Sarina Wiegman has said England’s defence of their European title “makes change” and “inspires people” far and wide, as the Lionesses prepare for a heroes’ welcome in an open-top bus parade along the Mall and in front of Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
“We’re England and we want to win but there’s so much more than winning a game,” the head coach, who won a record third European title in a row following her Euro 2017 victory with the Netherlands and England’s triumph in 2022, told Lionesses channels. “We know winning the Euros makes change. It inspires people. Young kids, but also you see so many more people that you inspire, not just little girls but little boys and grandads and grandmas, whole families, in England but also beyond.”
A peak audience of 16.2 million watched England’s defeat of Spain in the Euro 2025 final on ITV and the BBC on Sunday and Wiegman took the time to praise supporters for their role, having travelled en masse and tuned in huge numbers. “I’m really looking forward to going back to England,” she said. “The fans have been amazing. I think we always have very good crowds and we never, ever take that for granted.”
England went through three consecutive spells of extra time in the knockout stage on the way to their second major tournament trophy, and Wiegman contrasted the chaos on the pitch with the tone they had set off it. “Three times going into extra time, that’s crazy,” she said. “I feel this tournament was crazy and chaotic on the pitch. I think off the pitch, everything was pretty calm.”
Of her own reaction after Chloe Kelly’s winning penalty went in, Wiegman said: “I think I just started running. I’d been screaming for three minutes. I just could not believe that we won it.” On Monday another hero of the final, the England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, paid tribute to her late grandfather, who died two days before the tournament. Hampton saved two penalties in the shootout and was named player of the match, her second of the tournament.
Hampton had “Grandpa” printed on the inside of her collar throughout the tournament. “It breaks my heart that you didn’t get to see me walk out for our country at my first major tournament … something you dreamed of for me, something we talked about so many times,” she said. “But I know, deep down, you were still there. I felt you with me.” Hampton was one of four England players to make Uefa’s team of the tournament, announced on Monday.
