With the turn of the year fast approaching, we’re taking a look back at 2022 and reviewing another fantastic year of progress for England’s national teams and the St. George’s Park facility.
What better place to start than with the victorious Lionesses, who put in an incredible performance at UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 to become champions following a 2-1 victory over Germany in the final on 31 July.
Sarina Wiegman, the staff and the players all received a heroes’ welcome when returning to their training base at St. George’s Park for their first camp following that incredible evening at Wembley, with SGP staff forming a fully-deserved guard of honour.
Elsewhere, there were more reasons to celebrate within the England set-up this year as the men’s under-19 side became UEFA U19 EURO champions for 2022, following their extra-time victory over Israel in the Final in Trnava, Slovakia, on 1 July.
The whole country was hoping to celebrate further success when Gareth Southgate and his England men’s senior squad travelled over to Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and their departure from St. George’s Park was certainly the perfect place to start. Prior to departing, SGP hosted a special Nike FC event and all 26 players were presented with their tournament squad numbers by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. However, despite a valiant effort that produced plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the future, the Three Lions’ World Cup journey came to an end following the team’s quarter-final defeat to France on 10 December.
Meanwhile, England’s Para teams had plenty of reasons to smile during 2022. One year on from the launch of The FA’s strategy for disability sport, Football Your Way, the newly-formed first female England blind team held their first-ever training camp at St. George’s Park, utilising the world-class facilities on site and the Tony Larkin Pitch – a bespoke pitch for blind football and one of only two in existence in the UK. England men’s blind team, meanwhile, secured an impressive third place at the IBSA EUROs, bouncing back from their semi-final heartbreak to beat Germany on penalties.
Back to the Staffordshire facility, St. George’s Park was proud to host an event celebrating the site’s 10-year anniversary in October. The home of England Football welcomed The Prince of Wales, President of The FA, to the celebration, who observed training sessions involving the England men’s senior deaf team and the England men’s Powerchair development squad, before going on to meet girls and boys from community clubs and the England representatives at this year’s Street Child World Cup. The activities were across some of the venue’s 13 outdoor pitches, full-size indoor 3-G pitch and indoor Futsal arena. A truly memorable day and the perfect celebration of a monumental ten years.
All together throughout 2022, St. George’s Park hosted 86 England team camps, 10 teams for pre-season training including Benfica, Hertha Berlin and Marseille, while also offering use of the world-class facilities to other sports teams including England Cricket, St Helens Rugby League and Red Roses Rugby Union.
Source: The Football Association