Kelly is a proud, cocky footballer unafraid to celebrate her tournament-winning penalty with a self-assured shrug to the fans – similar to the celebration after scoring against Italy from a rebound following her own missed penalty.
“She has been doing it week in, week out and she’s just got this attitude and this confidence that I don’t think you can buy,” England team mate Lucy Bronze said before the final.
Kelly celebrates her London roots, her close family in which she is the youngest of seven siblings, and her love of hip-hop.
Speaking to Romesh Ranganathan on Radio 2,, external Kelly said: “I just love listening to music. My mum always had the radio on, then being from west London, I support people from my area like AJ Tracey, I enjoy listening to his music. He’s a friend of mine. It’s really nice to see west London doing great in the music industry now.”
Kelly is also unafraid to speak her mind. In February, Sarina Wiegman left Kelly out of her squad for Nations League games against Portugal and Spain. At the time, she had not played any football since mid-December, having fallen out of favour at former club Manchester City.
She secured a loan to childhood team Arsenal, having posted emotional messages to social media saying she “wanted to be happy again” while accusing City of planting negative stories about her in the media. The club never commented publicly about Kelly’s remarks.
Kelly has not been shy about revealing she nearly quit football altogether.
“I’m really proud looking back on the journey,” she said. “It was a tough one to start with. Thinking about giving up the game that we all love is really difficult but sometimes you need to look after your mental health and that was really important to me.”
After Euro 2022, the Lionesses were held up as the perfect ideal of female sporting achievement. Kemp says the next step, led by Kelly, will be allowing our women’s football icons to be imperfect.
“We create a stereotype that is impossible for women footballers to live up to, that can be quite oppressive from a marketing perspective,” she said.
“They can be both things, be an incredible athlete and incredible personality. Kelly is full of flair, you would not want her in just one area.”
With a hop, skip and a thwack, the age of the Chloe Kelly is upon us.
