'Switch to PSG was the right thing even if it meant us being apart as a couple'

Despite being in different countries, Ramona Bachmann and Alisha Lehmann have settled down for the video call in exactly the same way: sat with their identical, fluffy Pomeranian puppies on their laps. They lift their dogs Loui and Jacky’s paws to wave at each other, their lockdown adoptees the only company they have at home now they no longer live together.

The Swiss couple have been together for more than two years, and since Lehmann joined West Ham in 2018 they faced off in the Women’s Super League a number of times. But Bachmann left Chelsea over the summer after four years, joining Paris St-Germain. So where normally, in the week ahead of a Chelsea v West Ham tie like Sunday’s, they would be preparing for their own derby, instead Lehmann is trying to convince her girlfriend to don a West Ham shirt when she watches on television.

Bachmann smiles. “I will always have a special feeling for Chelsea,” she says. “I had great years with the club so I’ll always root for them, but it’s not my team anymore so I’ll root for Alisha and hope she can perform well.” Lehmann adds: “And hope West Ham win it?” Bachmann chuckles in response.

They met at a Switzerland team camp nearly three years ago, when Lehmann was 18, and say their connection was clear from the off, Lehmann joining West Ham and moving to London. But, last season, Bachmann was sidelined at Chelsea, with talents such as Sam Kerr, Erin Cuthbert, Fran Kirby, Beth England and Guro Reiten vying for attacking spots. She no longer knew where she fitted in so decided to leave.

“It’s tough for a coach if you have a lot of good players, I accept that, but I feel I wasn’t happy about the way it was going,” Bachmann says. “The communication wasn’t there to know what I needed to do to get back into the starting line-up. I needed a change.”

To leave London in the middle of a pandemic was knowing that she and Lehmann would have limited opportunities to see each other for the next few months – or even longer. But Bachmann was supported all the way.

“Living with Alisha, she could feel that I wasn’t happy. I was thinking, should I stay one more year so me and Alisha can stay living together? But Alisha wanted the best for me. You don’t always have that – someone who supports you even though you know it’s going to be tough for us.”

“It was hard,” Lehmann says. “But we always said football is first because you can’t play your whole life. So if you have a good offer or are unhappy you need to change because it’s our job, it’s the thing we love the most.”

Bachmann says she is loving life in Division 1 Feminine, and PSG are top after breaking Lyon’s four-year unbeaten run last month. Lehmann also has her own change to deal with, as West Ham start their first WSL game without manager Matt Beard at the helm after he left the club last month. Despite their slow start, accruing just four points in their first seven games, Lehmann says she was “shocked” by the news.

“For me it was quite hard, because he was the coach that found me – he made me a little bit,” Lehmann says. Beard plucked the teenage winger from obscurity in the Swiss top division and she remembers that with her limited grasp of English it took her six months to get a handle on his “Cockney dialect”. But she has become a stalwart member of the squad since.

“The first two years I played every single game, I improved a lot – but not only football, in life,” Lehmann says. “He wasn’t only a coach for me, he’s also my friend and I will always still go to him if I have a problem because he supported me a lot. [Him leaving] was sad, but that’s football. Hopefully we’ll find a good new coach and win again.”

She and Bachmann last saw each other on Tuesday, when they both started in Switzerland’s 4-0 loss to Belgium in the Uefa Women’s Championship qualifiers – leaving their chances of progressing to the 2022 tournament hanging in the balance. Ahead of Christmas, when they hope to be reunited, the couple will continue this new way of life apart. Having their 10-month-old lockdown puppies for company is some consolation. “It’s nice to have someone waiting at home for you,” Bachmann says, “Now it can’t be Alisha, it’s Loui.”