Hannah Hampton: why Aston Villa and England dropped footballer - ‘behaviour and attitude problems’ explained

Hannah Hampton, the England and Aston Villa goalkeeper, is said to have been dropped by England manager Sarina Wiegman over behaviour issues at the team’s camps. The 21-year-old featured in Wiegman’s European Championship-winning squad where she deputised for Mary Earps, but it is now understood that the Aston Villa player is unlikely to be selected again under the current Dutch manager.

The Guardian claim that several sources have alleged Hampton caused problems in England age-group teams and at club level while the FA, Villa and Hampton’s representatives are said to have declined to comment.

Hampton’s first international call came in February 2020 for the SheBelieves Cup when Phil Neville was the manager and made her debut earlier this year during England’s 0-0 draw with Spain.

What has been said?

Before England’s World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Luxembourg in September, Wiegman told the press Hampton was absent because: “She has some personal issues that she has to solve so for her at this moment it’s better for her to stay at her club.”

Her club manager, Carla Ward, left Hampton out of Aston Villa’s fixture against Chelsea and said: “Hannah was available. Something happened yesterday, and we decided it was in the best interests of the team for her to stay at home so I did exactly that. That’s all I really want to say on the matter. I made the decision in the best interests of the team to leave her home and I left her home. I would probably prefer to talk about the 11 who were here.”

Who is Hannah Hampton?

Born in 2000, Hampton started her youth career with Villarreal CF, Stoke City and Birmingham City. She was called up from the Birmingham City Centre of Excellence in November 2017 and made her senior debut in a League Cup game against Doncaster Belles. She then signed her first professional contract with the club in December 2018.

Between 2019 and 2021, she played 34 of the 35 WSL games, keeping six clean sheets with a 66.5% save percentage. At the end of the 2020/21 season, it was then announced she would be leaving Birmingham upon expiry of her contract and she moved to Aston Villa where she has made 22 league appearances since the start of the 2021 season.

Hampton started the first two games of this season for Villa but since had a spell out over an unspecifed injury. The 21-year-old goalkeeper was also omitted from England’s October friendlies against the USA and Czech Republic and is not set to be included in the squad Wiegman will name on Tuesday for the upcoming matches against Japan and Norway.

When do England next play?

The Lionesses have two international friendlies in November which will be played in Spain. The first is against Japan on Friday 11 November at the Pinatar Arena Football Center and the second is against Norway on Tuesday 15 November at the same stadium.

Both matches are scheduled to kick-off at 7pm GMT and will be available to watch on ITV. Wiegman will name her squad for both matches on Tuesday 1 November.