“This will be a forever thing,” says Millie Bright. “It’s one of the things that gives me purpose. It gives me life outside of football and will give me life after football.”
The Chelsea centre-back is talking about the impact that giving back to society, to fans or to a single individual has on her. She is hugely passionate about it, displaying fresh energy when she discusses her off-pitch work, including Chelsea’s new The Magic of Blue campaignaimed at highlighting the issue of winter loneliness. The campaign will host collection points for the donation of gifts and warm items at men’s and women’s matches, including at Stamford Bridge next Thursday for the Women’s Champions League game against Barcelona.
Bright’s increased understanding of and care for her own mental health have helped fuel that energy. She announced she would be making herself unavailable for England at last summer’s Euros because she felt “unable to give 100% mentally or physically” and she subsequently underwent minor knee surgery before retiring from international football last month.
“Just having that time allows you to develop a clearer mindset and clearer outcomes around who you are and what you want to be and do,” she says. “Everything was there before that break but it was just all a little bit jumbled, and taking that time and hitting the reset button on yourself allows you to align things a little bit clearer. I recommend that for anyone. It was the best break I’ve ever taken and now I feel clearer than ever and am ticking the boxes of what I want to achieve.”
Bright is a trustee and ambassador of the Chelsea Foundation, working on several projects, including one to support those with special educational needs, a cause close to her because her nephews have autism and ADHD. She is a YoungMinds ambassador too and a Football Foundation supporter.
“Nothing’s a tick-box,” she says. “As players, we sometimes forget the power that we have and the good that we can do and can spread. You’re just so in the football world, it’s just play, play, play, play, game, game, game and you can forget the impact that we can have on people around us.
“I don’t ever want to live the high life of a footballer – I’ve avoided it at all costs – but I’m also in a very privileged position: I play for one of the biggest clubs in the world and I’m very grateful for that. Stuff like this I don’t see as an ask or as something I’ve got to do or need to do. I want to do it.”
Why loneliness? According to a Greater London Authority report into reconceptualising loneliness, 700,000 people living in the capital said before the pandemic that they were “often or always lonely”. A 2024 Kings College study found that 15% of over-65s and 9% of people aged 21 to 34 spend Christmas alone.
“Loneliness can exist in lots of different ways,” says Bright. “At this time of year it’s especially important to find ways to support those around you and those outside your circle. Everyone thinks of all the adverts at Christmas, which are mostly families together in a nice warm home, waking up together and giving gifts. That can be hard to watch for many people. For some, it’s not that. It’s sleeping on the streets, it’s wet, it’s cold, it’s miserable, it’s no one around you, it’s waking up to the same thing every single day feeling like no one cares and wondering how can you feel lonely in a world of billions and billions of people.”
Bright knows the impact of connections. “It’s part of the beauty of playing team sport. I could build a connection with a teammate just for the duration of a few games or a season and I might never see them again; they might move to a different country or to a different team and that’ll be it. But I’ll run through absolutely anything for them and I’ll put my body on the line for that whole duration of our time together. Ultimately, you don’t have to be related or best friends or have a deep connection with someone to give or find a way to make their life better.”
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Warming to her theme, Bright says: “You don’t have to know the person 20 doors down from you to make a difference or just to say ‘Hello’ or ‘How are you?’ If you can make someone’s life better, I always think, why would you not? Jill Scott always used to say: ‘If you could choose to be positive and encouraging and potentially get another 2% out of that player, why would you choose any other option?’”
Chelsea play at Liverpool on Sunday before facing Barcelona, who beat them 8-2 on aggregate in the Champions League semi-finals last season. “There’s always unfinished business in football,” Bright says. “Everyone shies away from saying it, but there is, and as players we’re super-competitive.”
The Champions League is Chelsea’s white whale. “We all know there’s one thing missing for us,” says Bright, who feels the team are “ready to compete”. Beating Barcelona would be a much-needed step, Chelsea having lost to them in the 2021 final and the past three semi-finals, a 1-0 away win in 2024 cancelled out by a 2-0 home defeat. Bright expects “a feisty game” and hopes for a strong attendance.
“If it’s a tense game, you put in a tackle and the crowd cheers for you, they give you a boost of adrenaline, an injection of energy,” she says. “Even if you’re tired, you’re like: ‘No I’m not, I go again.’ They can literally be the difference.”
