Three summers ago, she provided an image for the ages, racing across the Wembley turf, twirling her shirt euphorically above her head in a moment of indelible beauty, and we thought there could be nothing so iconic again. We were wrong.
As the sun began to set across this stadium last night, Chloe Kelly stepped up to the penalty spot with a look of absolute certainty on her face. She span the football through her hands fully five times, calmly waiting until she was entirely satisfied that it had settled on to a place where she was ready to strike it.
She adjusted the ponytail in which she holds her golden hair, prepared for her idiosyncratic skip up to the ball and, without the faintest flicker of self-doubt, dispatched the penalty kick which retained the European Championship title for England.
Her delirious run to the corner flag was just like the one we saw after her strike from spot which rescued England in a quarter final barely a week ago. She, the 27-year-old shining light of this England team, had not even started the match. Has there been a better, more consistently willing and influential substitute in England women’s or men’s tournament squads down the years than this player? Almost certainly not.
Though Aitana Bonmati was named player of the tournament last night, Kelly was an extremely very strong candidate. A player whose story and example speaks of winning out in the face of struggle and sadness.
Frozen out at Manchester City, she was at risk of dropping out of Sarina Wiegman’s England squad had a loan move to Arsenal not worked out. She began to play with joy again in North London. It was the joyous Kelly who shone out last night.
