At the age of five, Hannah Hampton and her family relocated to Villarreal in the Castellon province of eastern Spain, where they spent six years before returning to England just before her 11th birthday. Both moves left behind a sense of familiarity, but not her affinity for the game.

Now aged 22, Hampton becomes the latest of our summer signings to sit down in the comfort of Cobham to talk about her journey from playground football in Spain, to forging a career back home at both domestic and international level.

Opportunity presented itself to Hampton at an early age and her first steps into football were with Villarreal. She describes how the opportunity of a trial with the club came about, ultimately laying the foundations for the player she would become.

‘In Spain, it was quite normal for boys and girls to play football on the playground. The school that I went to was the main one in Villarreal so all the men’s players sent their kids there.

‘They would come and pick their kids up at the end of the day and one of the players saw me. They said I should trial for the club, and so I went to trial and that was it!'

Feeling at home between the sticks did not come naturally for Hannah in the first instance. Instead, spells in attacking areas preceded her evolution into the goalkeeping position, with versatility proving an effective element of her game.

‘I was right-wing, striker and number 10! Anywhere that involved running because I loved it. My first game in goal came aged 12, but I went in goal properly at 14. When I was at Stoke, the goalkeeper got injured so I volunteered to go in goal. The one game I played an England scout came, so I got scouted for England.

‘A week later, I was outfield and they scouted me outfield so I had to pick! I went to my first England camp when I was 12, playing in goal for a bit and then outfield for a bit. At my club I would play outfield and for England I’d play in goal. When I was 14, I went full goalkeeper!'

Spells with Stoke, Birmingham and Aston Villa - from whom she joined the Blues this summer - paired with first and second place with England at the European Championship and World Cup, respectively, followed. Hampton doesn’t hesitate when asked about her biggest supporters during her career to date.

‘My family. My parents driving me up and down Spain and England. My biggest inspiration is definitely my brother. We both played football and hockey. My parents said you need to do different sports because you’re both competitive and you’ll compete against each other! Ben picked hockey (he was better than me to be fair!) and I picked football.

'Ben got up to England hockey and I saw how proud that made my parents, so I wanted to do that with football. When I was getting to England, he gave up time where instead of going to hockey he would help train and coach me, so definitely him.'