The North East footballers representing England at the Euros
The UEFA Women's European Championships 2022 is taking place in England, for the first time in 17 years.
England last hosted the Euros back in 2005, but defeats to Denmark and Sweden saw the home nation knocked out in the group stages.
This time around, the Lionesses are tipped as one of the favourites and have set their sights on securing their first piece of silverware in their history.
Helping them on their way is a host of players with links to the North East and North Yorkshire.
Jill Scott - Sunderland
Jill Scott is one of the select few Lionesses to have surpassed 150 caps, which she achieved in February 2021.
The Sunderland-born star, who has appeared at in nine major tournaments with England, won her 100th cap against Australia in 2015 before clocking up another 50 over the following six seasons.
Like many of her England team-mates, Scott has won every domestic honour with Manchester City and scored in the Citizens’ SSE Women’s FA Cup Final victory over Birmingham City in 2017.
Scott spent the second half of the 2021-22 season on loan at Aston Villa and is set to leave Manchester City this summer at the end of her contract.
The influential midfielder steps up to the plate whenever her country needs her most, and will do the same during the Euro 2022 campaign.
Lucy Bronze - Berwick
Arguably one of the best right-backs in women's football, Lucy Bronze from Berwick, has been one of her country’s most consistent performers since making her senior team debut in June 2013.
Bronze's phenomenal ability has seen her play in almost every outfield position, but it is in the backline as an attacking full-back where she really excels.
During her early days with the Lionesses, Bronze was fellow North Easterner Steph Houghton’s centre back partner.
After winning every domestic honour in England during her spells with Sunderland, Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City, Bronze joined Lyon in 2017 and helped the French giants win the Champions League and domestic title in all three of her seasons in France.
Bronze has claimed a number of titles for her skill including 2018/19 UEFA Women's Player of the Year and The Best FIFA Women's Player for 2020.
Despite recent injury, Lucy Bronze has re-established herself in the squad ahead of Euro 2022.
Demi Stokes - South Shields
Often cited by teammates as the strongest member of the squad, Demi Stokes has finally muscled her way into a World Cup squad for the first time.
Born in the Midlands but raised in South Shields, Stokes joined Sunderland aged 16 and was a key member of the Black Cats squad that reached the Women’s FA Cup Final in 2009 – the same year she helped England win the U19 Euros in Belarus.
She is one of eight players in the current squad to have earned at least 50 caps.
Stokes was part of the Euro 2017 squad where the Lionesses reached the semi-finals and will be hoping to build on that, this time around.
Rachel Daly - Harrogate
Rachel Daly grew up in Harrogate but took her football to the next level across the pond playing for Houston Dash. She was named most valuable player for 2018, which gained Daly recognition by the then national boss, Phil Neville.
She was selected as part of the squad for the SheBelieves Cup that year.
The Harrogate native continued to thrive under Neville’s tutelage and was named in a squad for a major tournament for the first time as she featured at the 2019 World Cup in France.
Daly has since become an established member of the England squad, able to operate effectively as a full-back, a wing back or even in the frontline.
Daly was also included in Great Britain's squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, featuring in all of the matches. A year on from the delayed games, Daly is hoping to help the Lionesses to victory.
Beth Mead - Whitby
Whitby's Beth Mead introduced herself to the rest of the world with two superbly-taken goals at England’s triumphant SheBelieves Cup campaign of 2019.
Mead, who scored 77 goals in 78 games for former club Sunderland, has been a revelation since being moved out wide at Arsenal.
Mead was prolific for England’s development squads and quickly found her feet at senior level.
The disappointment of being left out of Great Britain's squad for Tokyo 2020 and the arrival of Sarina Wiegman as England's head coach seems to have contributed to Mead's performances reaching a new level during the 2021-22 campaign.
She'll be hoping to bring some of that renewed drive to the Euros.
England head into the tournament as one of the favourites and hunting what would be a first piece of major silverware in their history.
The Lionesses have twice been Euros runners-up, in 1984 and 2009, while their best World Cup finish was third in Canada in 2015.
That was the first in a sequence of successive runs to semi-finals at their last three major tournaments - at both Euro 2017 and the 2019 World Cup in France they lost in the last four to the teams that went on to lift the trophy, the Netherlands and the United States respectively.
England's captain in each of those three campaigns, Sunderland born Steph Houghton, has missed out on selection this time after Achilles surgery; Arsenal's Leah Williamson was confirmed as skipper for this tournament in April.