Leah Williamson's Seminal Homecoming
England captain Leah Williamson returns home to play in Milton Keynes for the first time in nine years. Things have changed a little since the last time...
1st June, 2014.
Arsenal have just won the FA Cup in a 2-0 win over Everton in Milton Keynes. It’s their 13th as the dominant side of the era racks up another piece of silverware thanks to goals from Kelly Smith and Yukari Kinga.
In the moment, there is nothing particularly seminal about what is viewed as another routine victory for a side dominating the landscape of English football, still very much in the early days of the FA Women’s Super League, but the tide is slowly turning.
Liverpool have just won the league for the first time, ending Arsenal’s reign of dominance, while Manchester City have just gained a licence for the new domestic season.
Still a few years away from the days of major finals at Wembley, 15,000 fans are in stadium:mk, and very little do they know there is a young girl from mere miles away sat on the bench, because to the masses she is still a relative unknown.
That young girl is 17-year-old Leah Williamson. Having just turned 17 months earlier, she has only just made her senior debut and only in April played her first domestic FA WSL match, and played the last 14 minutes of the cup final. She also captained the Arsenal youth team to the Youth Cup at the same stadium in the same year.
Whether or not that teenage girl sat on the bench day dreaming about coming back home one day as captain of her country and a European champion is only something Williamson herself will ever know, but almost nine years later, that is the reality that befalls on her and her family as England prepare to face Korea Republic on Thursday night.
Williamson was born in Milton Keynes and grew up in nearby Newport Pagnell, where the majority of her family – who follow her around the world en masse – still live to this day.
But so many things have changed since her last visit, in a sporting sense, nine years ago. Williamson now has over 100 appearances for her childhood club in the league. She is the Lionesses captain, the first woman ever to lift the European Championships for England and an icon of the women’s game around the world.
Back home though she is still just Leah Williamson, which is very befitting of the woman who has tried to remain just that, despite her rise to stardom and rise to levels many can only imagine over the course of the past 12 months.
Immediately after last summer’s Euros, Williamson was awarded the Freedom of the City by the Milton Keynes council, led by Pete Marland.
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“She will be the first since we have granted city status last year,” says Marland. “She’s obviously been super busy and had an injury, but it looks like we will get it done at a special council meeting on the 28th.
“There is also due to be some new development in the Newport Pagnell area and I’m hoping we will be doing some public art of her to install one of our iconic roundabouts in the way a sculpture of Greg Rutherford was done after his gold medal in 2012.”
Rutherford’s sculpture is called the ‘Leaping Man’, a giant 26-foot piece of metal to symbolise what Rutherford was best known for, and Marland hopes to be able to show off something similar of Williamson in the future under the name “Victorious Woman”.
It is not the only permanent reminder in the area of what Williamson has come to mean for Milton Keynes, and specifically Newport Pagnell, a town with a population of just 15,000, the same number as that day at stadium:mk nine years ago.
There is now a permanent mural of Williamson on what was a blank wall on Cross Street in Newport Pagnell, the inspiration of local BBC Radio presenter Justin Dealey.
Dealey was in the local pub, the Kings Arms, for the final against Germany and videoed the celebrations of the locals at full-time as they realised one of their 15,000 had become a European champion.
The radio presenter had been in Watford a month earlier for Elton John’s final concert and there a mural created by MurWall, and immediately after the final Dealey contacted artists MrMeaner, Arkade and Gnasher who instantly agreed to paint the mural of Williamson in her hometown.
On the Tuesday night once the sun had gone down, they projected the image onto the wall and spent eight hours through the night to complete it.
Dealey tells me he’s now hopeful of being able to add to the mural in the future, and is keen to have Williamson’s OBE status added to it somewhere, while local Newport Pagnell Mayor, Paul Day, who was blindfolded and brought to the mural for its unveiling, is optimistic even more can be done to offer young girls more opportunities in the area off the back of Williamson’s success.
“The mural is a local landmark now, and literally yesterday I was driving past to show a visiting relative and there were a group of tourists there photographing it,” says Day.
“We're very proud of Leah and we were long before the Euros and have been keen to promote girls/women's football for many years. She turned the town’s Christmas lights on several years ago for example and many people here are very keen to point out she is from ‘Newport Pagnell’ and not ‘Milton Keynes’.
“She is an inspiration to many, and you may know our local team Newport Pagnell Town's men’s team won the FA Vase at Wembley last year, so interest in football is increasing here.
Williamson never played for Newport Pagnell, but her brother did, and the club has recently launched a girls’ team and Day is hopeful of being able to invest further in the local team with so many girls in the area inspired by Williamson.
“As a town council we own the Willen Road Sports Ground, which includes NPTFC’s ground, and once some new buildings start elsewhere in town we will be able to invest £2M there to further upgrade the football facilities.”
Three of the girls from the first Newport Pagnell Ladies team were invited to the unveiling of Williamson’s mural down the road, and the club’s Head of Women’s Football, James Badham, says it’s a big deal for her to be coming home for so many local girls to be able to go and watch, including the team itself.
“There has been a noticeable excitement amongst the girls and ladies’ teams at NPTFC about the homecoming of Leah in an England shirt at stadium:mk,” says Badham. “Many of us will be in attendance to give our support and offer a taster of the opportunities for our next generation of talent at the club.
“These are exciting times for women's and girls’ football, the town is immensely proud of ‘one of our own' Leah Williamson leading our country to its first major trophy since 1966. The club is clear in its commitment to develop the next generation of talent and there are some exciting times ahead!”
‘One of our own’ is also something clearly visible on the mural near to the Williamson home, and all her family will be in attendance on Thursday night, as will many pupils from her former schools at Ousedale Secondary and Portfields Primary with the half-term holidays currently in full swing, coinciding nicely with the game and the evening kick off.
When Williamson does lead her team out in her home town on Thursday night, memories of that day June day in 2014 will be a distant memory, but for those in attendance who live in the area, they will be welcoming home a long-term legend of their hometown.