Euro 2022: The players balancing elite football with motherhood

With kick-off just one week away, anticipation for Euro 2022 is growing. Players will be making last-minute preparations and managers will be fine-tuning their starting lineups. 

For some players, they will be saying goodbye to their children as they get ready to spend the majority of the next four weeks with their teammates. 

In fact, there will be more mothers playing at the Euros than ever before. 

Iceland have five mothers in their squad – Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, Sif Atladóttir, Sandra Sigurðardóttir and Elísa Viðarsdóttir.

Other players at the tournament with children include Belgium’s Lenie Onzia, the Netherlands’ Sherida Spitse and Stefanie van Der Gragt, England’s Demi Stokes, Sweden’s Lina Hurtig, Hedvig Lindahl and Elin Rubensson, and Germany’s Almuth Schult. 

The percentage of mothers at Euro 2022 may be relatively small, but it is a significant increase from previous years, demonstrating the changing attitude to female footballers who want to start a family. 

In 2019, Racing Louisville FC forward Jessica McDonald was part of the United States team which triumphed at the Women’s World Cup. The world watched on as her seven-year-old son poured confetti over her head and posed for a photo with the trophy. 

It appeared as if McDonald’s son, Jeremiah, was an accepted part of her football career. But this wasn’t always the case. 

After she gave birth in 2012, McDonald found she was often judged for being a mother.

“I’ve had plenty of coaches who weren’t parents, which made it even more difficult for me, so there were times when I had a bad training session or a bad game, just like any normal player would have, and sometimes I get it thrown at me that my kid is the distraction,” she told BBC