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Alisha Lehmann sits down for her interview with Sky Sports activities however simply earlier than the cameras roll, she notices one thing.
“Can we swap locations?” she asks this journalist. “It is simply that this [the left side of her face] is ‘my facet’.” And so, the swap happens.
The change maybe sums up the notion that Lehmann is greater than a footballer. Angles and look matter, as with greater than 13m followers on Instagram and over 8m on TikTok, the Aston Villa winger is the preferred ladies’s soccer participant on the planet on social media.
Not even World Cup winners Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan can compete with Lehmann’s numbers on this area, whereas the Villa ahead even has extra Instagram followers than fellow Swiss icon Roger Federer.
Such a social media presence might trigger distractions, however the equation is straightforward for Lehmann: soccer comes first.
“The individuals who know me all the time see the footballer,” she says when requested if Alisha the participant and Alisha the model are exhausting to stability. “Each time I am with my family and friends, I simply discuss soccer.
“It is all the time been there, it is deep in my coronary heart as it is the factor I’ve all the time completed. The opposite stuff simply got here in time.
“Clearly I’ve loads of followers, however I by no means dreamed to have it. I simply performed and shared my life. It simply turned like this.”
Throughout half an hour with Sky Sports activities, Lehmann stresses the truth that her life has not all the time been about followings and fame. She was born within the comparatively quiet space of Tagertschi, simply outdoors Bern, and her soccer dream was fostered in that small village.
“I admire the help a lot, it offers me energy on pitch,” she says about her social media following.
“However I actually do not give it some thought. I do not suppose that I am higher than anybody else, I come from humble beginnings with how I grew up with my household in Switzerland.
“I do not see myself as somebody with a great deal of followers on social media, clearly I am proud it – alongside my soccer – nevertheless it would not change something.”
Whereas social media has loads of positives, there are destructive sides to it too. Lehmann, who helped to entrance a UEFA marketing campaign final yr in opposition to on-line abuse, nonetheless sees destructive and misogynistic feedback about ladies’s soccer.
“There are all the time individuals who do not help ladies’s soccer as they suppose it’s a males’s sport. Loads of instances individuals say: ‘ladies cannot play soccer, they need to be within the kitchen’.
“However these individuals have not watched a single soccer recreation. That is the issue, as a result of once they come to the video games and watch us, they go: ‘You truly can play’.
“You recognize what I believe truly? It is clearly not a pleasant factor to say as a result of we prepare so exhausting each single day, nevertheless it offers me extra energy.
“They’re simply bored in life and need to say one thing. And it is all the time simple to say stuff behind a pc, I do not suppose individuals would stand in entrance of our feminine footballers and say: ‘You’ll be able to’t play’.”
Requested how she offers with these feedback, she says: “I do not actually care, to be sincere. I simply do not learn or look. I simply flip it off and concentrate on the great feedback.
“It is extra for my household, generally I really feel dangerous as my mum sends me stuff. I say to her: ‘Do not learn this, I might by no means learn it’.
“It simply would not have an effect on me, as I do know these individuals aren’t essential. I am sturdy with what I am doing and if individuals are not proud of it, then it is their selection.
“In any case, feminine footballers simply need to play and reside the dream.”
Lehmann on WSL, bought out stadia and ACL accidents
Ladies’s soccer is at an all-time excessive by way of recognition.
Bought-out Premier League stadia for Ladies’s Tremendous League video games has meant the hype from final summer season’s European Championships has been constructed on. An thrilling title race taking place to the wire has helped, whereas higher competitors throughout the league has been seen too.
Requested if this has been the most effective WSL season ever, Lehmann says: “I 100 per cent agree.
“In England, they do ladies’s soccer rather well. We simply have to play so many extra video games within the large stadiums. Each single time we do this, we see the followers are coming.
“They’ve bought out the massive stadiums in England and that is why we want the help from these golf equipment to provide us the alternatives to play in these stadiums.
“For a footballer, when there are loads of followers, I play so a lot better once they’re screaming. It offers you a lot help and energy within the recreation.
“That is what made ladies’s soccer so a lot better this season. It helped us at Aston Villa quite a bit, we’ve got completed rather well this season.”
But, regardless of the skyrocketing recognition, points stay.
Amongst them is the variety of anterior cruciate ligament accidents suffered by feminine gamers. A number of WSL stars, together with Lionesses skipper Leah Williamson and final yr’s Euros star Beth Mead, have suffered the identical long-term knee harm in just lately, shattering some World Cup goals within the course of.
Lehmann believes golf equipment ought to put extra of a concentrate on how the feminine menstruation cycle might enhance the danger of ACL accidents.
“ACL in ladies’s soccer is clearly all the time an enormous theme, as a result of it occurs a lot extra as our our bodies are completely different [compared to male athletes],” she says.
“I believe it is also about our durations, the timings we’ve got, and we have to management this as a result of they are saying when ladies get durations it means a much bigger probability of getting injured.
“The golf equipment have to help us and provides us the prospect to say, as an instance: ‘Perhaps it’s best to prepare a bit much less this week.'”
Lehmann additionally believes the medical requirements throughout ladies’s soccer want pressing enchancment. Her present membership Aston Villa have full-time medical workers in place for his or her WSL staff, and an ACL specialist for his or her women and men’s groups, although the Swiss worldwide believes this method shouldn’t be commonplace throughout the board.
“We want the medical doctors’ help,” she provides. “Typically the medical [standards] for us ladies are usually not ok, as a result of when we’ve got accidents, we go to the medical facet they usually do not actually assist us.
“I would not say it is in each membership however loads of soccer golf equipment right here in England haven’t got a 100 per cent [full-time] physician, for instance. And it is a should as we’re 100 per cent skilled footballers.
“There’s a lot to enhance as a result of it is actually essential: these accidents occur and we have to discover methods to get fewer accidents.”
Lehmann herself might be hoping to make Switzerland’s World Cup squad for the summer season match in Australia and New Zealand, the place the entire world might be watching.
But the Swiss winger is used to that.
Alisha Lehmann is a consultant of Bootbag, the first-ever soccer scouting app of its variety. Watch the sport, scout gamers throughout completely different divisions – together with the Ladies’s Tremendous League – and earn factors to win prizes.
Obtain the app right here.
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