Alisha Lehmann says she has “never felt so close to team-mates” as she does at Aston Villa Women and reveals her anticipation for next summer’s World Cup.
It has been a stellar start to the season from Aston Villa. The unity Lehmann describes off the pitch has certainly translated onto it, with Carla Ward’s side the surprise package of the season.
They began the season with a thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester City and have not looked back. Villa are fifth in the table with 12 points and just nine away from their entire tally from last season.
“Our start at Aston Villa has been amazing,” Alisha Lehmann exclusively said at an event hosted by adidas ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday
“It’s so different this season, I don’t know what happened. We are so close with each other, it’s so friendly and we want to play for each other, we want to play for our coach Carla and we are so happy.
“Every day when we go into training, we’re smiling, joking around. I never felt so close to team-mates and so welcomed in a team like Aston Villa now.
“I always thought we could do it because we have amazing individual players. We just do it together and we play for each other.
“If someone loses the ball, the next player goes for the tackle and it shows that we want each other to be successful and this doesn’t always happen. In some teams, not everyone always wants to see you have success, but at Aston Villa, everyone would fight for everyone.”
There’s always a “best of the rest” in the WSL – Tottenham last season, Everton the campaign before. Aston Villa are currently occupying that description, and Lehmann believes the team is able to reach its full potential.
Alisha Lehmann explained: “We want to end the season in top five, that’s our aim and I think we can do even more because I see the full potential of the team.
“We just need to perform and maybe score a bit more – that’s a bit of our problem, being more efficient in the box, but I see a bright future for us. Everyone’s dream to play in the Champions League and anything can happen.”
Alisha Lehmann spoke exclusively to Sky Sports at adidas’ Family Reunion event in London, bringing together influencers, footballers and friends to watch England’s goalless draw with the USA on Friday and celebrate adidas’ 70s-inspired campaign during the 2022 World Cup.
The Villa forward Alisha Lehmann has a substantial presence on social media herself, with 9.7m Instagram followers and 6.4m followers on TikTok, allowing her to connect with fans.
“It’s the best thing that I can influence people of social media,” Alisha Lehmann explained. “You can show them the good things, like hard work and what you need to do [to make it as a footballer], but I think there are two sides.
“There are also bad things because everyone always believes everything that happens on social media and for me, it’s not real life. That also makes it a bit difficult.”