England owes it to the Lionesses to learn from errors of USA 99 and invest in women’s football

She struck the tournament-winning goal, ripped off her jersey then was mobbed by her teammates in the glorious ecstasy of celebration.

But this wasn’t Chloe Kelly’s winner on Sunday against Germany to seal England’s first major tournament in 56 years. It was Brandi Chastain’s equally iconic moment 23 years before.

After hitting the decisive shootout penalty against China in front of a sold-out Rose Bowl – hosting 90,185 spectators – at the end of a home 1999 World Cup that put America’s female footballers on the map, a shirtless Chastain dropped to her knees, fists clenched.

Kelly, by contrast, hurtled off as though not even a brick wall would stop her. “I see you, well done,” Chastain posted on social media.

It mattered not that, rather wonderfully, Kelly later revealed her celebration was, in fact, a nod to Bobby Zamora, who she saw celebrate scoring the winner for QPR in the 2014 Championship playoff final the last time she went to Wembley. The Chastain comparisons were already set in stone.

And quite a few comparisons were made between those two moments in history, 23 years apart, after England’s victory. Like the Americans’ success in 1999, the Lionesses’ performances at a home European Championship have ignited a fire beneath the women’s game in England that will burn fiercely for ever more.

The way Chastain’s goal was discussed, you imagine a time at the turn of the century when women’s football suddenly became an intrinsic part of the American psyche, yet delve into the annals and they tell a very different story.

Almost immediately after the US women’s team lifted the World Cup they became embroiled in a furious dispute with their own governing body that led to both sides lawyering up. The US Soccer Federation had planned, as reward for dazzling a nation not previously overly sold on soccer, a tour of… Africa.

The squad had other ideas about maximising their exposure at home, branding themselves as the “All-American Soccer Stars” and arranging exhibition games in 12 cities worth $1.2m to be shared among the players.

When arguments between lawyers escalated, US Soccer even attempted pay them $2m to cancel the tour and pack them off to Africa as planned. The players got their way but only after threatening never to play for the country again.

And two decades later they would still be forced to file a lawsuit against the federation seeking parity with their male counterparts for pay, travel and other factors (during a trip to China they once stayed in a hotel infested with cockroaches due to budgets).

The English Football Association should heed warnings of the past. After banning women’s football in 1921 when it had soared in popularity, holding them back for more than half a century, they owe it to every female footballer ever: the past, the present, and all those young girls inspired by the Euro 2022 Lionesses to begin on the pathway towards becoming the game’s future.

Of course, much is different between the state of women’s football in America in 1999 and the game in England in 2022. For a start, they didn’t even have a professional league in the States at that time, and while one was established in the aftermath it wasn’t financially sustainable and folded three years later (although fortunately enough had already been done by the 99ers, as they become known, to inspire future generations of girls to believe becoming a footballer was a viable career).

In England, the Women’s Super League is an already established professional league that provides the largest pool of players for the national team, but it still needs help. “We’re seeing politicians and brands jumping on this, eating off the top of what they’ve done in this tournament,” Ian Wright said after the final.

“What you want to see is them continue putting money into the WSL, into the women’s game, so they can continue to bring success for us. There are too many people who will eat off the top of this. They’re just jumping on that. This game needs continuous support for it to grow.”

The Lionesses is now a brand that stands for something: for those who fight for every ounce of progress, who played on even when they were told not to, who have succeeded where no England team has succeeded in 56 years.

A World Cup will be held next year in Australia and New Zealand. Before then, their forthcoming fixtures so far include only qualifying matches away to Austria and home to Luxembourg at Stoke’s BET365 Stadium, which holds 30,000 fans.

These Lionesses should be pitted against the very best in the biggest stadiums in the build-up to next summer. Sunday’s Wembley final had an 87,192 attendance – a record for any European Championship final ever. BBC One had a peak audience of 17.4m and another 5.9m streamed it online.

Stunning figures. Now harness that reach and propel women’s football into the mainstream. Pump money into it for the long-term, not just as a way to make your product look on trend for a few months.

Because everyone can play their part. The government, too, who give tens of millions a year to fund young people playing sport. Make sure at least half that funding goes to girls, so that in future there won’t be 23 per cent fewer girls playing team sports than boys. Football – the nation’s sport – is not even mandated in schools. Make it so, for boys and girls.

For the legacy of the Euro 2022 Lionesses to truly mean something, in years to come iconic moments – like Chastain’s and Kelly’s – will not have to be about the start of a journey, but recognition of inequality’s end.