Remarkable rise sees striker go from Stoke academy to England's first-choice goalkeeper!

HANNAH Hampton's rise to become England's number one has been both against the odds and a sure thingdepending which way you look at it.

- Peter Smith

Hampton's potential was so clear that she was summoned for England duty after her very first game as a goalkeeper, filling in as an emergency against Liverpool for Stoke City under-12s.

Yet even teammates are stunned when they find out that the 24-year-old does not have any depth perception.

Either way, her life was changed by her five years in the academy at Stoke, who she had joined when she had a pick of clubs in the Midlands after returning from living in Spain with her teacher parents, where she had been playing as a striker in the Villarreal mixed youth set-up.

People like Andrew Frost, her coach then at Stoke and now Stoke's head of academy recruitment, helped to set her on a journey to becoming a key player for Sarina Wiegman as England set about defending their crown as European champions this summer.

Hampton talked through her junior career to Ben Foster, who also came through Stoke's junior ranks, saying: "I came back from Spain, and Villarreal had written a letter of recommendation to say I had been in their academy.

"I didn't want that so I went to every single Midlands club on trial. I thought, 'I'm not just getting in through a letter, that's not fair!