Hannah Hampton doesn’t want it to be a big thing. Yet for any onlooker, it can feel like a big thing.
When the England and Chelsea goalkeeper sees someone at the supermarket struggling to communicate, or when she spots a fan signing to their parents in the stands, or when she's interacting with fans after a match, the 23-year-old doesn’t think when she begins signing back to them. She just signs. A reflex, an instinct. Something normal.
“No one should ever struggle in everyday life, and even if someone knows a tiny bit of BSL (British Sign Language), it always goes a long way,” says Hampton, who learned sign language from a young age in order to communicate with her cousin who is deaf. “It’s the joy that it puts on their face, that they're so shocked that someone knows BSL.”
Since making her debut for Chelsea in November, Hampton has swiftly become one of the reigning league champion's most important players on the pitch, keeping nine clean sheets in 11 matches across all competitions with a showreel of mesmerizing saves underpinned by a composure on the ball which belies her years and is anything but normal.
Hampton's displays have seen her exalted by soon-departing Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, who tipped the shot-stopper to become "the best [goalkeeper] in the world" if she continues on her current trajectory.
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Indeed, Hampton's acrobatic exploits are generally accompanied by a whirlwind of noise: excited, feverish, roaring. Yet, there are those who cannot hear the noise. An estimated 1.2 million adults in the UK have hearing loss severe enough to impede most conversational speech yet there are approximately only 150,000 BSL users, more than half of whom are deaf.
The disparity is one of the main reasons Hampton is so passionate about the England Football Association's new involvement with partner EE's new campaign "Support. It's In Your Hands", which aims to encourage the use of sign language in both deaf and non-deaf communities to ensure football is as inclusive as possible.
Hampton recalls growing up the moments in which her uncle would sign to her cousin. She and her family would pick up phrases along the way. Yet, intermittent phrases only made so great a difference.
Hannah Hampton has been one of Chelsea's most important players since being handed the No.1 shirt (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)“I didn't want to make my cousin feel isolated in the family, let alone in how it was affecting him in everyday life,” Hampton says “So I thought I'd try and learn more to keep him included and have conversations with him, see how his day is going and have nice conversations with him."
“It’s quite hard for deaf people to fit in. I wanted to make sure that he felt included and felt that people do actually go out of their way to learn it. He shouldn't be shocked that someone knows BSL. It should just be an everyday thing for him.”
Born with strabismus, a condition which causes the eyes to point in opposing directions, Hampton is familiar with feeling like football might prove an untenable place. As a toddler, she underwent three surgeries, though none fully resolved the condition. At 12 years old, she was diagnosed with depth perception trouble, an issue which generally makes goalkeeping a challenge. Hampton was often discouraged from pursuing her dream of professional football.
Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton has been tipped to become 'the best in the world' by manager Emma Hayes (Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)Hampton is determined to encourage others to learn BSL, which she insists is less daunting than many fear. But the Blues star is at equal pains to stress that she is no hero for her efforts. It should be normal, she says, a sentiment which feels applicable across Hampton’s present as she and her England teammates continue to help grow women’s football to unprecedented heights.
Since the Lionesses’ Euro2022 triumph, women’s football has become gargantuan; shattering attendance and broadcast records on demand and reconfiguring antiquated perceptions and standards. There are now twice as many registered female football teams in England as there were seven years ago, according to a BBC analysis, with the largest increase occurring in 2022-23, the season after the Lionesses’ Euro2022 triumph when almost 1,500 new teams were registered.
Hannah Hampton was called into Sarina Wiegman's most recent England squad ahead of the Euro2025 qualifiers (Photo by Fran Santiago - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)The phenomenon is being dubbed the ‘Lionesses Effect’, a quasi-chain reaction which has also led to the average viewing time of women’s sport on television in 2023 rising by 16 per cent, according to the Women’s Sport Trust. The largest contribution to that increase was due to the 25.7million streams of the Women’s World Cup across the BBC iPlayer and ITVX. Even so, correlation is not causation and Hampton once again underlines that the impact is multifarious.
“I'd like to think we've played a big part, but it's not always down to the women's team,” she says. “Just look at the World Cup in general and the Euros, the attraction that it was bringing and women's sport in general, not necessarily in football, but all across the sports. You can see the history that's being made.
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“It's a big thing. And women's sports now is a force to be reckoned with. We're going in the right direction and it's where we deserve to be.”
Hannah Hampton's remarkable form for Chelsea has seen her tipped to be 'one of the world's best' by manager Emma Hayes (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)With England having failed to qualify for the summer’s Olympic Games in Paris following a disappointing Nations League campaign, the Lionesses’ focus is firmly on defending their Euro2022 title, beginning with the competition’s qualifiers in the summer.
“It's a big honour, one that we're not used to that sort of pressure in wanting to defend the title, but we're all for it,” Hampton says. “We know how good our team is and how good we can be and what we can achieve in the women's game. We're all excited. Obviously, we've got to get ourselves into the Euros first, but we're all looking forward to the journey and to go out and win it.”
Winning it could be influenced by whoever is between the sticks. While Manchester United’s Mary Earps has a firm grasp on the No.1 shirt, the likes of Hampton and Manchester City’s Khiara Keating are making strong cases for themselves.
Mary Earps, Ellie Roebuck and Hannah Hampton of England (Naomi Baker)That competition is so fierce for the No.1 spot, coupled with the influence women’s goalkeepers have yielded in the outcome of myriad consequential matches, has reaped major benefits in the wider game, from record transfer bids to pivotal perception changes around a position historically pointed to as women’s football’s biggest weakness.
As is her wont, Hampton politely declines any credit for this. Instead, she points to the improvement of women’s goalkeeping across the globe.
“It’s a massive step in the right direction,” Hampton says. “There was the whole stereotype around women's goalkeepers and we were always trying to prove them wrong. I think over the last couple of years, especially since the Euros, the World Cup, you've seen how many goalkeepers are winning the matches and it’s because of how good the quality is. We've always wanted to improve.
“We've always wanted to push to the next level and I think people are now realising that goalkeepers make a difference in games and get the recognition that they deserve.”
* For bitesize lessons and more information on how to learn BSL, visit eelearnsmart.co.uk
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