England and Germany may be bitter football rivals, but two players have found romance across enemy lines ahead of Sunday’s 2022 European Championship final.
England’s Jess Carter and Germany’s Ann-Katrin Berger have been a long-time couple, first bonding when they were teammates at Birmingham City and now together at Chelsea.
Women’s football stands in stark contrast to men’s football by talking openly about same-sex relationships at the elite level. Carter, a big supporter of the Rainbow Laces campaign, hopes she can encourage others by talking about her relationship.
“I think I was – and probably still am – more comfortable than Ann in publishing our relationship,” she said in an article for the England Football website in December. “But that’s just because Ann is a very private person, whereas I’m more of a person the whole world could know and I don’t really care.”
“Over time and because I’ll say something, she’s kind of got used to it and she’s okay with it. She doesn’t shout about it, but when asked, it’s no secret either.
“Not everyone finds it easy to announce to the world who they are with, but I think that’s the same in straight and gay relationships. I think for a lot of people it depends on your profile, for example if you have a bigger name If your family isn’t very comfortable with it, it can be more difficult to make it public.
“So I think it depends on each person’s personal situation. And equally they can just see it as if it’s nobody else, so maybe don’t want to say. So there could be many reasons, but whatever the situation, we have to respect each other.”
In any case, the chances of the players facing each other in a penalty shootout are slim; both have been substitutes at Euro 2022 and are likely to start Sunday’s final on the bench, with 90,000 fans expected at Wembley.