Hannah Hampton voted BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year

After replacing the Earps, Hampton was overcome by the enormous weight of pressure and expectation to help England defend the European throne in Switzerland.

“I knew if England were eliminated earlier, the attention would be much more focused on me,” he said.

“I just thought, go and enjoy your football. I’ve always said I perform better when I enjoy it.”

To make matters worse, Hampton learned that his grandfather had died just two days before the tournament started.

“Then when I got the news about my grandfather, it gave me extra motivation to go and show everyone what I could do because this was our dream together,” he said.

“I think people forget that we are just human beings, we all have emotions, we all have our own struggles that we go through outside of football, off the football field.

“You just need to focus on yourself and move on. As difficult as it is, especially for me, it’s accepting the pain of losing a relative you love so much and to whom you are so close, without fully grieving.”

“Then all the other things get piled on top of each other. That doesn’t always help.”

It’s been a year of ups and downs, but Hampton is grateful for the work of her predecessors in raising the profile of female goalkeepers.

“It still doesn’t quite understand when people call you England’s number one,” said Hampton.

“It’s a lonely situation, but it’s also very rewarding. At some moments you can be the hero and at other moments you can be the villain.

“The goalkeepers in front of me are Carly [Telford]Karen [Bardsley]Mary [Earps]They had already changed the perception of women about goalkeeping.

“I’m just another body helping to change the path along with Khiara [Keating] and Anna [Moorhouse] right now.

“Female goalkeeping is definitely on the rise, we are slowly but surely trying to change perceptions.”