Women's EURO series EQUALS: Episode 5 – Real models not role models

The fifth episode of EQUALS, free to view on UEFA.tv, joins UEFA Women's EURO 2022 in the knockout stages and looks at how the stars of the game are changing.

What is the responsibility of a top player? What are the ambitions of football's new rising stars? Do the prejudices of the past still exist despite sell-out stadiums and wide TV coverage?

Exploring those themes are those who starred at past events like Nadine Kessler, Julia Simic, Lise Klaveness and Alex Scott, and players that captured the headlines at England 2022 including Beth Mead, Sarah Zadrazil, Daphne van Domselaar, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir, Svenja Fölmli, Alex Popp and Jule Brand.

Daphne van Domselaar
"Football used to be different, the game was played differently. It was a lot more static. The older players have grown into the new style of play, but the basics were a lot more static, rigid and less spectacular. The older players have other skills, so it's great how it all fits together now: the older players learning from the younger ones, as well as the younger players discovering the simplicity of football."

Nadine Kessler
"From a sporting perspective, clearly, players nowadays have a different athleticism, have a different physical strength than a few years ago. Of course, all of this comes with the professionalism around and the training they receive and this in the end is also why we see a super-fast game and some really exciting matches."

Alex Popp
"With this hype that we've managed to generate, clearly not everything's going to be nice and rosy for the youngsters, so they'll certainly have to work a bit to reach a certain level in women's football. It's also completely normal that every generation has to fight a bit in some way in order to, if you look at it like steps on a ladder, keep climbing up."

Alex Scott
"People can follow the journey of not just an English player, but they know who Vivianne Miedema is for Arsenal, so [they think], 'Actually, in the EURO, I might go and watch the Netherlands play because I've been watching her every week on TV or going to a game on a Sunday.' That's the turning point. People can now follow every single player, and they're on the journey with them, instead of every four years, them just rocking up on TV. Then they're like, 'Well, who's this player? I don't really know them. I'm not going to tune in.'"