Alisha Lehmann Exclusive Interview

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0:59Hello, everyone. Welcome to Daily Brighteners. We have a very special guest again. Seems though you all love Ellie. We thought we would bring on the one and only Alicia Lehman. Woo! Bestie round of applause. Snaps for Alicia. Oh, what's everyone doing at minute? This little one, they do this on Love Island, don't they? Oh, do you know what? Baby snaps. Call it on Love Island. Charge it. Charge it. Stop saying it That should have been my block and delete It's giving It's giving go the fuck away I'm sick of it I can't stand that I'm with Leigh's like charge it Charge it to what the bill I don't know what it means I don't understand it But Whitney keeps saying it and she's like charge it And I'm like charge what Who are you charging and don't shut up It doesn't make sense They say charge it to the game and then it's like What's the game Yeah, but also when it's in another context, I'm like, what game?

1:58Anyway. Anyway, that's my actual, that's my block and delete chart. Stop saying that. It's annoying. Oh, it's giving. It's giving annoying. That's what it's giving. Anyway, Alicia, welcome to our podcast. Are you excited? Really excited, actually. I was thinking, we spoke last week and I was really excited to come on. I think it's nice to have you here in person because we've been away from you for so long. so maybe we could start there and talk about your time in italy how different is life in italy compared to well you've been in london you've been in birmingham now you're in leicester the girl has traveled she's a well-traveled girl so yeah do you want to talk a little bit about how different your time in italy was yeah so obviously the life is completely different because you have good food well yeah everybody says this i'm starting to think there's something wrong with england no i also like english food so don't worry um but um yeah it's good food like the life is amazing because most days it's sunny you know it's not really cold only in winter sometimes but um yeah but the football is also really different um i prefer it here because yeah it's just more intense more physical and stuff so yeah you need to get used to it when you when you change teams and change country i think i think one thing that everyone would well I would like to know anyway is in terms of like you traveling with your football um like what what makes your decision on like where you go and is it just that you want to explore want to play in different countries like different leagues like what is your like thought process when it comes to that yeah I think when I when I left England it was like I was thinking because I lived here like six years yeah I want to see something new you know and obviously Turin was like three hours drive from my home in Switzerland yeah so it was literally like I'm closer to home you see like a different culture you learn you meet new people and I think that's what I wanted but then when I was there I kind of missed England so much because obviously I made a lot of friends in the six years yeah I always traveled like I know the whole country here and I kind of like when I was here when I was 19 and then I yeah just missed it I missed the football I missed playing in big stadiums like with all the fans the humor exactly because when I make talks in italy in english no one got it and then i was like no yeah you're like the joke's gonna charge it charge it exactly so now i'm really happy to be back like so happy actually well we're all that's now and you're settling in your new place it well we both just spoke at the same time now england far too long she can't hear two yorks accents at the same yeah i need to uh learn the accents again yeah so obviously moved to Leicester back with Bestie she sat listening to the she's literally sat opposite us is she oh Bestie Bestie come on get your head in shot it's like a little family reunion I know seriously yeah how are you finding it at Leicester no I love it I think it's so nice first of all like I said before to be back in England and then um I think we spoke in December me and Sarah and we both knew kind of that we would go to Leicester and I don't know it was so surprising that we both we played together again and um i think every day we yeah i i love i love that she stayed there because then i know one person really well we had a great time in villa as well so yeah i'm really happy for those of you that don't know sarah and alicia are like when i moved to villa i was like these two are inseparable like you didn't see leash without sarah you didn't see sarah that leash two peas in a pod yeah literally like touch tight besties a bit like me and you so yeah like for a year we probably stayed every day together like she always stayed in my house or i stayed in her house and we did everything together oh it's nice that you're back together then that's really nice it's nice for me i think as well like knowing that sarah can go there and like obviously she's not the most sociable person at first is she bless her but um how to have someone that she'd like love so much there on a basis but um yeah it's not about me or sarah it's about alicia so let's just carry on yeah but it's also like with sarah for example with sarah it's also that we play again together because you had also great moments on the pitch when we when you play that villa so to play together again and have this kind of connection still is like is amazing yeah it is special what would you say your biggest learnings are before we get to like off pitch stuff what would you say your biggest learnings are in football like that you've experienced or like your biggest challenges or i think um obviously every time you move team you meet new people i mean you need to get used to to the structures of the club like every club is so different so it's like to get used to it new start you meet new people you can't be really shy you need to you know yeah so i learned a lot also like in italy because everyone is so different than for example here and i only knew you kind of from here and switzerland but in switzerland i was really young so it's kind of um yeah it was different and i remember when i joined juve the coach was like the first the first months he speaks english and after he's on italian so for the next three months i didn't understand the word and um yeah so it was so different you know yeah but you get used to it after a time and i kind of like it because you always learn from people when you play with amazing player like in juve we had we had the christiana ciarelli and she's a really great player.

7:16But the person, she's 10 times better. She's an amazing person. She helped me so much and it just makes it easier when you meet people like them. I think that's important and I think that moves us on quite nicely to you off the pitch. I think you are one of the best people I've ever met. I got on with you from the minute I met you at West Ham. But I think for me, you're largely misunderstood by a lot of people. and I'm here to put this right because literally yeah do you feel that Alicia do you feel that yourself like obviously I think we we can sit there and say it because we like we know you and we've seen you like behind the scenes but do you feel that as an individual that you're like misunderstood do you feel that you have to keep proving yourself or you're just like I'm over it now no I feel it so much like I think every everything I do I need to work 10 times harder because every time I meet people or I go into a group they always think like I'm so different you know and for me it's like I'm a like person people person you know yeah and I love everyone like I never had the problem with anybody I played with or in the life you know I always get on with everyone and I think people always charge out of social media and sometimes it's like hard because yeah I think I also think different you know and yeah but I think that also comes with like a massive credit to you because you have built arguably if well i think so the most successful brand in women's football away from the pitch and you know it's one thing being an incredible footballer like you are but i think to have the business mindset that you've got and to make your platform your brand whatever it's amazing like what follower how many followers do you have no on social media like instagram like 50 something million insane and that's like you've built and to not be afraid to do it as well exactly and and to be judged as well and to have all those negative comments or whatever to you like i think that is the most remarkable thing to be able to do that and it's all on your own like you you're like self-made and yeah that's something that maybe people are jealous of because of course i think people that always come with negative negative is always from a jealousy perspective because at the end of the day if you can be successful and build yourself up why the hell would you not we should do a little just for Alicia yeah but you know what the funniest thing is like I think now people are so much nicer to me than how they were when I just built there because when I was posting before when I was like 20 21 22 everyone was touching me everyone was like you know football player you only post on social media and stuff and everyone's judging me so much oh yeah god forbid you do anything else as a footballer like you're not allowed to have a life you're not allowed to do anything exactly and now these people that judge me then now ask me about how to build a company how you do that you know how you're and then i'm just like because now everyone does the same i just kind of like did it when i was younger because every normal person is the same but because obviously i was a football player it was it was wrong they think yeah but at the end like now every player woman men do the same you know so for me it's kind of funny when now people come to me and ask me about the stuff and then I'm like yeah but maybe five years ago you you sent me a text that it was wrong or I don't look like a football player that's always the case it's always the trolls that still want they want the signatures they still want your shirt but I do think that is I think people need to like open their eyes a little bit like especially in the women's game now like it is becoming a business and people are building their own brands and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you're still dedicated every single day to your training and to your team what does it matter what you do in your off days what does it matter what you do in your own time like what does it matter if you want to be successful away from football football is a short-term career it's not going to last forever like well Millie how how nice would that feel to be really successful away from the pitch that's something we talk about a lot exactly I don't think you should ever be like judged for it or targeted like i think it's so bad like it's so wrong but i also think that that comes with like intelligence like lee she's one of the smartest most smart people on earth like and people might not know that but she is so highly intelligent and i've seen sometimes and i'm just see people talking trying to think like you're so intelligent thank you

11:41that's your new celebration now every time it makes me emotional charge it yeah we'll be like your biggest hype women i'll sing your name from the rooftops honestly but i think that also again it's like how many languages can you speak so obviously i grew up with swiss then german french portuguese i learned obviously Italian now I understand the most but speak sometimes you know half up and English like insane and me and Ray just speak full on Yorkshire that's what we speak we barely speak English but you know after you know like two three languages it's like easier because everything is a bit correct yeah really easy yeah yeah that's why I still only speak one leash I remember French once since you sat in the room on Duolingo going Un-sha Un-sha I'm like forget it Just forget it You've got no chance I'm like bonjour Ray's like you can't speak You can't do it in a Yorkshire accent We don't have to learn really But that's also very ignorant But maybe with the accent you have to Yeah I need to learn English We need to learn to put the accent on Because my Duolingo Are not picking up my words at all I forget this dog Because it's just scratching at the door This is Alicia's first time Meeting Louis First time Ooh Well we've got to get this on On the pod so It's all part of it Louis So cute Look at him Nah he's so sweet You can stay with me Okay Yeah he can stay there Yeah Bless him So where Out of everywhere Now we're back sorry Out of everywhere That you've lived Where's been your favourite place to live Like not football Just live No to live is probably Yeah London not less than her I haven't been there long but maybe maybe you love Birmingham no I love Birmingham you know everyone's always like how can he like Birmingham so much but maybe it's also because I had my best friends here you know yeah I do think that makes a difference literally I think when you were there yeah because the most beautiful place I lived is Hansen Como it's so beautiful but like for young people it's also kind of boring you know yeah because there's nothing to do like in the summer obviously you can go on the boat you can go swimming you can do a lot of things but now in winter we need to get some pictures on the podcast for after of your views from your house yeah because wow yeah wow unbelievable i have a question in like building your brand what would you say has been the hardest part of doing it alongside football i mean you know people always think i i put so much time in it and stuff but i actually did it like on every you know that i i'm probably the person that sleeps the most like every day i nap i'm so jealous of this girl yeah i must admit we were very concerned on the wedding day when we were like is alicia up is she awake and when we were doing the hair and makeup i'm just texting her again oh she just said she's awake thank god you can sleep honestly yeah hours and everywhere it doesn't matter if it's light if it's loud i just fall asleep Literally, when we were going on a bus on a way trip, right?

14:52Instant. As soon as you get on, headphones in, out the whole journey. You have to be like, leave, we're here. Wherever we were going, the whole way, passed out. I loved it. What a dream. That's mad. That's mad. But yeah, just in terms of like feeling that like judgment and feeling people like getting the wrong kind of perception of you, like what, is there anything that you found really hard to like stay on track and to just keep doing what you're doing into like trusting yourself that you'll you'll get to where you want to get to yeah of course I had times like where I felt really bad or you know the thing is like it didn't really hurt myself it hurt more when like people were sending messages to my mom or newspapers were writing lies and my mom saw you know like this kind of hurt me but to myself I was always quite a strong person and I I really don't care what people think of me or she's got whatever thick skin this girl No, literally, because I always think, look, I have a great life.

15:46I built my stuff. I built my business. And for me, you know, like I just did something that maybe people want to do as well. And now they hate me because they can't. And I want that everyone do what they think is the best for them. Because I didn't do it at the start because I wanted to be famous or anything. I never dreamed of that. It was never a thing I was like, you know, praying every day for. It just happened. and um after obviously when i got like more followers and followers i got also more hate and then i had a time that was really sad i probably didn't go outside anymore i just slept all day and didn't do anything and it really hurt me a bit as well um but i'm someone that doesn't really show emotions so um no one knew you know i like to keep it to myself when i don't feel well so um yeah but now i'm also a bit older you know i learned a lot and yeah now i can And yeah, like balancing.

16:41When someone writes bad about me, I always think like, well. What are you doing with your life? Yeah. You know? I probably want to be you. Yeah, exactly. How did your mum find it? Alicia's mum is one of the funniest people I've ever met. She messes me on Instagram all the time. Like, you know, like the videos where I'm just like, you watch it, you think, you know what's going to happen? And then someone comes up at the end and she's like. Honestly, so shout out, shout out to your mum. And she always asked me about Rach, always. Even when I was in 18, I was like, how is Rach? How is she doing? We spoke again on Instagram.

17:15She loves you so much. That's so cute. She's so lovely. But you have a great family. But yeah, how did she find that initially, like when you became famous and like, I guess like really in the public eye, and you said she received some like shitty messages. Like how did she find it knowing that? Because I think mums find it harder when they see like bad messages about their kids. No, 100%. And my mum is also protective. but you know the thing is also like she doesn't she doesn't understand really well english first of all so it's more when the swiss newspaper wrote something or yeah yeah like that you know and obviously you made her so mad like sometimes on facebook or instagram she puts like these comments on like people and i was like mom you can't do that i feel like parents do do that though don't they like don't you dare speak to my daughter like that and she's like you don't know Why do you speak about her like that and stuff?

18:07And people sending me the screenshot. Then I was like, shit. Are your family happy that you're back in England? I feel like they love coming out. No, they're so happy because they were like, you know, finally you will be like really happy again. Be with your friends. And also like to watch, you know, it's so much nicer to watch a game in a big stadium with a lot of fans. In Italy, like the pitches we played on, it was crazy, really. Like the structure and stuff was really bad. Guys we are going to head for a little break Off to get a cup of tea We'll be back very soon

18:44Welcome back to the second part of Interrogate Alicia Lehman Excited for this half of the show Right favourite dish From each country that you've played in So go English dish first English first I would say a Sunday roast Yes I love it it's amazing she's Yorkshire that's why she's part Yorkshire she's part of it Yorkshire girl no I think it's great you can always eat that yeah Italy yeah my favourite food is like carbonara so did you see the way she said that oh in there carbonara I love carbonara carbonara I love carbonara it's very creamy yeah I love that that's a great show I've never been to Italy No way I swear Yeah We have to go I know I'm coming to visit you At Como In your Como house We'll charge it We'll charge

19:46Alright tell us one thing About Switzerland That nobody knows Like Or your favourite thing From home Nobody knows Oh In sync I know I know At least she's hometown Yeah is where toberones made shut up is it made burn yeah like my city yeah no but what were you because it's like oh no we can't think about this first yeah it's because you know on toberones it's like these mountains and it's like where a state you know I did not know that that is crazy me either at least you saw I bring me toberones back from Switzerland not had any in a way because like in the mountains yeah we love toberones yeah well you remember when I bought you the big one she bought me one once right I thought she was taking the piss I came into the ginger room she got this thing I'm not joking it was like length of my whole body and the chunks were like that by like that it was I couldn't get through it I had to get a knife to it and one piece was about 15 bars of Doverin bloody hell amazing what were you going to say about the Swiss you know 2025 I think so I'm not 100 % sure but I'm just saying it now the Swiss passport was voted for the most valuable one really yeah maybe that's because of bank accounts Swiss crazy we love it crazy yeah and switzerland is actually amazing you've got great cheese great chocolate i really want to go in like the log cabins over there yeah you get all the seasons yeah really nice winters in the snow and the summer is amazing it's like yeah 35 degrees and it's hot oh my god tell millie about your mom like your family home in switzerland yeah so we have like a farm you know with like horses yeah we have a lot of animals my mom has like is he fine yeah and then we have like horses then my mom found this little bird on the floor and he was hurt so she like you know made him well again and now like seven months later she has 60 birds what the hell what bird is it outside this is like cage for all the birds they have heat to have cameras in the wooden cage so she can watch them.

21:52I don't know. We need to get, we've got to get a picture. We need a picture of these on the podcast. Of course. Does she have the horses that pull the dogs or the dogs that pull the horses? No, they had the pony. So she has like this carriage, you know? Yeah. And then the pony like takes, like, you know, you can go for a walk. That's sick. And then she's like, we're going to have to take a trip out. No, you have to. You will love it there. Millie has horses because she grew up on a farm. Oh, I love it. That's like my freedom It's the one place on earth that nothing can touch me Literally It's so calm And you know I love animals because They're always happy to see you They don't chat back They don't judge They're very loyal They love you no matter what I'm an animal lover I knew we loved Alicia It's an instant fix Alright Leish before we get on to our Two little things that me and Rachel love to do what's one thing that nobody knows about you um we can come back to it yeah we'll come back have a thing and we'll come back to it but rage do you want to explain our little thing that we do i mean sarah just went she went to sarah i can't say sarah do you know anything about me she went i mean i know some secrets right so basically we like secrets on the pod we do basically leash we at the end of every podcast me and Millie do this thing so we both have a favorite thing Millie's got this thing called block and delete so it's I'll give you an example right so mine this week was I like to block and delete people who have their dogs on the lead when they should be off the lead yeah so you something that annoys you basically do you have anything right now that you can think like really annoys me yeah or even something that's happened this week no you know what really annoys me when i order something and they bring the parcel at 7 a.m and wake me up block and delete early deliveries yeah yeah i can't do it never thought that actually and then you have a day off and i'm just like no this yeah that's a good one you're like leave it at the front door yeah yeah yeah you need you need to get your parcel back yeah that's a really That's a good one, that.

24:03Block and delete early deliveries. We rate that. Yeah, please. Get that in the bin. And then the second thing we do is, which is my favorite, is gratitude. So we basically say one thing that we're grateful for this week. So have you got anything that you're grateful for this week? So this week I'm grateful for to be back with my besties. Yay! Yeah, that's cute. Yeah, and to be back in England again, you know, eat the roast and, yeah, just spend some time also in Birmingham. I missed it so much. we like that we like that a lot that's a good one we love our gratitude and also I'm really grateful for the English grass yeah you know it's different people don't understand but if you play in a different country you don't have this grass everywhere it's beautiful no we always say that when we go on tour whenever you go on tour in pre-season oh yeah and the pitches are like spongy spongy ankles are going all over Gaff yeah long grass as well yeah come on grateful for nice pitches yes yeah we've never we've not actually thought that one either we've been a bit we've been we've been looking past that so lish just going back to that question what is one thing that you don't think the public know about you or you would like them to know that they maybe don't know so i think that people always think obviously i'm open book and i share everything but i'm actually quite private um i also stay like at home the most times i don't really go outside or whatever I love to cook so yeah I share what I want to share but I also have a lot of things that I want to keep private Nice I like that and you have every right to keep some things private we love that Right Leash thank you so much that was really nice and hopefully that gives our listeners and fans you know a bit of an insight on you as a person more so than a footballer because that is number one but we really appreciate you coming on the pod we love having you yeah we hope you've enjoyed it and just a gentle reminder to everyone out there people have their own lives alongside being professional athletes and that is okay let's be supportive be kind be a fountain don't be a drain charge it charge that one to the game charge it to the game alright thank you everyone for listening I hope you enjoyed hearing about Alicia's amazing story and we'll see you next week see you next week guys bye and thank you for having me