Leah Williamson on the highs and lows of life at the top — and why she’ll never stop fighting for equality | OneFootball

Lionesses captain Leah Williamson on the highs and lows of life at the top, the struggles facing the women’s game and how the Burberry front row terrified her more than a football pitch

Do you wanna touch it? Go on!” Lionesses captain and Arsenal vice-captain Leah Williamson is poking and prodding around her right knee, egging the crew on to have a feel of the screw that’s holding bits of her leg together. We’re at the photo shoot for this interview and in between looks (Burberry! Calvin Klein! Loewe! Gucci!) she’s pointing out her scars — “one here, another one here” — from the surgeries she’s had to endure after an injury-plagued few years.

This season has been particularly frustrating — she has started just two matches for her beloved club (she came off the bench to join another four). “This season wasn’t good,” she tells me the following week when we meet for a sweaty cup of tea during the tail end of the heatwave at a café near the Arsenal training ground in St Albans. Fashionably on-brand, she’s wearing a black Martine Rose Arsenal kit from the designer’s collaboration with Nike. “There’s bad luck and then there are things that we will make sure we will look out for next year, because this isn’t how it’s meant to be.”

Her most recent problems began during the Euro 2025 final against Spain when she picked up a knee injury (happily, it was still a victory for the Lionesses who cemented their place in history with back-to-back Euro wins). A series of other niggles and gripes have followed and though she was feeling optimistic about this month’s Women’s World Cup qualifiers, she was ruled out of the matches against Spain and Ukraine this week with a hamstring injury. An injury and the subsequent rehab are bad enough, but it’s the swirl of commentary and advice from others that makes it worse. “There are times [after picking up an injury] when you just sit and I have to take a couple of days to refocus,” she says, “because it’s also the noise that comes with an injury and everybody’s opinion… it becomes a talking point and you carry the weight of that.”

It was every footballer’s worst nightmare — an anterior cruciate ligament tear — which saw her miss out on the 2023 World Cup. Remember the final? Spain won in stoppage time, but it was somewhat overshadowed by Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales forcing a kiss on the lips of captain Jenni Hermoso during the ceremony. He was later convicted of sexual assault. The injuries worry her, of course they do. “There is a point where you start to think, ‘Will I reach my level, will I not?’ But I think I’ve worked hard so that every time I have come back from injury I’ve been at the level required which has given me confidence.” Her club clearly feels the same, and she signed a new two-year contract with Arsenal in April. It’s not something she takes for granted.

“I love Arsenal so much that if they didn’t want me, I still want them to succeed with or without me”

“You hope that the world works out like that: you give so much of your life to a place, and of course you want loyalty to be rewarded, but at the end of the day it’s a business. I’ve always been very honest with myself, so that I’m not shocked one day. And I love Arsenal so much that if they didn’t want me, I still want them to succeed with or without me.” But this new contract is in no way out of a sense of obligation from Arsenal. Williamson is by all metrics one of the most talented, accurate and successful footballers this country has produced — and was instrumental in Arsenal taking home the Champions League trophy in 2025.

Theirs is a lifelong love affair. Williamson began playing football competitively when she was six but a girls’ team didn’t exist where she grew up in Milton Keynes (with mum Amanda, dad David and little brother Jacob) so she joined the boys. In one of those matches, she scored eight of the goals in a 15-0 win — and was scouted by the Arsenal youth programme. She was nine when she joined the Gunners and has been there ever since. “This new contract will take me to 22 years at Arsenal,” she says, now 29. “I just feel like I’ve lived so much of my life here. Before I re-sign I always check: can I still be better? If the answer is ‘yes’ then I’d rather give my energy to Arsenal than anybody else. So it’s quite a simple decision in that sense.”

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We meet the week after the men’s team has won the Premier League. The women too have had success this season: coming second in the Women’s Super League, reaching the semis of the UEFA Women’s Champion’s League and winning the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. It is right then that Williamson and her teammates joined the men during the historic parade through north London, where a record 1.5 million people turned out to cheer on the guys and girls. “It’s been a really nice couple of weeks because it’s been in the bag and everybody’s been able to celebrate. The atmosphere is buzzing. I’m happy for the lads.”

“We’re still having to fight the argument that we’re worth investment”

Williamson though is quick to steer the conversation back to the women’s game. And why shouldn’t she? The legacy of the Lionesses victories at the 2022 and 2025 Euros continues apace — Women’s Super League crowds are growing, funding has increased and support for grassroots women’s football shows no signs of waning — but we shouldn’t for a minute think the job is done, believes Williamson. She says they’re still having to fight for basic things like infrastructure. “For example, if the men have 50 players in the squad then, yeah, they’d need double the physios that we have because we have 25 players, but right now we’re getting closer and closer to the game looking the same, but everything around it is far off. What we need is investment in clubs and infrastructure and all of those things, but we’re still having to fight the argument that we’re worth these investments. There are gender barriers still. But I will say, I could ring the directors of Arsenal tomorrow on the phone and I know I’d be heard and respected. I don’t feel like I’m invisible, I just feel like there is work to be done.”

Externally, there are more sinister undertones to deal with, too. As Williamson makes her way over to greet me as I wait on a bench, she’s visibly riled up. A male Arsenal fan has made a dismissive comment about her “just being on the ladies’ team” as she walked past (for balance, later our chat is interrupted by an older gentleman who proudly tells Williamson that his daughter played for Arsenal many years ago). It’s the tip of the iceberg, says Williamson. “Football is very reflective of society and in society I think we have a lot of threats at the moment. It sounds like a really dramatic word but we look like we’re going backwards in some areas in terms of the rights we’ve all fought for. Football is the most important of the least important things — and it doesn’t compare to a woman’s experience on the street — but I think that if we assume our work is done…” Williamson trails off.

“Go on a Premier League footballer’s Instagram and the abuse will be ‘you were shit today’ — for a woman it will be ‘why do you even bother”

“You know, you go on a Premier League footballer’s Instagram and the abuse will be ‘you were shit today’ — for a woman it will be ‘why do you even bother’. The content of the abuse is very different. I don’t want anybody to be getting abused but if we are getting abused it should be because of our footballing ability instead of our right to play football.”

Nowhere in the Western world are women’s rights being threatened more than in the United States. Donald Trump appears increasingly repressive. Not a great time for the men’s World Cup to be hosted by the USA, I venture. “It’s really hard. I have certain opinions and everyone has a moral compass — whether they tune into it or not,” she says. “[The World Cup] brings so much joy, it just makes me sad that it is tainted because issues have to be raised in different ways. You wait for years and you just want to have a good time and enjoy it.”

Is it worth players sticking their necks out and tapping into their moral compass then? “I think it’s unfair to expect athletes to be political. Many people don’t even vote and then you expect these guys, because they’re known, to speak. Although, I think a lot of players earn respect by sharing their views, if they’re brave enough to do it. We all do have an opinion and we all have a part to play. I know that behind the scenes I’m doing everything I can, based on what I know, to make it a better place. When it comes to speaking out, we do have a power. I think being passive is one of the most dangerous things. I give what I can and I just hope every footballer is doing the same.”

Danny Kasiyre

As recently as 2024, the England captain, who was appointed CBE for her services to football, said she didn’t earn enough money to retire after her playing career. Up until the first Euros win in 2022, leading female players were paid as little as £20,000 a year (estimates suggest that Williamson earns £200,000 per year). Since the Lionesses changed the course of history, Williamson has worked with Calvin Klein, Gucci, Nike, Aston Martin, Pepsi and Mastercard, and is the star of Burberry’s autumn 2026 “A Good Sport” campaign alongside Stephen Graham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Declan Rice, Jodie Turner-Smith, Romeo Beckham and Amandaland’s Lucy Punch. She also sat on the Burberry front row during fashion week for the first time (“I definitely felt more anxiety before that show than before a game”).

Does she still worry about her financial situation? She answers carefully. “Of my generation I think there are a handful of players that can retire after their playing career,” she says. “I don’t know my personal situation, we all carry the weight of that a little bit. I am very thankful for the work everybody did before me, and I’m very proud of my generation for getting the game where it is because now the younger generation should have the option to retire. You give so much of your body, your time. I’ve watched those girls that came before me work two jobs and so they got half of the joy because they had to get up and go to work.”

Williamson loops back regularly to the sacrifices that she’s had to make to get where she is. Yes, the game has clearly taken a physical toll but it’s her personal life that keeps her awake at night. She is acutely aware that she is not the friend, sibling, daughter, girlfriend she would like to be. “In terms of the relationships that I can have with people, they are often centred around me and it will be that way while I’m an athlete. I can’t go to weddings, I can’t show up in the way people show up for me, which is a really hard dynamic.” It’s why she is so clear-eyed about the impact she wants to have on her sport while she is in the position to do so. “I’m intentional about it but not at the cost of living my life. Football takes so much and I’ve agreed to a certain amount but there will come a point where I can’t miss that wedding anymore, where I want to spend this time with my family, in which case I’ll leave. I don’t think you can do football half-heartedly. I don’t want to leave football and have nothing afterwards.”

“I don’t think you can do football half-heartedly”

Williamson has been with her girlfriend, Elle Smith, an American journalist, model and former Miss USA winner for several years but they hard-launched their relationship by attending the 2025 Ballon d’Or ceremony together in Paris. Smith is based in New York (“we’re both busy people but we make it work”) and Williamson takes being a queer role model seriously. The women’s game is such a welcoming, safe space, I say. Does she feel for the male players who perhaps can’t live the life they want? “If I was male player would I subject myself to the potential of 60,000 people singing a homophobic chant at me? It doesn’t sound appealing. I think you have to be really, really brave to do that. I’m not surprised that more haven’t come out. Do I think that more exist? Of course I do. Would I encourage them to come out? How could I possibly do that knowing what they would possibly face? The world is changing but it’s not changing quickly enough for those players. Unfortunately I think freedom in today’s world is a luxury. I don’t know how much more progressive that’s getting, I think it’s receding. I think about how powerful it would be if somebody did come out but I would never encourage them to. You’d be committing your life to being ‘that person.’”

Leah Williamson & Elle Smith

Instagram @officialellesmith

After much deliberation, Williamson has frozen her eggs, she tells me. “Just in case.” She has endometriosis and is impassioned about the changes that need to happen in women’s healthcare. One in 10 women have endometriosis (a condition where cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow elsewhere in the body), the pain can be debilitating and it takes women on average seven to 10 years to get a diagnosis. Once they are diagnosed, too often treatment is verging on barbaric. “We should have pain-free solutions, if it was a man’s problem it would be a different approach. I don’t understand why we discredit women, like if a woman brings something up, she’s not moaning, she’s asking for help.” Williamson was in so much agony during the Euros in 2022 that she almost didn’t play in the semi-final against Sweden. How does she cope with the pain now? “I have my ways to deal with it but it’s not ideal.”

Also on her mind is the effect social media is having on young people — girls in particular. “I just wonder how they will be able to realise what’s important and what’s not,” she says. “All of us struggle. Footballers — we all work too hard, we all give too much of ourselves to the system, but when all is said and done what really matters is nothing to do with any of that: the money, status, all of that. We’re all gone one day and, it’s like, who would you have around you?” She worries that young people now tend to use football for the wrong reasons. “They get a picture of me to post on social media — which is so fine — but is it for you or for everybody else? Let’s put it this way, if I had kids they definitely wouldn’t have a phone. It’s dangerous and it scares me.”

Danny Kasiyre

Despite the heat, and the fact she has already been put through her paces at a training session and attended a charity event today, Williamson’s focus never waivers during our conversation. She’s calm, considered and constantly reforming her answers as she chews them over, giving each question real thought. “You’re very wise,” I say. She laughs, “It’s actually my psychologist.” She says before she tore her ACL she was just going through the motions. The injury gave her time to contemplate her purpose. “Intentional is the word,” she says. “I thought, ‘This isn’t fulfilling me enough, I won’t look back and be as happy with what I’ve done if I don’t get a bit more tuned in’”.