Beth Mead could become the first female footballer in history to win BBC Sports Personality Of The Year this week.
At odds of 1-25 with some bookmakers, she is expected to have a grip on the public vote and beat England test cricket captain Ben Stokes and snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan. At those odds she very well may already have one hand on the famous television camera trophy.
It probably won't be the most important accolade to Mead herself, but it is yet another step of how far the women's game has come in this country. Even in 2019 after England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, no player was included on the final SPOTY shortlist.
The Arsenal forward won both the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament awards as the Lionesses brought football home. Rightly her superb year on the pitch and the impact she had on her national team, has been recognised.
But unusually for SPOTY, crowning Mead as the winner wouldn't be really about performances of the individual athlete. It would instead be a symbol what the Lionesses achieved as a unit.
It is hard to think of an international football team that has relied less on individual talent and more about performing cohesively as a squad. This way made clear by the impact of Chloe Kelly, Ella Toone and Alessia Russo as substitutes on a consistent basis throughout the tournament. In that sense it feels strange for any player to be considered star of the show.
When you compare this to the way Argentina have just won the men's World Cup after being dragged to the final by the inspirational Lionel Messi, the difference is stark. Wiegman ensured the Lionesses' worked as a team first and foremost, rather than working around one or two talented individuals.
But England were also a team that scored goals for fun, routing Norway 8-0 - the biggest margin of victory at the finals - and Sweden 4-0 along the way, with four different scorers. Naturally Mead, as top scorer, is a fitting nominee to represent the team.
Their triumph in the summer not only goes down with the 66 men's World Cup win, the 2012 Olympic Games and Andy Murray winning Wimbledon as one of the seminal moments in British sporting history. It also has the potential to bring the women's game to a whole new audience and change countless young people's lives, those who might not otherwise have played the game.
This achievement deserves to be recognised at SPOTY which, whatever you think of it, always seems to capture the sporting psyche of the nation. And it almost certainly will be, the Lionesses will be in with a good shout of the Team of the Year award, with Wiegman surely a shoo-in for Coach of the Year as well.
But even away from the need to keep celebrating what that special group of players did in the summer, Mead also deserves this on a personal level. Her personal story is one of resilience and a never-give in attitude.
She was left out of the Olympics squad in the summer of 2021, a crushing blow to a player wanting to play at the best international tournaments. The biggest disappointment of her professional news.
Mead used her disappointment as fuel for her incredible 2021-22 performances. The forward broke Jimmy Greaves' long-held international record of most goals in a season for an England senior side, when hitting 20 in just 19 matches over the campaign.
And this was all done when she was experiencing one of the most difficult years of her life away from the pitch. Mead's mum was diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
"At the end of the day, I've just been playing football while she's been battling one of the hardest diseases that is known to anyone, so my biggest motivation and biggest moment (of the year) is just my mum, my mum in general," she said after winning the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award.
It is a inspirational journey that will continue to inspire young girls, and boys, for year's to come.
I've never been a hugely bothered about footballers winning individual awards before. It is after all, a game where the best team wins rather than the best set of individuals.
But I'll certainly be raising a glass to Mead if she succeeds Emma Raducanu by lifting that trophy on Wednesday night.
NEW! Our Year: European Champions 2022 - The Official England Winners Book
With a foreword by England manager Sarina Wiegman, this is the only official book of the historic triumph, reliving every kick of a thrilling tournament and telling the stories of the players who made it all happen.
Order from https://reachsportshop.com/book/our-year-european-champion-2022/
