Rachel Brown-Finnis: Great to see the new generation of Lionesses reaping the rewards of our football fight

The former England goalkeeper turned pundit writes for Metro throughout this summer’s European Championship.

Our generation opened doors and The Lionesses have pushed them wide open.

I’m so proud to see how high profile some of our England players are becoming in the run-up to the European Championship.

It has been coming, and the fact 90,000-capacity Wembley has sold out for the final says all you need to know about the stage women’s football has reached.

You only have to walk into a supermarket to see the faces of the likes of Lucy Bronze, Leah Williamson and Nikita Parris on a number of products – oh, and of course I have my Panini Euro 2022 sticker album.

I was one of a group of players who helped to bang on doors at the Football Association when we were playing, trying to get more done, trying to get small things that would help the team.

We would like to think that led to the present-day Lionesses reaping the rewards. There will be players in the Euros squad who have come through centres of excellence and never had to work part-time to make ends meet and a lot of that is down to the support and funding from the National Lottery and people who play it.

Their support for the legacy of these Euros will also be vital in growing the women and girls’ game even further.

I never got paid a penny to play football when I started out, for club or country. Most of us were taking unpaid leave from work to play for England and when I was breaking through as a teenager, I never even knew there was a national team. Not for women anyway.

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