Lionesses captain Leah Williamson made honest financial admission that speaks volumes

England captain Leah Williamson previously outlined the stark financial contrast between the men's and women's game. The 28-year-old has led the Lionesses to two European Championship titles after helping the team defeat Spain in the Euro 2025 final on penalties, cementing her legacy as a national icon.

Williamson has spent her entire career at Arsenal, where she celebrated winning the Champions League last season. The centre-back has also won the WSL and six other domestic cups during her time at the Gunners. On the international stage, she has guided the Lionesses to glory on home soil and abroad at Euro 2025. However, Williamson previously admitted that she had already begun making plans for life after football as, unlike many players in the men's game, she will not be able to retire after hanging up her boots.

"There are some elements of the women's game that need to catch up," Williamson told The Times last year. "I'm not earning enough to retire after my playing career, so I'm still aiming to complete my accountancy studies in case I need something to fall back on.

"The women's game still has to grow, but when I'm playing for Arsenal we get crowds of 35,000, more than some of the men's Premier League teams. Am I bitter? There's no point. I just hope the next generation doesn't have to deal with the same problems."

According to Hello! Magazine, Williamson reportedly earns £150,000 per year at Arsenal. While it is a sizeable salary, it will only last as long as her footballing career and is still a fraction of the money that Premier League stars earn.

Williamson faced other challenges at the start of her career that male players simply do not have to contend with. The England skipper's first team was a boys' side, Scot Youth, as there was no local girls' team, and Williamson's inclusion was often a contentious issue.

"Initially I felt so uncomfortable, but then I scored six goals in the first 15 minutes and all the other boys wanted me in the team," Williamson recalled. "That first season with Scots was when I really fell in love with the game.

"Sadly, things weren't so easy when we played other teams. You could see these lads thinking, 'She's a girl!' And some parents were even worse. If I was running rings around one of the visiting players, you could hear their dad screaming from the sidelines, 'How can you let a girl do that?' This was supposed to be fun but you had kids in tears because I'd stopped them scoring.

"There was one game where the word had obviously gone round that I had to be 'taken out' and the studs were coming in very high. Suddenly, a fight broke out on the touchline, all the parents having a go at each other. I saw mum standing way out of it, just shaking her head. All because I was a girl and a decent player.

"It was worse when my mum was a kid. She had to pretend she was a boy even to get a game. She had the skills but teams weren't interested. Thankfully, things are much better now and I'd like to think our success at the Euros played a part in that. The final felt like a turning point - 87,000 people at Wembley for us."

Williamson helped England continue their era of success, playing 120 minutes as the Lionesses defeated Spain on penalties, despite the centre-back missing her spot kick. Since returning home with the trophy, the squad have been hosted at Downing Street and were cheered on by an estimated 65,000 fans during an open-top bus parade on Tuesday. Their victory in Switzerland marks the first time an England senior team have won a tournament abroad.