Michelle Agyemang is aware of the best way to make an impression. Leah Williamson nonetheless remembers the primary time she noticed the 19-year-old take part with the senior staff at Arsenal, and maybe even has the bruise to show it. “She come and flattened me,” Williamson says. “I used to be too sluggish on it and I feel I gave her a little bit of stick about it, however in my head I believed: ‘You might want to transfer the ball faster, as a result of she’s bought one thing about her’.”
England’s captain was left equally impressed as she discusses Agyemeng’s affect at one other coaching session a number of years later, this time at St George’s Park earlier than the Lionesses head to Euro 2025.
“I used to be screaming for a go and he or she put it prime bins, and I believed: ‘I ain’t going to say nothing’,” Williamson says. “So my first impression was she let me know she was there, which I really like. As a younger participant coming via, you are able to do all the flamboyant flicks and tips you need, however any person must find out about you, and it’s essential to inform folks that you simply’re there, and that’s what she does.”
It’s an enormous introduction, however then Agyemang has made an enormous arrival to be the youngest participant to be included in England’s Euros squad. Again in April, Agyemeng was a last-minute call-up to England’s senior squad forward of the journey to Belgium, after Alessia Russo took a knock of their earlier win and was compelled to withdraw. With the Lionesses trailing within the second half, Sarina Wiegman turned to {the teenager} and inside seconds, Agyemeng introduced down a protracted ball on her thigh, swivelled, and fired a first-time volley into the web.
A debut purpose couldn’t assist England keep away from defeat, however that night time in Belgium could be remembered because the second the place Agyemang made her mark: actually, it’s arduous to think about how the striker, who spent final season on mortgage at Brighton from Arsenal, may have made England’s Euros squad with out these 41 seconds unfolding as they did. In one other world, she is spending her summer season on the Beneath-19s Euros as a substitute. “The turnaround has been actually fast,” Agyemeng says.
And never simply this season, both. Take Wiegman’s first recreation in control of the Lionesses at Wembley, a 4-0 victory over Northern Eire in October 2021, secured by a Beth Mead hat-trick. Agyemeng performed her half, too, however as a ballgirl on the sidelines.
By that stage, these at Arsenal had a way of what was coming. A lifelong Gunner, she signed for Arsenal on the age of six. She made her first-team debut on the age of 16, earlier than mortgage spells at Watford and, final season, Brighton. Agyemang scored three targets within the Girls’s Tremendous League for the Seagulls, the place she realized to be extra versatile. “I contemplate myself a striker, however enjoying throughout the entrance three at Brighton was a problem for me and it’s helped me enhance.”
Agyemang is one among seven forwards within the England squad. {The teenager} comes with the least expertise, but in addition maybe an unknown high quality for opponents to cope with. “One thing utterly totally different,” Williamson mentioned when requested what Agyemang can convey to the match. “Michelle’s athleticism is one thing I can solely dream of. Taking part in towards her, coaching towards her at Arsenal as effectively I knew about Michelle earlier than she got here into this atmosphere. Her first coaching session was only a demonstration of what she was about.
“I feel it is good to know who you’re however she is aware of how a lot I consider in her. So at any time when I’ve a dialog [with Michelle], it is at all times about wanting her to be in the very best atmosphere to push herself so far as she will go. However I feel these strengths, it is issues that we do not essentially have, which is a power for me and the explanation that she’s right here. It provides worth.”
Agyemang’s coach at Brighton, Dario Vidosic, believes she is usually a “family title” sooner or later. “She’s bought a ravishing strike, she is aware of the best way to hit a ball, she’s harmful, she possesses quite a lot of weapons,” he mentioned earlier this season. And maybe England have a secret one, even when Agyemang is conserving her toes on the bottom.
“For myself personally, conserving my head down, preparing for the match and no matter my position is, that’s my essential precedence,” she says. “And I am certain that is the identical for some other participant going right into a essential match.”
