Lieke’s ‘Living a Dream’ (Lieke Martens, UEFA Women’s Player of the Year)

Five weeks after a European Championship that turned her into the tournament’s outstanding player, Lieke Martens collected the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award in Monaco, sitting alongside a third-time men’s winner in Cristiano Ronaldo and describing the whole run as living a dream. She took 95 points to Pernille Harder’s 81 and Dzsenifer Marozsan’s 47. Newly signed by Barcelona from Rosengard, she is careful to spread the credit: she had a good club season and was glad to matter for her country during the Euros, but says she could not have achieved any of it without team mates who all had great tournaments. Expectations will follow her now, she accepts, and may make things harder; her answer is simply to give everything.