Hannah Hampton...

Lionesses and Chelsea keeper is one of our own

(Pic by Katie Chan via Creative Commons)

Baggies fans worried by the club’s pre-season form can at least enjoy 90 minutes of distraction when England take on Spain in the Women’s Euro Final. Andy Caulton profiles the amazing Hannah Hampton who has played at club level for both Villa and Blues, but is truly ‘one of our own’.

Life is all about opportunities and few sliding doors moments can have more far reaching consequences than when during a Stoke City under-12’s game, an unfortunate injury to The Potters’ starting keeper led to an urgent request from a coach, and a calm response and self assurance that time and again has been a hallmark of Hannah Hampton.

But what pressures would donning the gloves have on a pre teen, when by the age of three, you’d been through three operations on your eyes in an attempt to deal with a condition called Strabismus, defined as, ‘the deviation of one eye towards the nose, while the other remains focused’?

For Hannah it was just one step in the pattern of obstacles not being anything more than a challenge to overcome.

Although Hannah had previous experience of goalkeeping in pick up games in Spain where she lived from age 5 to 12, this was her first ever official match between the sticks.

80 minutes later, unbeknown to all, an England scout was in the small group of spectators and came over post game and promptly offered Hannah a place in the national under-12 squad, as a goalkeeper, not as a striker, the position that was previously her strength.

This outfield background goes a long way to explaining the origins of her rare comfort in possession, Hannah being so balanced, no perceived weakness on either foot with an excellent range of passing skills.

Indeed, Hannah was so talented as an outfield player, a month after being invited to attend England camp as goalkeeper, she also shone as a striker to the degree of being offered a spot in this position in the national under-13 Squad as well.

Hannah’s journey for someone so young is a truly fascinating and unique tale of challenge, travel, adapting to change and gaining so much from the cultural experience.

Hannah was born in Birmingham in November 2000, and grew up in Studley, Warwickshire. She had an eye affliction and at just three years old, endured a trio of operations at Birmingham Children’s Hospital - procedures that take almost an hour to perform and ordinarily have an 8 to 12 week recovery time.

For Hannah, the surgery was only partially successful, but being the resilient person that she is, life carried on as normally as possible, but it was not easy for someone so young to deal with operations plus the stigma of her condition and recovery.

For Hannah, her debt of gratitude to Birmingham Children’s Hospital knows no bounds, she is now a committed in an Ambassadorial Role with the BCH, and you can only imagine the pride and empathy of youngsters lying in bed, seeking hope and inspiration and seeing one of their own, recover and perform with such a level of skill for England.

Payback cannot be sweeter or more apt.

When Hannah was five, her family moved to Spain, to the province of Castellon, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the NE coast of Spain where, Hannah reflects, “I grew up”.

She had two ambitious parents who wanted to show their children the world. Both were employed as teachers at the local school, where Hannah reflects she’d play football in the playground, waiting for them to take her home.

Much of young Hannah’s spare time was spent at the local ‘Astro’, the artificial turf area most towns in a climate as oppressively hot as Spain have as a communal place and pick up football game arena - grass being a very rare Spanish option.

The 'Astro' was pivotal to Hannah’s development, as her school didn’t have a football team; siesta is part and parcel of life in the Iberian peninsula, so the afternoon priorities were beach and fun.

However, as seems the pattern in Hannah’s life, a chance situation changed everything, when Argentinian defender Fabien Fuentes, an ex player with Villarreal spotted Hannah playing football at the local Astro, and invited her to train with the ‘Yellow Submarines’, also based in Castellon.

Hannah initially played as striker, and the Spanish adherence to technique honed coaching through repetitions at such a young age allied to Futsal focused sessions can clearly seen in the technical brilliance of the Spanish National team.

A by-product of this deeply impressive Spanish coaching methodology will be their opposing keeper in the 2025 Euro’s Final.

As a personal aside, my own daughter spent two weeks training with FC Malaga, and the attention to detail in coaching was eye opening.

One element of many La La Liga coaching complexes is an additional sanded football pitch where players compete without boots and core strength, technical skills and conditioning are tested highly in these exacting conditions.

It may have looked like pretty plain sailing, but the remarkable part of Hannah’s health background is the fact she will always have very poor depth perception.

Even now, over twenty years since Hannah’s operations, you can still only sadly, cosmetically improve the look of someone who suffers from strabismus. Depth perception STILL cannot be altered.

For Hannah and her parents, the warnings from doctors of not being able to compete in high level sport with such a visual handicap, were made clearly and plainly.

But you are asking the wrong family and the wrong daughter to conform to that view.

As Hannah confesses,

“I basically have zero depth perception, so I can’t judge distances”.

Even the basic pouring of a drink is inherently problematic.

The key is, for Hannah and anyone else suffering from strabismus, IS to ‘hold a glass, then pour a drink’.

To freely pour is to invite the inevitable spilled liquid.

And with those same eyes that can’t judge depth perception, you are the custodian of the goals for the national team. The last line of defence.

Remarkable what compensatory skills and sheer bloody mindedness can do for you in life?

In the early days, Hannah spoke of many nose bleeds from misjudging the flight and pace of the ball, but if it was a save and that’s all that mattered.

Getting your hands in the wrong positions led to many broken fingers for Hannah. But never a broken spirit…

Hannah’s debut for England as a 12 yr old was v Netherlands, and a clean sheet in her 45 Minute between the sticks, was a sign of things to come.

Hannah spent her early teen years at Stoke, still crediting her coach at the Britannia Stadium as her biggest influence, the now Head of Recruitment with the Potteries, Andrew Frost, and also an influence and inspiration close to home, her elder brother Ben who made the Hampton family equally proud being capped by England for age group hockey.

Hannah’s pride in her brother, now a serving member of the British Army, knows no bounds..

Hannah moved closer to her Studley home, joining Birmingham City from Stoke in 2016 making her debut in November 2017 as a 16 year old v Doncaster Belles, but it wasn’t until the following season that Hannah really established herself as first choice with the Blues.

After half a century of games for Blues and a regular for England at under-17/20, Hannah moved across the city for two seasons with Aston Villa, before joining WSL powerhouses Chelsea in 2023.

Hannah was made aware of Chelsea’s interest, but failed to take the situation seriously until, much to her amazement, she was called directly by Emma Hayes.

The astonishment was predicated by how close Hannah came to completely quitting the game just a year before.

The crux of Hannah’s feelings of resignation can be seen from a perceived acrimony in the Autumn of 2022 when the Lionesses coach Sarina Wiegman suggested, “Hannah has some personal issues she has to solve, so for her, she has to stay at home”.

Social media and people can be inordinately cruel, no more so than in this case, ‘the straw that broke the camel's back’, Hannah being shouted at with personal, vindictive abuse in a local street.

For Hannah, those offensive words meant just two words to her,

“I’m done”.

Hannah immediately contacted Villa, requesting time off, and in her mindset, an “I want to quit” mentality prevailed, such a depressingly, sad scenario for a player of just 22 years of age.

But the mind can change and from a feeling of “letting everyone down”, became the opposite.

I love Hannah’s mindset here, and it really underlines her lifelong mantra,

“I’ve spent my life proving people wrong, why change now?”

And change Hannah did and simply put she’s never looked back.

An unprecedented treble winner with Chelsea, including a run of nine games without conceding a goal last season.

And of course, change meant convincing Sarina Wiegman that Hannah was not to be discarded but trusted.

The seemingly ‘set in stone’ keeper for England, national hero Mary Earps was passed over for the starter’s role, usurped by Hannah. The reaction? Earps promptly retired for The Lionesses, age being part of her rationale.

Wiegman’s bold decision has been vindicated, with Hampton’s cool demeanour between the sticks and next level football skills

With a keeper like Hampton, you get an 11 aside overload, a Futsal vision of football, always the extra player in possession, let alone the penalty heroics, bloodied nose be damned v Sweden in the last eight.

There is SO much to admire about the Hannah Hampton story, not least, she is a devoted Baggie.

In other words, ONE OF US.

No less reliable figure than ‘Kitman Pat’, devoted Baggies supporter aka, Pat Frost, confirmed this week, Hannah will be attending a game at The Hawthorns next month.

Whether it’s Blackburn, Derby or Portsmouth being the visitors, I trust the Albion faithful will give one of their own, the rapturous ovation she will truly deserve, when she returns to her Hawthorns home as a fan.

Her story as well as her character are truly rare and remarkable.

As Hannah states, “It was always my passion to play sport. It was my dream”

The Hampton legacy is, regardless of obstacles, if you have character, drive and never to be beaten self belief, anything is possible.

Even winning The Euros and beyond.

Dreams CAN come true.

Read more from Andy Caulton here.