As if we hadn’t seen this script before, somehow it’s playing out again.
England are marching into their third consecutive major tournament final and this time they have Michelle Agyemang and Chloe Kelly to thank.
‘She feels inevitable right now,’ said England captain Leah Williamson of the teenage sensation.
The most remarkable part? Agyemang wasn’t even supposed to be here.
Originally from South Ockendon in Essex, then attending Holy Cross School Primary and Southend High School for Girls, Agyemang was sent out on loan by Arsenal this season to ‘continue her development’ at Brighton, where she made just three starts for the Seagulls towards the end of their campaign.
Then came the sliding doors moment – perhaps of the entire Euros campaign – just two months before Sarina Wiegman was due to name her squad for Switzerland when Alessia Russo picked up a knock midway through England’s Nations League double-header with Belgium, and Agyemang was hurriedly called in to replace her.
England were on the brink of a frustrating result in Leuven, the score stuck at 3-1, when Agyemang was introduced in the 80th minute.
Just forty-one seconds later, Leah Williamson’s looping cross from deep found her. One touch to control with her thigh, the second to blast it into the roof of the net.
After a brief celebration, Agyemang retrieved the ball from the net and raced it back to the penalty spot.
The goal didn’t spark a full comeback – the final score remained 3-2 – but it was quite the debut statement.
She draws inspiration from a unique source. Agyemang listens to gospel music before every match to calm her mind. Indeed, her church background has led to one of her beloved hobbies, playing the piano, and she has even had her one transported out to Switzerland – though she hasn’t treated the squad to a listen yet.
When she’s not playing, she’s got her head in the books for a business management course at King’s College London.
Agyemang, a lifelong Arsenal fan, joined the Gunners’ academy aged six. Born to Ghanaian parents, she has long been tipped for the limelight – although perhaps not quite this quickly.
Asked that night in Belgium whether she viewed Agyemang as a back-up to Russo, Wiegman was quick to temper expectations, replying: ‘That’s really fast. I can’t say that to you right now. She’s an absolute talent and I think she’s a very good number nine.
‘It’s too early to say now where that goes to and when the players come back and are fit then the competition up front is really high. But if it’s not in the short term, then in the longer term she’s an exciting player.’
Scrap all that – Agyemang is a player for right now. Twice she has come to England’s rescue in this Euros campaign, and twice she has delivered on Europe’s biggest stage when the clock was beginning to say it was all over.
‘She’s unbelievable,’ said Chloe Kelly – her future Arsenal teammate and fellow super sub – after the match. ‘She’s got the world at her feet. A young player with a bright future and I’m absolutely buzzing for her.’
Only four years ago, Agyemang was a ball girl at Wembley for Wiegman’s third game in charge – a World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland in 2021 – and was left awestruck by being so close to the action.
‘It was crazy, seeing the girls so close to my face,’ she recently recalled. ‘Beth Mead got a hat-trick that day, so to be a part of that experience was invaluable and I’ll never forget it.’
Now, those same players are singing the 19-year-old’s praises after her late rescue act secured another historic final for this relentless team.
‘She’s very humble and knows her strength, and that gives her confidence,’ Lucy Bronze said last night. ‘She knows she’s a strong girl and she knows she can finish.
‘She can put the ball in the back of the net. She does it in training and she works tirelessly every single day in training against our centre-halves – pushing them and making sure that she’s fresh for when she comes on as a sub.
‘But what a future the kid’s got ahead of her – at 19 she’s helping the England team get to a Euros final. I can’t imagine her or her family ever dreamed of it.’
Bronze was asked if she shared some of Agyemang’s fearlessness in her early career and replied: ‘Yeah I think so because nobody knows anything about you, people can analyse her game but she’s played a few minutes against Belgium, a few minutes in the season as well with Brighton.
‘She’s a little bit of the unknown and she brings something different to our other strikers and our attackers, which maybe other teams aren’t used to playing against, especially in an England shirt. So I think it gives her a lot of confidence and the team give her a lot of freedom, Sarina does.
‘We want her to be confident and just play good football and try and score goals, when she scored the first one, we were like, go and do it again. And you saw that in the rest of the game. She was going on by herself, she had two or three good runs in extra time where she was like, I’m going to take this team to the final. It’s amazing to see and I think that gives the rest of the team confidence.
Agyemang’s rise has been rapid, and Wiegman has embraced her raw talent – while also suggesting she ease up slightly in training.
‘In duels I think she needs to calm down a little bit as she makes some fouls,’ Wiegman said in May. ‘You don’t want to almost destroy your opponent.’
Bronze’s reaction was to tell Agyemang to go harder.
‘We did have that conversation, me and Sarina, and I’ve been working on it in training, and I think I’ve improved on it,’ Agyemang recently said.
‘But Lucy was saying she thinks it’s a super strength of mine and I know Lucy is physical as well, so we like going at it in training and it’s fun to have that type of opponent – then you can reflect it in the game.’
Her physicality has become her defining trait in this tournament, ruffling feathers in each of the three matches she’s come off the bench.
Four caps, three goals – it’s been quite the return.
