Lauren James' Lionesses journey from World Cup breakthrough to Euro 2025 gamechanger

Lauren James made plenty of headlines during what was a breakthrough tournament at the 2023 Women’s World Cup and it is hoped she will be sprinkling her stardust onto the Lionesses’ Euros title defence.

The shy and unassuming forward doesn't court attention, but attention has had no trouble seeking her out, thanks to her spectacular performances.

Her timing in coming back from a hamstring injury that prematurely finished her domestic season at Chelsea couldn’t have been better as, when the 23-year-old is fit and firing, there are few players as naturally gifted.

That frightening talent and ability makes James a player capable of leading England for a generation, and here is how we have got to this point…

Early life

James isn’t the only professional footballer in her family and growing up with brother Reece, who also plays for Chelsea and England, alongside her other brother Josh, has helped her get where she is today according to her father, Nigel.

Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: "The impact that had was unreal.

"If Lauren didn't have that upbringing around elite-end boys, without realising it, she wouldn't be where she is today.

"She is an exceptional technician on the ball; the way she touches the ball is amazing. But that is what made her the player she is today."

Nigel, who runs his own coaching academy aimed at five to 18-year-olds, was able to provide his children with equipment and coaching growing up.

"They played every day. If they weren't playing with friends after school, they were playing with each other," he added.

"There are not many families that had the contact time they had; they had a field and all the equipment they needed.

"They had poles, goals, and football after football because I was a coach."

Gunning for glory

It didn’t take long for James to become noticed by professional clubs, with the forward training with Chelsea as early as six years old before Arsenal snapped up her signature aged 13.

Even at a young age, James’ talents saw her train well above her own age group.

While speaking on the Beautiful Game Podcast, Nigel said: "She was too good to train with the Arsenal girls when she first went there so Arsenal tried something.

"Pedro [Martínez Losa], who was the coach at the time, brought her in to train with the women.

"It was all good hearing it, but your 14-year-old daughter is now training with women who are 35, 28 – they were grown women.

"When you are on the pitch it is football, but off the pitch they had nothing in common. What people would see is this little girl.

"Some could take it and put their arm around her. Some couldn’t take it and said, 'You shouldn’t be here. You should be at school.'"

While at Arsenal, James trained in the boys' academy to accommodate her abilities.

She recalls when speaking to the Independent: "It wasn’t for quite a few years that I even began training properly with girls.

"It was harder playing against boys. At first, they would look at you like, 'Why is there a girl training with us?'

"But after a couple of weeks, they realised what I could do. I’ve always been confident playing with people older than me.

"When you’ve been doing it all your life, you don’t really think about being young. Maybe that’s just the person I am."

Even before her time at Arsenal, James was used to playing alongside boys, featuring alongside brother Reece, Atletico Madrid and England midfielder Conor Gallagher and Jacob Maddox, now of Yeovil Town, for a local team run by her father.

Moving to the North West

Having made her first team debut for Arsenal in 2017 aged just 16 against Everton, and in doing so, becoming the club’s second-youngest player to make their debut, James moved to Manchester United in 2018.

She was part of a squad that was built from scratch that summer and was managed by former England international Casey Stoney.

James admitted such a move at such a young age was a big change but having Reece around – he was on loan at Wigan Athletic at the time – helped with the transition to life in the North West and not having her father there to offer support and guidance.

Speaking in 2019, she said: "My dad always put us in the best position but now I think we’re at an age where we know if we’ve played well or not, whereas before maybe we needed to be told.

"In general, I’m a very laid-back person off the pitch. There’s not much you can do when you’re switching off from football."

It was that laid-back persona which caused people to initially question James’ desire.

Writing in The Times, Stoney, the former Arsenal and Chelsea defender, said of James: "She has a laid-back personality, but it went against her in her early years.

"People wondered: 'Does she want it enough? Is she going to work hard enough?'"

James answered the question regarding her desire emphatically as she scored 14 goals in 18 games as Manchester United romped to the Women's Championship title in 2019 in only their first year of existence, with future Lionesses colleagues Katie Zelem and Ella Toone also banging in the goals.

Stoney admitted that helping James with her emotional development was just as important as helping her technically.

She said: "I learned so much about the brain and how the frontal lobe develops, which is responsible for things like your emotions, problem solving and social interaction.

"It was about how psychologically we could support her and how we could push her.

"At the same time, I needed to be her constant, because she was away from home."

Following three seasons in Manchester, James returned to London to join Emma Hayes ' Chelsea in 2021, but Nigel was thankful his daughter had the opportunity to grow both as a player and as a person.

He said: "It was perfect for her to develop, in a league that was a great starting point and with a manager who looked after her as if she was her own.

"Her brother was only 20 minutes away, too.

"There were some fun times there, and some challenges; she had to learn to find her feet as a growing woman."

Return to the capital and international debut

In a testament to James’ capabilities, Chelsea agreed a deal with Manchester United worth up to £200,000, a then record fee between two Women’s Super League clubs.

Since being at Chelsea, James has won four consecutive WSL titles, three Women’s FA Cups and one Women’s League Cup, as part of a domestic treble for the Blues in the 2024/25 campaign.

She also won the 2022/23 Young Player of the Year award after scoring eight goals in 33 appearances across all competitions in a campaign that brought further honours.

Having represented England at Under-17s and Under-19s level, James made her senior England debut in September 2022 as a substitute in a 2023 Women’s World Cup qualifier against Austria.

Her first international goal followed five months later against South Korea at the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup.

But it was in the World Cup itself that summer – with England’s matches in Australia – that James brought herself to everybody’s attention, one way or another.

A pair of talismanic performances against Denmark and China in the group stages came before a moment of madness against Nigeria in the last-16 led to her being sent off for stamping on Michelle Alozie.

Comparisons were immediately made with David Beckham's petulant kick at Diego Simeone in 1998 and Wayne Rooney's stamp on Ricardo Carvalho in 2006; players of great talent who had previously seen red in more ways than one.

James missed the quarter-final and semi-final victories over Colombia and co-hosts Australia respectively through suspension as a result before being used off the bench in the Lionesses 1-0 defeat against Spain in the final.

Talent management

It was not a case of simply unleashing James’ prodigious talent on the top-flight, with Hayes, who now coaches the United States, cautiously managing her development and progress with Chelsea.

She said: "Her talent is clear, but most importantly we must keep doing the right things.

"If we all want her growth to continue in the direction it’s going - trust me, I’ve coached footballers for such a long time – you have to keep nailing the things around them, the habits.

"She’s still a young player and we’re still nailing those habits.

"I urge everybody to be calm with her. It’s important for us to nurture her in the way we do, but also without massive pressures and expectations, which I know is hard to avoid."

James earned her 28th cap in England’s final warm-up against Jamaica in what was her first action for nearly three months following that hamstring injury, and it did not take her long to get back into the swing of things.

It was her perfect cross that allowed Alessia Russo to head in the Lionesses’ fifth goal of a 7-0 win and was a glimpse of the magic their head coach Sarina Wiegman will want to see from her in Switzerland.

Wiegman said: "She's worked so hard to be here where she is now. At Chelsea first, but then the last two weeks in training camps, she could do every single training session and did very well.

"Now, this is the first time she could get minutes and we hope next week we can keep building her going into France.

"LJ has played a lot up front, she can also play on the sides. She can also play as a 10. That's what I wanted to see today in that 10 position and see how that works. I think it went really well."