At every major tournament, there’s a breakout star you don’t see coming. At Euro 2025, that star is undoubtedly Michelle Agyemang.
‘Meteoric’ is perhaps too small a word for what has happened to the 19-year-old over the last three-and-a-half months. A rocket straight into the stratosphere would be a more appropriate description.
Just four years ago, she was a ball girl for England’s World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland at Wembley, Sarina Wiegman’s first game at the stadium and third in charge overall. Agyemang’s future team-mate Beth Mead scored a hat-trick that day.
At the time, the striker was playing in Arsenal’s academy, making her senior debut 13 months later in October 2022 with English football on a high after the Lionesses’ Euros win that summer.
Now, as they prepare to defend that title against Spain on Sunday, Agyemang unexpectedly finds herself with the hope of a nation riding on her young shoulders.
“Four years ago I was just a kid throwing the ball to some of these girls. I’m so happy I’m here. To be doing this at this level and helping out this team is more than I could’ve wished for,” the teenager told ITV Sport after her equaliser paved the way for the dramatic semi-final win over Italy.
Four caps. Three goals. Two equalisers with the Lionesses minutes away from being knocked out. One more to negotiate for Euros glory.
It’s a truly remarkable return from a player described as “inevitable” by her England captain Leah Williamson, even more so given the situations she has been sent into.
Substitutes are there partly to turn the game in their team’s favour, and Agyemang has yet to come into an England game when the team aren’t behind.
On her debut against Belgium in the Nations League, the Lionesses were 3-1 down. 41 seconds after her introduction, she scored her first senior international goal – taking one touch to control before a superb volley beat the goalkeeper.
When asked about the goal, Dario Vidosic – the manager of Brighton, where Agyemang was on loan last season – said the striker would soon become a “household name”. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of kids wearing her jerseys in the not-too-distant future,” he added.
That future is now. Her work with England in April was enough to see her selected for the final 23-player squad going to Switzerland.
“I think she brings something different,” Wiegman said when she selected Agyemang. “We’re really strong up front, we have different qualities with the players we’ve picked. She brings so much physicality.”
The ‘special’ and ‘different’ descriptions are mentioned by plenty of her team-mates and outside commentators – but what exactly is it that distinguishes Agyemang from those around her?
Helen Ward, head of women’s football at Watford, where Agyemang was on loan in the 2023/24 season, explained: “Physically, she was built for the women’s game.
“The feeling at Arsenal was that she had this raw ability – scoring goals, can hit a ball brilliantly, can finish. She’s got that pace and strength and power, but she’s also got things to work on as any young player would, and just needs game time and exposure to senior football.
“From what I’ve seen in the performances she’s put in for Brighton over the last year, and what she’s doing for England, I think she’s becoming more comfortable with her attributes, and how to best use them. She needs to be in between the posts and as high up the pitch as often as possible.
“But technically, there wasn’t much missing from her game. She’s a natural finisher, she had shot selection, and that was all pretty evident. It was just refining those key moments in decision-making, which comes with experience.
“She’s got a really nice balance of being humble, but supremely confident as well.
“As a 17-year-old that had already played for Arsenal, she could quite easily think, ‘I’ve done that, I don’t need to come to a club like Watford and learn anymore’. But she wanted to work hard and improve.
“She was quite quiet, but once she came out of her shell, she got on with everyone, was very polite and a really nice person to have around the group.
“But she took training sessions seriously as games and flattened a few of our defenders with no problems at all.”
Agyemang has shown all these qualities at Euro 2025 as England’s serendipitous hero. Her equaliser against Sweden ultimately sent the game to a penalty shoot-out, which the Lionesses won.
She did the same in the semi-final, too, levelling up in the final minute of normal time before Kelly secured England’s place in the Sunday’s final. Agyemang almost completed the job herself, hitting the bar with a wonderful lobbed effort.
Future opponents had even been forewarned what was to come. On her major tournament debut against France, Agyemang could have equalised late on but her low strike was blocked – a leg away from making it four goals in four caps.
In each appearance, she has looked like a player well beyond her 19 years, like she has been with England for more than a few months. “What a future the kid’s got ahead of her,” said Lucy Bronze, who has taken Agyemang under her wing in the camp.
“Being here for such a short amount of time, my team-mates have been so supportive” Agyemang told Sky Sports News of her time with the squad.
“It’s easy to come here and not really be connected to the team because of the short amount of time, but the team have taken me in and I’m so grateful for every single one of them… It’s a lot of learning and experience and I’m so grateful that I’m here.”
And whether by design or accident, Wiegman has tapped into the same super-sub cheat code that helped England to victory in 2022. Three years ago, it was Russo and Ella Toone. Now, it’s Agyemang and Kelly.
Of course, Kelly has been here before, but for her fellow Arsenal forward it is a whole new world. She has had to adapt to the spotlight quickly, but wiat better group of people to guide her through a catapult into the public consciousness than the winners of 2022?
You can feel the fizz of excitement every time Agyemang’s number comes up. With her on the pitch, anything seems possible.
There will be a clamour from some to start Agyemang in place of Russo against Spain – it is unlikely to happen, with Wiegman preferring continuity. Plus, the impact of Agyemang from the bench is an ace the Dutch coach will want to keep up her sleeve. Nothing will terrify tired defenders more than seeing her standing on the sidelines, ready to cause more havoc.
“She’s not forcing me,” Wiegman said, when asked whether Agyemang should be playing more minutes in the tournament.
“I think she is very grateful she gets minutes, and she’s really ready for it. I think her growth and her development went so quickly, from not starting at Brighton, being on loan, to getting lots more minutes and showing how good she is and coming into our team.”
The Lionesses have been propelled to the final by the tenacity and confidence of a teenager. More experienced players sometimes look scared to get things wrong on the big stage but, in overthinking it, make mistakes anyway. They could do worse than rediscover the fearlessness of the squad’s youngest member ahead of Sunday’s final.
And as Agyemang herself told Sky Sports News: “Bring on Basel.”