They’re top-class footballers who are shining at the top of the game, inspiring the next generation – and always setting new targets to smash.
SUPPORTER
Take Millie Bright - English centre-half and national vice-captain, and altogether one of the most tenacious players in football. She knows that it’s important to be happy and content with yourself and your life – only this way you can reach your goals.
"I feel a responsibility to give back to the ones that support me."
Millie Bright, centre-half
“When your head is in the right space, the ball will follow,”
Bright says. “I want to use my platform to help people. I feel a responsibility to set the tone, be a good role model, give back to the ones that support me, day in and day out.”
One of the ways Bright does this is through Daly Brightness – which she set up with her close friend and national team-mate Rachel Daly. It’s a platform intended to help people with their mental health, offering support via social media, which can so often be a tough and harsh place.
“We wanted to create laughter and show our true selves, and make sure people don't feel alone in this world,” she explains.
RECORD BREAKER
Across London, Vivianne Miedema has already been immortalised with a statue outside Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – and she’s only 26.
adidas had commissioned the sculpture in an effort to reduce the lack of landmarks honouring women in the UK – and the Gunners got it positioned outside their home ground ahead of the Women’s Super League North London Derby, the first to take place there.
Miedema continues racking up the records - in 2020 she became the first player to have scored 50 goals in the Women's Super League, and is currently the league's top scorer ever. More than that, she is the first player in WSL history to have scored against every team they have faced - and she reached her century of goals for Arsenal in style, with a hat-trick during the Women's Champions League.
"Helping kids find their strength makes me a stronger player."
Vivianne Miedema, forward
And she loves being able to work with young people – inspiring them towards their own goals, just as she’s piled up the goals for club and country. “My goal really is to inspire children to be whoever they want to be, and I think that inspires me to be the best version of myself every day as well,”
Miedema says. “Helping kids find their strength makes me a stronger player.”
TRAILBLAZER
Barcelona’s Mapi León is proud to support young people in a different way. One of her striking tattoos declares: “Looks can be deceiving.”
And she welcomes the chance to get noticed. “If I'm the inspiration you need, I'm glad to be seen,” León says. The defender definitely catches attention in more ways than one.
She blazed a trail as the first Spanish footballer to publicly talk about being gay. She has said she was never afraid that she would get any flak for it, adding: "I am what I am."
"I hope me coming out had a very positive effect."
Mapi León, defender
And she says now that she hopes that other people took strength from her own courage. “It's important to have a goal that you can work towards, that you can strive to achieve. In the end I hope me coming out had a very positive effect on other people.”
LEADER
Another centre-back who has been breaking European records this season is Wendie Renard. She has now made over 100 appearances in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, leading her team Olympique Lyon to eight European crowns. This summer she’ll be hoping to take her country on to the podium at the UEFA Women’s Euros as well.
“I found another way to fly.”
Wendie Renard, defender
That’s all in a day’s work for her NOW– but it could have been very different. She could have been soaring high as a flight attendant if she’d taken the advice of one of her teachers. But she says now, with a wry smile, “I found another way to fly.”
That’s something she has in common with Bright, Miedema and León – a quartet of inspirational icons achieving their dreams. ">