of their careers. In my opinion, Leah was the next one to come through.
“One of her characteristics was her leadership. She wanted to be vocal. She wanted to lead players, to encourage and motivate. She ticked a lot of boxes of what a captain is.
“I can compare her — and she will love this — to Kelly Smith. She was a very shy player off the pitch, but on the pitch she could transform herself as a leader.”
Martinez Losa believes Williamson will “love” the comparison to Smith, who was her ideal growing up.
Williamson used to have a signed photo of Smith on her wall which had had the words “dream big” written on it. She has certainly done that.
