What an incredible year it’s been for Hannah Hampton. If winning the Women’s Super League, the FA Cup, and the League Cup with Chelsea wasn’t enough, the goalkeeper saved England many a time to help win the UEFA Women’s Championship.
After an incredible 12 months for club and country, she’s now voted BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2025—keeping 13 clean sheets in 22 league games, and saving two penalties in the Euros final against Spain.
She beat England team-mate Alessia Russo (second) and Spain’s Aitana Bonmatí (third) in a public vote. The 25-year-old is the second goalkeeper to win the award after Mary Earps in 2023 (controversially dropped as England’s number 1 for this year’s tournament).
In fact, despite the success, it wasn’t a perfect year off the pitch for Hannah. In her recent autobiography, Mary Earps believed Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman had rewarded “bad behaviour” for recalling the Birmingham-born keeper, previously dropped for being “disruptive and unreliable”.
It was a decision that paid off, though, saving two penalties against Sweden in the quarter-finals, and then repeating the feat against Spain. “I definitely didn’t expect it with all the other players nominated,” Hannah Hampton said to BBC Sport. “I think they’ve all had unbelievable years.”
Who is Hannah Hampton?
Born in Birmingham, Hannah Hampton grew up in Studley (Warwickshire) before moving to Spain at the age of five. It’s here she joined the Villarreal CF academy as a striker, before moving to Stoke City’s academy and switching to goalkeeper, and then making the move to Birmingham City.
Hannah would make 64 appearances for Birmingham City before switching to rivals Aston Villa and making 43 appearances. She joined Chelsea in 2023 and has so far played 61 times for the London club, winning the domestic treble and the WSL Golden Glove. She is a West Bromwich Albion supporter, apparently…