Captain, leader and legend: Bright exits with glittering legacy

Chelsea defender played a key role in Euro 2022 victory and transformed how Lionesses viewed success

- Tom Garry

Millie Bright scored six times for England across 88 caps

Only two footballers have captained England in a senior World Cup final: the late Bobby Moore and Millie Bright, who announced her international retirement yesterday.

That alone ensures the 32-year-old's Lionesses career will leave an indelible mark on English football. Her entry on to the list of England greats had been guaranteed a year earlier, though, as one of the key heroines of the summer of 2022.

When Leah Williamson prepared to raise the Euro 2022 trophy at Wembley after England's victory against Germany had secured the Lionesses' first major trophy, she angled it slightly towards the woman next to her, Bright, her vice-captain, so they could lift it together. When Bright wore the armband a year later in Sydney, in the absence of the injured Williamson, her team were not quite able to add another trophy, but their run to the final was still historic, in a tournament Bright had done well simply to get to, weeks after knee surgery.

Bright is a player who prefers to do her talking on the pitch. Members of the media covering the Lionesses have not had much insight into her personality, perhaps best shown in July 2023 at a press conference in Brisbane, when Bright was preparing to captain England in their tournament opener against Haiti.

ESPN's Tom Hamilton asked Bright how it felt to be captaining England at a World Cup; those listening perhaps expected a patriotic or emotional answer, and Bright, focused on the task, said plainly: "Things just stay the same. With or without the armband, my behaviour is the same, my mentality is the same."

That summer it was also usually others such as Lucy Bronze who spoke publicly about issues such as the team's dispute with the Football Association over commercial deals. Bright's captaincy was more about crunching tackles and physical duels, which she usually won.