\u201cThis will be a for ever thing,\u201d says Millie Bright. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the things that gives me purpose. It gives me life outside of football and will give me life after\u00a0football.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chelsea centre-back is talking about the impact that giving back to society, to fans or to a single individual has on her. She is hugely passionate about it, displaying fresh energy when she discusses her off-pitch work, including Chelsea\u2019s new The Magic of Blue campaign<\/a>, aimed at highlighting the issue of winter loneliness. The campaign will host collection points for the donation of gifts and warm items at men\u2019s and women\u2019s matches, including at Stamford Bridge next Thursday for the Women\u2019s Champions League game against Barcelona.<\/p>\n Bright\u2019s increased understanding of and care for her own mental health have helped fuel that energy. She announced she would be making herself unavailable for England<\/a> at last summer\u2019s Euros because she felt \u201cunable to give 100% mentally or physically\u201d and she subsequently underwent minor knee surgery<\/a> before retiring from international football<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n \u201cJust having that time allows you to develop a clearer mindset and clearer outcomes around who you are and what you want to be and do,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything was there before that break but it was just all a little bit jumbled, and taking that time and hitting the reset button on yourself allows you to align things a little bit clearer. I recommend that for anyone. It was the best break I\u2019ve ever taken and now I feel clearer than ever and am ticking the boxes of what I\u00a0want\u00a0to\u00a0achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Bright is a trustee of the Chelsea Foundation, working on several projects, including one to support those with special educational needs, a cause close to her because her nephews have autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She is a YoungMinds ambassador too and a Football Foundation supporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing\u2019s a tick-box,\u201d she says. \u201cAs players, we sometimes forget the power that we have and the good that we can do and can spread. You\u2019re just so in the football world, it\u2019s just play, play, play, play, game, game, game and you can forget the impact that we can have on people around us.<\/p>\n Millie Bright helps direct her Chelsea teammates against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Photograph: Andrew Couldridge\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t ever want to live the high life of a footballer \u2013 I\u2019ve avoided it at all costs \u2013 but I\u2019m also in a very privileged position: I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world and I\u2019m very grateful for that. Stuff like this I don\u2019t see as an ask or as something I\u2019ve got to do or need to do. I want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Why loneliness? According to a Greater London Authority report<\/a> into reconceptualising loneliness, 700,000 people living in the capital said before the pandemic that they were \u201coften or always lonely\u201d. A 2024 Kings College study<\/a> found that 15% of over-65s and 9% of people aged 21 to 34 spend Christmas alone.<\/p>\n \u201cLoneliness can exist in lots of different ways,\u201d says Bright. \u201cAt this time of year it\u2019s especially important to find ways to support those around you and those outside your circle. Everyone thinks of all the adverts at Christmas, which are mostly families together in a nice warm home, waking up together and giving gifts. That can be hard to watch for many people. For some, it\u2019s not that. It\u2019s sleeping on the streets, it\u2019s wet, it\u2019s cold, it\u2019s miserable, it\u2019s no one around you, it\u2019s waking up to the same thing every single day feeling like no one cares and wondering how can you feel lonely in a world of billions and billions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Bright knows the impact of connections. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the beauty of playing team sport. I could build a connection with a teammate just for the duration of a few games or a season and I might never see them again; they might move to a different country or to a different team and that\u2019ll be it. But I\u2019ll run through absolutely anything for them and I\u2019ll put my body on the line for that whole duration of our time together. Ultimately, you don\u2019t have to be related or best friends or have a deep connection with someone to give or find a way to make their life better.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Warming to her theme, Bright says: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to know the person 20 doors down from you to make a difference or just to say \u2018Hello\u2019 or \u2018How are you?\u2019 If you can make someone\u2019s life better, I always think: \u2018Why would you not?\u2019 Jill Scott always used to say: \u2018If you could choose to be positive and encouraging and potentially get another 2% out of that player, why would you choose any other\u00a0option?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Millie Bright (right) and her Chelsea teammates stand dejected after Barcelona\u2019s second goal in their Women\u2019s Champions League semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge in April. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n Chelsea play at Liverpool on Sunday before facing Barcelona, who beat them 8-2 on aggregate<\/a> in the Champions League semi\u2011finals last season. \u201cThere\u2019s always unfinished business in football,\u201d Bright says. \u201cEveryone shies away from saying it, but there is, and as players we\u2019re super-competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n The Champions League is Chelsea\u2019s white whale. \u201cWe all know there\u2019s one thing missing for us,\u201d says Bright, who feels the team are \u201cready to compete\u201d. Beating Barcelona would be a much-needed step on their long European journey, Chelsea having lost to them in the 2021 final<\/a> and the past three semi-finals, a 1-0 away win in 2024 cancelled out by a 2-0 home defeat. Bright expects \u201ca feisty game\u201d and hopes for a strong attendance.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s a tense game, you put in a tackle and the crowd cheers for you, they give you a boost of adrenaline, an injection of energy,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if you\u2019re tired, you\u2019re like: \u2018No I\u2019m not, I go again.\u2019 They can literally be the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis will be a for ever thing,\u201d says Millie Bright. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the things that gives me…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-379160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115550056790272300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}