"The Beautiful Game"
The English women's football team, the Lionesses, won Euro 2022 and the men of the world lost their minds.
The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship is the largest Association Football tournament outside of the World Cup.
It was arguably the greatest footballer of all time, the Brazilian, Pelé, who coined the phrase the beautiful game, first becoming synonymous with the round ball when he titled his 1977 autobiography, My Life and the Beautiful Game.
From that point on, the beautiful game has provided moments of magic, triumph, tragedy, unruly behaviour, disaster, and unbridled passion. However, I very much doubt that Pelé in coining the phrase was referring to a player's individual attractiveness.
Now don't get me wrong, I notice attractiveness in all forms, including intelligence. But again, I doubt Pelé was commenting on the intelligence of players.
The Lionesses won Euro 2022 in their own country at the same time as the Commonwealth Games. In the final they played Germany, a team that English sides have struggled against in semi-finals and finals for generations.
The English football team, male or female, had not won a major final since the 1966 World Cup when a Geoffrey Hurst hat trick, including a much-debated goal line controversy, overcame West Germany in extra time.
So, it was fitting that the Lionesses headed once again to Wembley Stadium to meet Germany in the final of the Euro Women's Championship.
A late goal scored by substitute Chloe Kelly, fittingly in extra time, secured the title for the Lionesses at the 13th edition of the tournament in front of 87,192 fans. Trigger celebrations and unbridled joy.
In a premonition of sorts, Kelly had told her family that she was going to deliver a "Zamora moment". Her footballing idol, Bobby Zamora, had scored a match-winning goal for Queens Park Rangers (QPR) in the 90th minute to gain promotion to the Premier League after a playoff against Derby County in 2014 at...Wembley Stadium in front of a remarkably similar total of 87,348 fans.
Once the goal was confirmed, Kelly removed her shirt and took off around the pitch as the crowd, and her teammates, descended into chaotic scenes. It was a combination of relief and joy and a release of pressure that made the moment even more exhilarating.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for the men of the world to find a suggestive angle.
"Am I allowed to take my shirt off? I'm taking my shirt off and going crazy because a male footballer would be doing exactly the same. As women, why can't we?" Chloe Kelly told the world.
She was right. From Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo marking wonder goals to superstars much closer to home, John Aloisi and Mark Schwarzer after qualification for the 2006 World Cup, shirts off has been seen as a classic celebration for...men but not so much for women.
We know this because Kelly wasn't the first to expose her sports bra nor the first to have her motive questioned and her image objectified in equal measure.
At the 1999 Football World Cup, US player Brandi Chastain removed her playing shirt after scoring the winning penalty in the final. There were 90,000 spectators at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and Chastain had taken the shot with her opposite foot to fox China's goalkeeper.
"I had never taken a penalty kick with my left foot ever before in a competitive match, let alone a World Cup," she incredibly admitted.
And as in 1999, the men of the world lost their minds again in 2022 over the removal of a playing strip that ensured that Kelly was issued a yellow card caution due to perceived unsporting behaviour.
The only difference this time, the advent of social media. The socials blew up with crass and sexist comments thinly disguised as appreciation of attractiveness or a play on words. It demonstrated a level of casual sexism, focussing more on a player's appearance and physical characteristics than the goal, which, for a football mad country, the perennial underachievers, brought them their first major trophy in more than 50 years.
Now, of course, there will be plenty who say we admire Cristiano Ronaldo's physique, looks, and commitment to an extreme level of fitness. However, the focus quickly shifts to his football brilliance and the quality of his goals.
Chloe Kelly made a statement, but it was not, "take a look at my Nike sports bra".
Rather, it was her moment, her time to shine on the world stage after suffering a knee injury requiring reconstruction just 12 months earlier. Kelly was emulating her footballing hero, Bobby Zamora, who scored the winner and ensured QPR's promotion to one of the greatest leagues in the world.
Alas, the final words should be left to Brandi Chastain, who said this of Kelly's celebration:
"To see her celebrate like that put a very big smile on my face. It immediately made me think of how that moment will live on forever for the people who have witnessed it, what it will do for generations of young people - not just girls - and what it will do for the cultural construct of where football stands for boys and girls forever. It will make change immediately, which is phenomenal."