Maya Le Tissier: "The camp are really excited now the first game is close"
The Manchester United and England defender discusses life at her first major tournament and the mood in the camp in the diary room
COUNTDOWN TO EURO 2025
I was speechless when I saw the base camp for the first time.
What's amazing about first tournaments is you never really know what to expect, and the hotel is incredible. The spa is amazing, which I'm very excited about! All of the Lionesses branding in our rooms is so good, too.
There's also a big England badge in the hotel with all of our grassroots clubs written inside it, which is really nice, and there's a picture of us lining up for the national anthem with the mascots wearing the kits of those clubs. It's so special.
We're in such a nice area to explore after we've done our work on the training pitch and in the gym. We've been down to the lake, we’ve been to a coffee shop just outside Zurich and we've been watching the games together.
Me, Aggie [Beever-Jones] and Anna [Moorhouse] go for a walk every morning and get a coffee. Everyone else always asks us, "What time were you up today?". I think they might be a bit jealous of our routine, to be honest. I love being on a bike, too. When I retire I would love to do track cycling around the velodrome. There are loads of pictures of me on a bike – but I do spend some time in the gym, too.
It is very, very hot here. Lucy, our nutritionist, is great at getting everything sorted for us when we train. There are sprays, everyone gets a slushy and the team are doing a really good job of keeping us hydrated. It is hot, and it will be hot when we play, but we have to get used to it.

When I was younger I always dreamed of playing for England. I remember my first memory was the 2015 World Cup, waking up and watching the games with my dad. Now I'm determined to really embrace being part of a tournament.
Me and Aggie have been talking about enjoying every moment and making sure we take every opportunity to have fun. I’m someone who laughs a lot anyway, I find everything funny. We had Maisie Adam come into camp the other day and she made me laugh a lot, too.
Nicknames are a fun part of the camp. Mine is "Mayo". It came from Manchester United, where Millie Turner used to it remember how to pronounce my name, and then put an 'o' on the end. Some people call me "MLT", so it's not particularly extravagant.
We also call Niamh [Charles] Steve. That one's stuck. I went to ask her a question and accidentally called her Steve instead of Niamh. I don't know why, but it's stuck from there.
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Tournament life is different to normal camps. I properly unpacked my suitcase, which I wouldn't normally do when we're travelling around. I also feel like I can take my time over everything, whereas on a normal camp I want to do everything straight away. We have a lot of time to explore and spend time with everyone.
There's a really excited feel inside camp now that the first match is so close. My little brother and my dad are driving over and the rest of my family will fly here on Saturday – it's lovely to have them all coming.
France is going to be a really difficult game.