Lauren Hemp: I feel like most people know I really enjoy doing Lego. I find it so therapeutic, it just switches me off from everything and relaxes my brain. I have a massive wall filled with all the different Lego I’ve done so far and have actually taken a love for building IKEA furniture from it as well. Whenever anyone’s moving house, I’m like, Let me know if you need me to do anything, because that’s usually what everyone else dreads.
Do you like to freestyle or are you all about the instructions?
If someone just gave me a bag of Lego, I’d struggle to make anything good. But if you give me instructions, I’ll be done within an hour.
Despite the double of whammy of being pipped to the title by Chelsea and club captain Steph Houghton’s retirement, City have made a great start in the WSL this year.
We’re adjusting to losing people like Steph and Demi [Stokes] who were very vocal in the changing rooms and pushing the standards all the time. Steph was a massive leader for us but now we’ve got Alex [Greenwood] as captain and she’s fitted straight into that role. It’s time for the younger players to step up and be leaders as well. I count myself in that, though I’m definitely not head of music – Chloe Kelly’s on that.
You must be excited to be playing in the Champions League this season against teams like Barcelona.
It’s great to get exposure against some of the best players in the world and it’s important for us to play in those big games because we want to show the world that we’re one of the best teams – and we can only do that by being part of the Champions League. You want to beat the best to be the best, and as the game grows, it just means everyone’s going to be even better.
Does playing at the very top level of the game now come with more pressure than ever?
There’s maybe more pressure on us but we’ve all experienced cup finals, World Cup finals, Euro finals, things like that where there is so much at stake, there is so much pressure on us to perform and I feel like we all deal with it in our own different ways. It’s about learning to be able to cope with that pressure because it’s always going to be there and it’s probably going to get worse from this point because of how much women’s growing.
What pros come with the added exposure the women’s game is getting?
It’s so amazing that there’s now young girls and boys speaking about women’s football – it’s not just men’s football, it is both. People wanting to play as one of us on FIFA, or messaging me to say they’ve got my [FIFA] card and they’re so excited – things like that. It’s so nice to be known as a role model to younger people – sometimes you just have to take a breath and realise how far you have come.
Are you happy with your FC25 ratings?
My score is not better than last year, so I’m a bit disappointed about that – maybe they were just watching the wrong games [laughs]. Overall, I’m happy it’s a good score and everyone seems happy with my card, whoever plays with me, so I’m good with that.
When you were growing up, did you ever think about the fame that might come with being a footballer?
When I was younger I was like, I just want to play football week in, week out – train every day, play matches. I’d never really seen an actual pathway to becoming a professional footballer, so everything was purely fueled by the love of the game. It was a surprise for me that I got offered a professional contract because I didn’t really know it was possible to do that as a career, so I’ve been very fortunate to then not have to work alongside it at any point. People I’ve played with who are slightly older than me [like Houghton and Stokes] had to have part-time jobs alongside and it was a struggle for them to balance both.
Since bursting onto the scene in 2018, the 24-year-old winger has been a clear and ever-present danger to opposition defences. Now a senior member of the Manchester City Women’s and Lionesses teams, for GQ Extra Time she talks about her future goals; to win every trophy on offer – and hone her IKEA assembling skills Read More
