It has been quite the journey but at the end of it Jess Carter was standing there with a beaming smile, having just made history with England at Euro 2025. Part of the Lionesses squad that defended their title from three years ago and became the first England side to win a major trophy abroad, she had been subjected to horrendous racial abuse from the start of the tournament.
After the narrow quarter-final win against Sweden she revealed she was taking a step back from social media because of the abuse, saying: “While I feel every fan is entitled to their opinion on performance and result I don’t agree or think it’s OK to target someone’s appearance or race.”
The Gotham FC defender, who played for Chelsea between 2018 and 2024, was then left out of the starting XI for the semi-final victory against Italy, only to return and produce her best performance of the tournament in the final against Spain, which England won on penalties.
After the game Carter spoke about the toughness required to deal with the Spain attack. “My previous manager at grassroots turned princesses into bulldozers,” she said. “Not many of these girls get to see that princess side of me, but obviously my friends in Fran [Kirby] and Beth [England] do.
“That’s what I tried to deliver today. I knew Spain were going to be hard to beat and I had to be on top form if we were going to come out with the chance of winning.”
The most heartwarming sight, however, was the joy she was clearly feeling after putting a difficult two weeks behind her to be part of a rearguard that conceded only once against the world champions as the game ended 1-1 after extra time. Asked about having a giggle with the head coach, Sarina Wiegman, after the game she said: “That is normally me. Throughout this tournament I’ve not felt that. I’ve been really quite sad and disappointed at the fact that I’ve not been the relaxed Jess I know.
“I’m someone that is ‘what will be will be’. We go out there, give our all, and either it’ll be enough or it won’t. That’s not how I’ve played this tournament until I got to this final where I thought: ‘I’m going to give it my all.’ If we lose, we lose, and if we win, great. In extra time Sarina was giving me a lot of information and we realised she just said a lot of words, and it was cool, like, we got this, and she’s been great.”
Esme Morgan was the player who came in for Carter for the semi-final and the fact that she was superb against Italy shows the strength in depth in the Lionesses’ squad. There is, however, another aspect to this with the two centre-backs having enormous respect for each other. Carter, in fact, was surprised when she found out from Wiegman that she was starting against Spain.
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“We went into training and she just sat me down and said: ‘I’m thinking of starting you on Sunday.’ I said: ‘OK, thanks.’ After I was thinking, are you sure? I can’t shout loud enough for Esme. She’s been an incredible team player, she was incredible when she came on the pitch. Every role she’s been given, she was outstanding. So to have that faith from Sarina to put me back in the squad and that she believed that I could help this team to a trophy was amazing. It gave me a lot of confidence going into this game.”
But even elite players have nerves and Carter admitted to ITV that she had felt fear before the start of the final. “I was super scared to play today for the first time in my life, but when I woke up and I saw my team, and the support I had and the belief I had from my teammates, my family and my manager, I knew I could just come out and give it my all. That’s all you can do.”
Carter did just that against Esther González, Mariona Caldentey, Athenea del Castillo and all the other Spanish attackers – and it was enough to win a second European Championship. At the final whistle there was only happiness, not sadness – a wonderful ending to a tough month.
