sport news Steph Houghton may not have got the fairy-tale ending that she would've hoped ... trends now
The date is July 31, 2012, and Steph Houghton has just written her name into the history books.
Having already scored twice in Team GB’s first two group fixtures in the Olympic Games, Houghton has made it three goals in three, but this one is different.
This one is against Brazil, in front of 70,584 people at Wembley. This one will make her a household name, the first real women’s football icon in this country.
Houghton, a centre back, has finished it like a striker and has been mobbed by her team-mates. Team GB and England’s manager Hope Powell, not one for big celebrations, is telling her players to calm down - but even she must know how huge this moment is.
Ten years later and the date is July 31, 2022. England have just beaten Germany to win the Euros at Wembley but, this time, Houghton is not there.
Steph Houghton announced she will retire from professional football at the end of the season
One of career highlights was scoring a crucial goal for Great Britain during the 2012 Olympics
Houghton made it three goals in three games at the tournament with a striker-like finish
Perhaps she should have been. Perhaps she deserved to be. But football is not always fair.
England would not have won the Euros without Houghton’s goal against Brazil 10 years earlier. That may sound outlandish, but it is true.
That game in 2012 did not change the course of women’s football overnight, but it showed what was possible. It demonstrated the potential. It was key to the Football Association committing to sustained investment which eventually led to England’s crowning moment 10 years later.
Houghton announced on Wednesday that she will retire from football at the end of the Women’s Super League season. She has not played for England since 2021. It is hard to shake off the feeling that it should not have ended like this.
There is an alternative reality where Houghton did not injure her achilles in Sarina Wiegman’s first camp as manager in September 2021, where she continued to captain the team for the Euros and the World Cup a year later.
Instead, Wiegman named Leah Williamson as captain in Houghton’s absence. When it became clear Houghton faced a race against time to be fit for the tournament, Williamson was given the captaincy permanently. It made sense.
She was 25 at the time and would be part of the squad for the next decade while Houghton was coming to the end of her international career.
She could still have a role to play in the squad if she could prove her fitness. Houghton believes she did that.
Houghton was not selected for England squad for their Euro-winning summer back in 2022
Houghton captained England at three major tournaments and amassed 121 Lionesses caps
She was selected for the provisional squad of 28 leading up to the Euros but did
