“She’s never fed up of football,” Sonia Bompastor tells Sky Sports, when asked to comment on Millie Bright’s incredible longevity. “Every day seems like the first day.”
The centre-back became the WSL’s leading appearance maker on Sunday as Chelsea draw at Liverpool, beating Jordan Nobbs’ long-standing total – 211 and counting.
Bright already held the title for most starts (199) and most wins (142) in the competition, plaudits that have ensured her name appears high on the list of the game’s all-time greats.
Bright is one of a small cluster of female players who can genuinely lay claim to the identity of a legend, and not in a try-hard way. Acknowledging the 32-year-old’s contribution to both Chelsea and England over the past decade will lead you to this conclusion organically. Bright holds a unique place in the history of English football.
Millie Bright shared the trophy lift with Leah Williamson as England won Euro 2022 on home soil
She and the late Bobby Moore are the only two individuals to captain England in a senior World Cup final. Before that, she was a staple of the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 success, during which time she played a leading role in the transformation of how this country defines success on the international stage.
England are no longer a near-miss nation – a rebrand achieved by those who, like Bright, made it their personal mission to elevate standards.
Her role for Chelsea charts similarly, another rags-to-riches-style story over a decade of consistent service. Bright has been involved in every major title ever won by the Blues, including all eight WSL championships. If it’s in the trophy cabinet at Stamford Bridge, it’s also in the defender’s personal collection. Domestically, there is nothing she has not won.
Millie Bright has been an ever-present under Sonia Bompastor
Bompastor, a serial achiever in her own right, admires this trait greatly. “She’s been part of this club for so long, she’s part of the base and its foundations. Football for her is everything, and I think she gives everything for football.”
Former boss Emma Hayes, the mastermind of seven of Chelsea’s eight WSL titles, calls her ‘super human’. “She’s like an iron lady,” Hayes told Sky Sports this week. Step aside Maggie Thatcher.
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Speaking on Pitch to Pod, Emma Hayes praises Millie Bright and explains why she’s such a special player
Bright has been the hero of the piece on multiple occasions. Earlier this week, chelseafc.com resurfaced a video of her long-range stunner in the 2020 Women’s FA Community Shield, harking back to her days as a young striker for Doncaster Belles. Bright has never been shy of blending her footballing roots with the profile of a modern-day defender.
England fans know this well. Sarina Wiegman’s use of Bright as a makeshift centre-forward in a historic win over Germany – where she scored the decider in a first victory over the old enemy on home soil – will live long in the memory. It was a tactic employed many times thereafter.
Wiegman’s choice of words when Bright announced her international retirement earlier this year offered a fitting summary. She called her former captain an “England legend” and a “true leader”, and finished by saying: “I know she has so much more to give the game.”
Sarina Wiegman has spoken fondly of managing Millie Bright during her time with England
On the pitch, her presence has never been more keenly felt. Perhaps it’s no surprise she remains Chelsea’s leading defensive force, making more clearances, interceptions and winning more duels than any peer this season. For Bompastor, she is the standard-setter. “It’s lovely to work with someone who has this mentality,” she says.
Chelsea’s longest continuously serving player knows her limits, too. Many considered her international retirement earlier this year self-indulgent. Perhaps more simplistically, it was pragmatic. The decision to pass the torch to the next generation of centre-half was vindicated, if the timing of the announcement jarred a little.
England, brimming with young talent, proved this summer that the aura of invincibility Bright helped legitimise does not live and die by its founding members. The Lionesses were crowned European winners anyway. Bright’s legacy preserved.
Public favour is, of course, fickle in this regard, but time will reconcile and honour her contribution to the biggest shift the women’s game has ever experienced – and she continues to be an advocate for greater levels of parity within the sport.
It’s clear from her new podcast venture with former England team-mate Rachel Daly that she is keen to explore what opportunities the industry can offer one of this country’s most decorated players. She certainly has stories to tell.
Perhaps at some point we’ll even get a book, though it’s probably wise to exercise caution if, like Mary Earps, it’s going to include exposé on dressing room drama. Much less Bright’s style.
The fact that Chelsea have broken the WSL’s record for longest unbeaten streak (34 games) on the same day she becomes the leading appearance maker is a poetic mix. A Champions League medal is all that’s missing.
Completing the boxset this year, or any future year, would be fitting for an individual who already embodies incredible service and success and who, in Bompastor’s words, will never tire of playing football.
