Player Of The Tournament (unattributed full-page portrait and quote)

The closing page of She Kicks’s EURO 2022 section is a full-page portrait of Beth Mead holding the Player of the Tournament trophy, medal round her neck, the match detail stitched into her shirt: England v Germany, 31 July 2022, UEFA Women’s EURO final. The only words are her own, printed without attribution on the page itself. She had not expected the award, was called over by an official and assumed she had done something wrong, and was told instead that she was Player of the Tournament. Sometimes football cuts you down, she says, but bouncing back is the best thing to do, and she still thinks she is dreaming. Her name appears nowhere on the page itself, which comes after the statistics spread crediting her with the award; the photograph is by Pedro Soares for Sports Press Photo.