“A clear sign”
Former European champion resigns from national team
October 13, 2025 – 7:22 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The foregoing of the European Championships was a first sign. Now Millie Bright is finally retiring from the national team.
Millie Bright has announced her retirement from the England national team. The central defender decided not to play at the European Championships in Switzerland in the summer. Now, after a total of 88 appearances for the “Lionesses,” Bright is finally drawing a line under her international career, as she announced on Monday.
The time with the “Lionesses” had “exceeded her wildest dreams,” said the Chelsea FC player. She wished “it could last forever. However, in football, all good things must come to an end. That’s why I have decided to retire from international football.”
Bright beat Germany with England in the European Championship final in 2022 (2-1) and a year later led the team to the final as captain at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. At the European Championships in Switzerland in the summer, the “Lionesses” successfully defended their title – without Bright, who then explained that it was “by far the best decision I have ever made”.
In the previous season she had appeared in 36 competitive games for Chelsea and had made a decisive contribution to the national treble. Afterwards she realized that she had “understood for the first time in a long time” where she was mentally. “I couldn’t even think about the European Championships,” she explained. “That was a clear sign that I had to slow down a little and just breathe.”
Because: “In the end I had nothing left to give, I was unhappy. I’m loud, lively, energetic and spontaneous. I felt like I had lost that and I had really lost myself,” said Bright, who began therapy sessions in the summer.
The 32-year-old has set clear priorities for the future. She now wants to devote herself entirely to club football and concentrate fully on Chelsea FC. There is no better time to “make room for the national team and let the next generation come through. I know they will achieve even greater things in the years to come and I will be their biggest fan.”