'Being a young girl was my first challenge' – Leah Williamson opens up on breaking down barriers, inspiring the next generation with England's Lionesses & her latest campaign with Pepsi

The Arsenal star speaks to GOAL about a journey that has had its highs and lows, from captaining her country to Wembley glory to missing a World Cup

Leah Williamson has witnessed plenty of ups and downs in her career to date. She has won seven major honours with Arsenal, the club of her heart, but has also seen title races and cup finals slip away in tear-jerking fashion. She has tasted tournament success with England, captaining the Lionesses to the European Championship title on home soil in the summer of 2022, but had to endure the pain of watching from afar as her teammates fell just short in the World Cup final last summer while she recovered from a devastating injury.

No matter how high or low these moments get for Williamson, though, they come as part of the privilege of being a professional football player, something that young girls couldn’t even dream of becoming when the 27-year-old was growing up. That’s all changed drastically in recent years.

Working with Pepsi on its latest campaign ‘, Leah has teamed-up with Pepsi ambassadors Jack Grealish, Vinicius Jr and Heung-min Son. The campaign sees the players take-on a group of locals in a game of "Don't Let the Ball Touch the Ground" and Williamson is the one who steps-in to save the boys just when defeat seems imminent. It's a celebration of all the different ways to enjoy the game despite the forest of 'Keep off the Grass' and 'No Ball Games Allowed' signs that have become a feature of our cities.

“I really feel proud to be part of it,” Williamson tells GOAL. “Pepsi’s new campaign is all about encouraging people to challenge convention and celebrate the joy of playing this beautiful game. We want to celebrate inclusivity and show that football is a sport for everyone and anyone, whoever they are and no matter their circumstances.”

Discussing such a message clearly evokes passion from Williamson, who had to overcome plenty of obstacles on her way to becoming the first England captain to lift a major tournament trophy since Bobby Moore in 1966.

Getty‘Being a young girl was my first challenge’

When Williamson was a young girl, her desire to kick a ball around certainly challenged those conventions that she speaks about. At the turn of the century, women’s football was still a largely amateur sport, especially in England, despite the success of teams like Arsenal, still the only English side to be crowned European champions in the women’s game.

“Being a young girl was definitely my first challenge,” she tells GOAL of the obstacles she faced to get to where she is today. “I was fighting against social norms and against what some people maybe believed to be right or wrong. I think some people definitely thought they had a right to play over and before me. I was lucky to find a girls’ team really early in my childhood, but I still didn’t know I could become a professional football player until I was about 16 or 17 years old.

“I think the difference today is that girls don't necessarily have to search for role models or for people to look up to and see what their future might look like. If young girls go into school today and said they planned on being a professional footballer, that would seem totally normal to everybody because it's possible and everybody sees it on a daily basis. That wasn't the case when I was younger, so it's dramatically different now.”

Advertisement‘I’m proud to be part of this generation’

Williamson is at the forefront of that growth of the game. A lot of credit and acknowledgement needs to be given to those who came before her, the pioneers who fought for progress and who are not recognised as widely, but women’s football has never been as visible as it is right now and Williamson is one of the most recognisable women’s stars in England, if not the world, today. That profile brings responsibility as more and more young girls start to get involved in the sport.

“I'm very grateful to have been part of this generation of players,” she says, asked about the responsibility on her shoulders. “I think the opportunities that will come for the next generation of women’s football players will be incredible, but I'm proud to have played a role in the progress made today. It's why I’m so pleased to work with Pepsi on this campaign. I want to encourage people to challenge convention and make it happen for themselves, to basically take back control of the game and ensure they get the most out of it for themselves. I've been a part of a group of women, just incredible women, who have decided that this is what they wanted to do, so they've pursued it and not taken no for an answer.

“I play football and I take part in such exciting Pepsi campaigns because I love it, but I do know that I have a responsibility. I was really lucky. My parents put women's football in front of me because I had an interest in it and we had the means to travel to games. Now we have a responsibility to be there for those young girls who might want to pursue a career in football, or those young girls who just need inspirational women in their life to pursue their own dreams. We need to be there to invite them into the game and give them as many opportunities as possible.”

Getty ImagesNot done yet

The steps that the women’s game has taken forward in recent years have been incredible, with record-breaking crowds, financial investment and improvements in facilities all helping the game to come on leaps and bounds, making the quality even better in the process.

“I think we're at the stage where we're really knocking on the door of creating something that is sustainable for the long-term,” Williamson says. “It feels like we've hit a bit of a turning point with so much interest in the women’s game and that is leading to much more quality as well. I think we’ve seen the quality in women’s football fly now that the opportunities are there and everybody knows they can now pursue the career professionally. I definitely think we are at that stage in England, and I can only speak for England because I play here, but I think there’s been huge progress across the world too.”

That’s not to say that there is not more to do, though. There are still players across the world fighting for professionalism, for higher standards and for more investment, and improvements that can be made in countries that are leading the way.

Williamson knows that, adding: “The next step is to achieve this progress across the board and to see greater consistency in the women’s game. I think the standards are too inconsistent right now. I think the gap between the top clubs in the top countries in the world, and those lower down the football pyramid, is too big at the moment. If you compare it to men's football, the disparity might be similar, but the lowest standard in the men’s game is quite a lot higher than what we currently see in the women’s game. There’s no doubt we're on track to see a major, major difference in five, 10, 15 years, but that is what I want to change to take the women’s game to another level.”

Getty ImagesArsenal’s record-breaking approach

One of those top clubs really leading the way, in England and beyond, is Arsenal. The country’s most successful club in the women’s game, the Gunners have a long history in this sport and they have shown incredible quality off the pitch in recent times, too, with the marketing second-to-none when it comes to celebrating the Women’s Super League. All the top three crowds in WSL history have come at the Emirates Stadium and all in the last 18 months as well.

“People in positions of power at Arsenal decided they were going to make change and that's exactly what's happened,” Williamson says of the club she has played for since she was nine years old. “They maybe gambled on the fact that there would be interest and I think we've got the answer. We've sold out, or nearly sold out, however many games this season. It's becoming a bit of a regular occurrence and all of these things are great.

“Yes, I think other clubs in the Women’s Super League need to do the same. A plant doesn't grow without it being watered. If you put the time into something and invest in making it happen, then I think you'll reap the rewards because you're seeing it at Arsenal now. It's an incredible atmosphere and we're lightyears ahead of where we maybe thought we would have been not so long ago.”