Bethany Jane Mead (born 9 May 1995) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for the

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

(WSL) club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and the

England national team Team England usually refers to the name under which athletes representing Commonwealth Games England compete. England team or Team England may refer to: *Commonwealth Games England *England national football team *England cricket team *England nat ...

. A creative and prolific forward, she has all-time most assists and all-time second-most goal contributions in the WSL. Joint with

Vivianne Miedema Anna Margaretha Marina Astrid "Vivianne" Miedema (; born 15 July 1996) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for FA Women's Super League, Women's Super League club Manches ...

, she is the first player to reach a combined total of 100 goals and assists in the WSL. At

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champio ...

, she became the Golden Boot winner, Player of the Tournament, and top assist provider, leading England to win a major tournament for the first time. Later that year, she was named

BBC Sports Personality of the Year The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just a single award of the same name. Several new awards have been introduced, and cu ...

, becoming the first women's footballer to win the prestigious award; and finished runner-up for the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

and UEFA Player of the Year. In 2015, Mead won the WSL Golden Boot and the WSL Player of the Year award, becoming the youngest WSL Golden Boot winner at the age of 20. It was only a season after leading her then-club

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

's promotion and WSL 2 title win. Having scored 81 goals in 109 games, she is regarded as one of the greatest players to have ever played for Sunderland. Converted to a winger at

, Mead holds numerous WSL records in playmaking, including all-time most assists, most assists in a season, most chances created in a season, and most chances created from open play in a season. She was the WSL top assist provider in the 2018–19 and 2021–22 seasons. In the 2021–22 season, she was nominated for WSL Player of the Season. She won the 2018–19 WSL title with Arsenal, as well as the 2024–25 Champions League. Mead helped England reach the semi-final at the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

, providing second-most assists in the tournament. In 2022, she broke

Jimmy Greaves James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940 – 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and one of England's best ever players, he is England's fifth- ...

' 61-year-old record of the most goals scored in a season by an England player of either gender and was named BBC Women's Footballer of the Year and ''World Soccer'' World Player of the Year. She was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for her services to football. Mead and her alma mater

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

launched the Beth Mead Scholarship in February 2022. Her ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestseller autobiography, '' Lioness: My Journey to Glory'', was published in November 2022.

Early life

Mead grew up in

Hinderwell Hinderwell is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England which lies within the North York Moors National Park, about a mile from the coast on the A174 road between the towns of Loftus and Whitby. The 2011 UK census states Hinderw ...

, a small village near

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

, which she described as "a fishing town in the middle of nowhere". Mead started playing football when she was six years old. Her mother wanted her to run off her boundless energy and took her to a Saturday morning football session on a village field in Hinderwell, which was run by a volunteer coach. The coach was concerned that Mead would be the only girl in the session but, when her mother came back an hour later to pick Mead up from her first session, the coach remarked that Mead was rougher than most of the boys. She played with the local boys on that bobbly community field as much as possible. Mead took part in many sports, including

cross-country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, and

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

, but "football always hit erdifferent." She said: "Football is my first love; my one true love." One day, Mead's local senior cricket team was one short. She joined in for the day and

caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the catch ...

two balls from her brother's

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

. The local newspaper called it 'The Mead Show'. Mead went to Oakridge Community Primary School in Hinderwell. There was no girls' football team at school, so she played for the boys' team. She was the only girl. However, the more she played, the more other girls wanted to join in. She was captain of the primary school team, and that made the other girls feel more comfortable, seeing she had been accepted and made captain. They won the local primary school cup for boys' teams with four girls in the team.

Youth career

Mead began her youth career at California Boys FC and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

centre of excellence at age nine. During her time playing for Middlesbrough academy, her mother picked up a second job to help cover the cost of petrol required for the twice-a-week 45-minute drive. When Mead was playing at California Boys FC in the boys' league, the other team's players and parents would laugh when they saw her turn up because she was a girl. Her teammates used to tell the other team to laugh ahead of kick-off because they knew that as soon as the game started, she would be running rings around them. She minded neither because her dad told her, "While some people will always have opinions, and you would hear a few things, you don't need to say anything, and neither do I–your football will do the talking." After most games, she earned a lot of respect from teams and their parents for getting stuck in and playing well. When Mead was just 13 or 14 at Middlesbrough academy, she scored a hat-trick against

, one of the best teams in England at the time, in six or seven minutes. As soon as she turned 16, Mick Mulhern, then-Sunderland manager, met her and her parents to sign her up for Sunderland. According to Mulhern, "she was a proper goalscorer, with either foot, from anywhere. When you think of someone at such a young, tender age, that I was so determined to sign her, it tells you what I thought of her then and what I knew she would become."

Club career

Sunderland, 2011–16

2011–13: Back-to-back WPL titles and Golden Boot awards

In 2011–12, her first season in the

FA Women's Premier League The FA Women's National League is a group of six Association football, football divisions which sit at the third and fourth tiers of women's football in England. Founded in 1991 as the WFA National League, the league was run by the Women's Footba ...

(WPL), Mead scored 23 goals in as many games.

won the league, in part due to Mead's winner against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

. Sunderland won the

FA Women's Premier League Cup The FA Women's National League Cup is an annual England, English women's association football, football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, Women's Football Association (WFA). The 1991–92 WFA Women's National L ...

for the first time, completing the double. Mead won the WPL Golden Boot, Sunderland Player of the Year award, and Mavis Clayton Memorial Trophy for Outstanding Achievement at the Scarborough and District Sports Awards. In the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season, Mead followed up with 30 goals in 28 matches. She again won the FA WPL Golden Boot and Sunderland Player of the Year award. She was also named Top Female Achiever at the Scarborough and District Sports Awards.

2014: Leading Sunderland's promotion

In the 2014 WSL 2 season, Sunderland won the title and gained

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the WSL. Mead was the top scorer for the team, scoring twice in the

FA Women's National League Cup The FA Women's National League Cup is an annual English football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). The first edition of the Cup included clubs from the 1991–92 WFA National League Premier Division a ...

and 13 times in the WSL 2. She was nominated for WSL 2 Player of the Year. She was named SportsByte Sports Person of the Year, Top Female Achiever at the Scarborough and District Sports Awards, and Sunderland Supporters' Young Player of the Year. Although Mead turned

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

upon Sunderland's promotion, she resolved to finish her final year at

; as part of the "Where Greatness Is Made" campaign, a plaque honouring Mead was installed at the university. She also kept working at her local pub. The landlord had sponsored her during the formative years of her career and she repaid the support by working shifts behind the bar.

2015–16: The youngest WSL Golden Boot winner

In her first match at the top level, Mead scored in

shock Shock may refer to: Common uses Healthcare * Acute stress reaction, also known as psychological or mental shock ** Shell shock, soldiers' reaction to battle trauma * Circulatory shock, a medical emergency ** Cardiogenic shock, resulting from ...

2–1 win over reigning champions

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. On 19 July 2015, Mead scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against league leaders Chelsea, making her the league-leading scorer with eight goals. Earlier that week, Mead avoided injury despite rolling her car three times while trying to avoid a deer. The following week, she scored twice in a 4–1 win at

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, sending Sunderland to the top of the WSL. Her scoring 11 goals in the first ten games for Sunderland became the league record for most goals in the first ten appearances for a club. Mead ended the 2015 season as the leading goalscorer in the WSL with 12 goals in 14 appearances. At the age of 20, she became the youngest WSL Golden Boot winner ever. The next best players scored seven goals, only about half of Mead's goals. Sunderland finished in fourth place. It was only a season after Sunderland's promotion and Sunderland's resources were far in arrears compared to the division's heavyweights. During this period,

Jermain Defoe Jermain Colin Defoe (born 7 October 1982) is an English football coach and former professional player. He was most recently the under-18s coach at Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Defoe was a striker and began his career with Charlto ...

mentored the young striker. The women's team shared breakfast and lunch in the same canteen as the men's team. He heard about Mead being a great striker, so he wanted to know about her. He had watched Mead's goals and asked, "I've never scored one like that before. What were you thinking when you did that?" She would explain, but he understood that strikers have to be quite instinctive. They are quite similar characters – both outgoing and extroverted. The two bounced off each other. They have stayed in touch, and he has always supported her and shared his experience to help her with her career. In 2022, Defoe wrote an afterword to Mead's autobiography, '' Lioness: My Journey to Glory''. Besides the WSL Golden Boot, Mead was named WSL Player's Player of the Year,

PFA Young Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year (often called the PFA Young Player of the Year, or simply the Young Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the ...

, England Young Player of the Year, inaugural North East

Football Writers' Association The Football Writers' Association (FWA) is an association of football journalists and correspondents writing for English newspapers and agencies. It presents the Footballer of the Year Award, the oldest and most distinguished award given in the d ...

(FWA) Ladies Player of the Year, Sunderland Player of the Year, Sunderland Supporters' Player of the Year, SportsByte Sports Person of the Year, and Top Female Achiever at Scarborough and District Sports Awards; was nominated for

PFA Players' Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Men's Players' Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, or simply the Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is ...

; and was selected in the

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

. Mead is regarded as one of the best players ever played for Sunderland. '' Roker Report'' said: "The impact of

lass Beth Mead on Sunderland Ladies in the mid-2010s was breathtaking. In five seasons from when, at the age of 16 in 2011, she broke into the side, she took first the Premier League North, then WSL 2 and finally the WSL 1 by storm, scoring 77 goals in 78 games as we rocketed up the pyramid, almost reaching the summit. Long standing fans of the Lasses had never quite seen anything like it, she was almost unplayable at times and her performances pushed Sunderland to the heights of a fourth place WSL 1 finish in 2015/16." Mead was named Sunderland Forward of the Decade and was selected in Sunderland Team of the Decade in 2019.

Arsenal, 2017–present

2017–18: Second England Young Player of the Year Award

On 24 January 2017, it was announced that

had signed Mead on an undisclosed-length full-time deal. She had resisted several offers from Arsenal since 2015 to finish her university degree in Sports Development. At Arsenal, summer 2017 signing

soon occupied the centre-forward berth, so Mead had to play as a winger instead: "I'd played No. 9 all my career until I came to Arsenal. I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't playing No. 9, because I thought that was my best position. But now I really enjoy playing on the wing. I can get involved, run at people, bring other people into play." Arsenal won the 2017–18 FA Women's League Cup with Mead scoring in the knockout rounds against her former club

in the quarter-final and against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

in the semi-final. Mead finished the 2017–18 season as Arsenal's top goalscorer in the league with eight goals. In 2018, Mead was named England Young Player of the Year for the second time,

Football Supporters' Association The Football Supporters' Association (The FSA) is the national, democratic, representative body for football supporters in England and Wales. They are the leading advocates for supporter ownership, better fan engagement, cheaper ticket prices, t ...

(FSA) Player of the Year, and selected in the

2018–19: WSL title and most assists in a season record

By the 2018–19 season, Mead had fully reinvented herself as a versatile winger under

Joe Montemurro Joseph Adrian Montemurro (born Giuseppe Montemurro, ; 13 September 1969), nicknamed Pepe, is an Australian soccer coach and former player who has been the head coach of the Australian women's national team since June 2025. Montemurro had play ...

, which has seen her break the WSL record for the most assists in a season (12). Moreover, Mead topped various creative statistics in the league, multiple of them with wide margins. She registered the highest assists per 90 (0.71, over 40% of 2nd place (0.51)), most carries into penalty area (42, over 45% of 2nd place (29)), highest xG assisted (6.6, over 14% of 2nd place (5.8)), most crosses into penalty area (19), and most shot-creating actions(96); 2nd most key passes (54), 2nd most passes into penalty area (43), 2nd most goal-creating actions (20), and 2nd highest goal-creating actions per 90 (1.18); 3rd highest shot-creating actions per 90 (5.69) and 3rd most fouls drawn (32). Mead capped a great season off by scoring the third goal in Arsenal's 4–0 title-clinching win at

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

on 28 April 2019. The goal won the WSL Goal of the Season award. With 7 goals, Mead finished third in the WSL for total goal contributions (19), helping Arsenal win the WSL after a seven-year wait. Mead was nominated for the 2019 FSA Player of the Year. In addition, she was named WSL Player of the Month in March 2019 and April 2019.

2019–21: New long-term contract and the COVID-19 pandemic

Mead signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal on 28 November 2019. Mead suffered an injury during a 3–2 league win against Liverpool on 13 February 2020. A week later, Arsenal announced that she had injured her

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), also called the superficial medial collateral ligament (sMCL) or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint and occurs in ...

. The 2019–20 WSL season ended prematurely on 13 March 2020, due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Arsenal was the only WSL club to proceed to the

2019–20 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2019–20 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 19th edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 11th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. The competition was postponed ...

quarter-final. Mead scored the only Arsenal goal against

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

in the quarter-final match on 28 August 2020. On 15 November 2020, against the league champions Chelsea, Mead scored in the 86th minute of the 1–1 draw. In the 2020–21 season, Mead provided second-most assists in the WSL. She was also second highest in xG assisted (8.2) and through balls (7); third in fouls drawn (46) and xA per 90 (0.45).

2021–22: WSL all-time assists leader and Arsenal Player of the Season

In the 2021–22 season, Mead was the top assist provider (8) and scored third-most goals (11) in the WSL, helping

push in a title race that went down to the final day. Arsenal finished the season in second place, only a point less than the first. Arsenal was the only WSL team to proceed to the knockout stage in the

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 21st edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 13th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the first edition to fe ...

. Mead set several WSL playmaking records in the season. She became the WSL all-time assists leader. She broke the record for most chances created in a season (72) and most chances created from open play in a season (54+), becoming the first player who created over 50 chances from open play. Mead led the majority of creative statistics in the league, many of them by wide margins. She had the most chances created (72, over a half of 2nd place (48)), most big chances created (13, over 44% of 2nd place (9)), most key passes (65, over 30% of 2nd place (50)), most shot-creating actions (123, over a third of 2nd place (90)), highest shot-creating actions per 90 (6.43), most goal-creating actions (18), highest goal-creating actions per 90 (0.94, over 12% of 2nd place (0.84)), the highest xA (7.7), highest xG assisted (7.4), and most passes into penalty area (56); second highest successful dribbles per 90 (1.1), second most fouls drawn (41), and second highest progressive passes received (192). With 14 goals and 19 assists in 34 starts, Mead's total goal contributions in the season came to 33. During the league opener against defending champions Chelsea, she scored a brace to defeat Chelsea 3–2. She was named Player of the Match. On 27 January 2022, Arsenal was behind Brighton & Hope Albion 0–1 after the first half. Just five minutes after the restart, Mead whipped a delivery across the face of the Brighton goal and

was well-placed to fire home from close range. In addition, Mead fired a curling effort into the top right corner to secure all three points. She was named Player of the Match. On 24 April 2022, Mead not only became the WSL all-time assist leader, but also reached the 50th goal in the WSL during Arsenal's 3–0 victory over Everton. Her assist resulted in teammate

Jordan Nobbs Jordan Nobbs (born 8 December 1992) is an English professional footballer who currently plays for no club. She previously played for Sunderland, Aston Villa and Arsenal . Nobbs has played for the England women's national team at the youth and ...

' 50th WSL goal as well. She was named the Player of the Match. Mead also established herself as the centrepiece of the pressing and counter-pressing system under new manager Jonas Eidevall. She topped the charts for pressing and defensive actions in the final third. She registered most pressures (381) and succeeded the most, made most tackles (61) and won the most (43), and made second-most blocks (32) in Arsenal. In the WSL, she won third most tackles. It is rare for a forward to achieve such numbers. On her counterpressing ability, manager Eidevall said: "I have never coached a player who is as fast at it (counterpressing) as Beth Mead. She can run 15 metres in seconds and close a player down." Mead was named the FSA Player of the Year and nominated for the WSL Player of the Season and PFA Fan's Player of the Year. She won both the Arsenal Player of the Season award and Arsenal Women Supporters Club Player of the Season award by a landslide. Her other accolades include: ''GiveMeSportW'' Fans' WSL Player of the Season nominee, ''On Her Side'' WSL Player of the Season runner-up, ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...

'' WSL Team of the Year, WSL Player of the Month (September 2021), resulting in the record (tie) for Most Player of the Month awards (3), PFA WSL Fan's Player of the Month (November 2021), and Arsenal Goal of the Month which includes contenders from both the men's and women's teams, January 2022.

2022: WSL all-time second-most goal contributions and ACL injury

In October 2022, after her successful UEFA Women's Euro 2022 campaign, Mead revealed it was her mother's terminal

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

diagnosis in summer 2021 that fuelled her acclaimed performance last season. She said, "It made me look at life a lot differently. My mum's now having a lot of her life taken away from her from this disease. I don't think you can waste time anymore worrying about things that are not worth worrying about." When the family was unsure if she would even be alive by the time Mead played in a home Euros, Mead made the conscious decision to "strip it all back" and just go out and play with freedom and youthful abandon. She said, "My motivation was my mum. … I wanted to make her proud. I wanted to make her happy." She said that she had spent all year "trying to put a smile on my mum's face." Mead became second in WSL all-time goal contributions (93) with 54 goals and 39 assists on 16 September 2022. Mead was named PFA Fan's Player of the Month and

Player of the Month for September 2022 after she scored three goals and assisted two in two games. On 19 October 2022, she was named Player of the Match in Arsenal's historic 5–1 win over the Champions League holders

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. She scored two goals and assisted one. Lyon are eight-time winners of the Champions League. It is the first time they have conceded five goals since May 2005. They had previously not lost by more than a single goal in the Champions League since 2009 and this was only their second defeat in 83 home games. On 19 November 2022, Mead suffered a ruptured

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

(ACL) in a league game and faced months out of the game. She called for more research into ACL injuries in women's football as 25% of

2022 Ballon d'Or The 2022 Ballon d'Or () was the 66th annual presentation of the Ballon d'Or, presented by ''France Football'', recognising the best footballers in the world during the 2021–22 season. For the first time in the history of the award, it was give ...

nominees are currently out with the injury:

Alexia Putellas Alèxia Putellas i Segura ( , Alexia Putellas Segura; born 4 February 1994), often known mononymously as Alexia, is a Spanish professional footballer from Catalonia who plays as a midfielder or forward for Liga F club Barcelona, which she cap ...

(No. 1), herself (No. 2),

Catarina Macario Catarina Cantanhede Melônio Macário (; born October 4, 1999) is a professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder or forward for Women's Super League club Chelsea. Born in Brazil, she plays for the United States national team. Macari ...

(No. 9),

(No. 11), and

Marie-Antoinette Katoto Marie-Antoinette Oda Katoto (born 1 November 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Première Ligue club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Widely considered as one of the best strikers in the worl ...

(No. 17). On 16 December 2022, she signed a new contract at Arsenal, saying: "This club is home for me. I love playing for Arsenal, I love where I am and I love my family away from family here." So far, she has scored 61 goals in 166 appearances for Arsenal. Despite her injury, Mead created 64 chances in 2022, the second-most of any player in a single calendar year in WSL history. Furthermore, she was the top scorer (8) in all women's UEFA competition for club and country in 2022, tied with

Aitana Bonmatí Aitana Bonmatí i Conca (; born 18 January 1998) is a Catalan professional association football, footballer from Spain who plays as a midfielder for Liga F club FC Barcelona Femení, Barcelona and the Spain women's national football team, Spa ...

. She finished second for the IFFHS World's Best International Goalscorer, meaning that she has scored the second-most goals (15) in international matches for club and country in 2022. She finished runner-up for the ATA Football WSL Player of the Year 2022. On 21 December, she was named

ahead of

Ben Stokes Benjamin Andrew Stokes (born 4 June 1991) is an English international cricketer who is List of England cricket captains, the captain of the England cricket team, England Test cricket, Test team. Stokes has played for England in all three forma ...

and

Eve Muirhead Eve Muirhead (born 22 April 1990) is a Scottish former curler from Perth and the skip of the British Olympic Curling team. Muirhead and the GB team became Olympic champions at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the bron ...

. She was also named BBC Women's footballer of the year.

2023–24: Return from ACL injury

On 15 October 2023, Mead made her return after an 11-month period on the sidelines, coming on as a substitute for

Noelle Maritz Noelle Maritz (; born 23 December 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Aston Villa of the FA WSL. She previously played for Arsenal in the WSL, VfL Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga, and FC Zürich in Switzerland's N ...

in the 87th minute of Arsenal's WSL match against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. Arsenal were trailing 0–1, but found the net twice in stoppage time to seal an all-important first win of the season, with Mead grabbing the assist for

Alessia Russo Alessia Mia Teresa Russo (; born 8 February 1999) is an English professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for Women's Super League club Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal and the England women's n ...

's match-winning goal. On 26 November, Mead scored a first-half brace in a 3–0 win against

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

, her first goals since returning from injury. These goals meant that she became the second player to reach 100 goals and assists in the WSL.

2024–25

In the opening game of the

2024–25 Women's Super League The 2024–25 Women's Super League season (also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season of the Women's Super League (WSL) since it was formed in 2010. It was the sixth season after the rebranding o ...

season, Mead scored her first goal of the season, to draw 2–2 against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. This marked her first match against old teammate and partner

, who made the move following the 2023–24 season. Following difficult conditions against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, during their Champions League quarter final, Mead said players are owed better quality pitches. On 30 March 2025, Mead scored her 50th WSL goal for Arsenal, against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

during their 4-0 victory. During the 2025 Champions League final on 24 May, Mead assisted the winning goal after being introduced as a 68th-minute substitute, securing Arsenal their second ever European title.

International career

2010–17: Youth

Mead has represented England at every age level from under-15. Mead was a part of the England U19 team that won the silver at the

2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2013 Final Tournament was held in Wales between 19 and 31 August 2013. Players born after 1 January 1994 were eligible to participate in this competition. It was the first time ...

. She scored a brace in the semifinal. She won the silver ball. Mead played in all three

England U20 England national under-20 football team, also known as England Under-20s or England U20(s) or England Men's Elite Squad, represents England in association football at an under-20 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the gov ...

matches at the

2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was an international association football tournament and the world championship for women's national teams under the age of 20, presented by Grant Connell, organized by the sport's world governing body FIFA. I ...

where she scored a long-range goal against Mexico. The goal was voted as the third-best goal of the tournament.

2018: Senior debut

In April 2018, Mead made her debut for the senior

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

as a substitute in a 0–0

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided all 24 teams which played in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the hosts France women's national football team, France qualifying automatically. It is the eighth FIFA Women's World ...

draw with

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in Southampton. Mead started her first match in September 2018, scoring twice in England's 6–0 win over

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Pavlodar Pavlodar (; ; ) is a city in northeastern Kazakhstan and the capital of Pavlodar Region. It is located northeast of the national capital Astana and southeast of the Russian city of Omsk along the Irtysh River. In 2010, the city had a popul ...

2019–20: World Cup and England Player of the Year finalist

Mead introduced herself to the rest of the world with two superbly-taken goals at England's triumphant

2019 SheBelieves Cup The 2019 SheBelieves Cup was the fourth edition of the SheBelieves Cup, an invitational women's soccer tournament held in the United States. Featuring national teams from Brazil, England, Japan, and hosts United States, it began on February 27 and ...

campaign in February 2019. During the opening game, she scored a "stunning" match-winning goal against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The finish was later affectionately named "crot" (cross-shot) and became her signature. A few days later, she scored in the team's 3–0 victory against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to seal the SheBelieves title. On 9 April 2019, Mead scored the opening goal in the 36th minute against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in an eventual 2–1 win. Mead started in the first two matches of the

in France. She provided the assist to

Jodie Taylor Jodie Lee Taylor (born 17 May 1986) is an English former professional association football, footballer who last played as a Striker (association football), striker for Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal of Women's Super League, WSL. She began her club care ...

's goal in the Lionesses' second group stage match against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

— a 1–0 win. After finishing first in

Group D Group D may refer to: * FIA Group D - International Formula racing cars: ** Formula Two ** Formula Three ** Formula 3000 * One of six or eight groups of four teams competing at the FIFA World Cup ** 2022 FIFA World Cup Group D ** 2018 FIFA Worl ...

and defeating

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

3–0 in the Round of 16, England faced

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in the quarter-finals. In the match, Mead assisted

Lucy Bronze Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze (born 28 October 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Women's Super League club Chelsea and the England women's national team. She has previously played for Sunderland, Everto ...

's goal in the 57th minute as England won again by three goals to none. In the semi-final against defending champions the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Mead assisted Ellen White's equaliser in the first half, although England were ultimately defeated 2–1. The semi-final match ended up being the most watched programme on UK television in 2019 with 11.7 million viewers. She provided second-most assists (3) in the tournament. Thanks to her performance at the 2019 World Cup, Mead was shortlisted for

England Player of the Year The FA England Awards is an annual online vote for England supporters. It used to be an award ceremony hosted by The Football Association. The inaugural edition took place on 3 February 2003, although The FA Women's Football Awards started in 1 ...

and named ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' Sports Hero of 2019. In October 2019, Mead scored England's game-winning goal against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. She won the Player of the Match Award. Later that month, she created more chances than any other player during a 2–1 loss against

in front of a record-breaking 29,238 fans at

Riverside Stadium The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough since its opening in 1995. It has an all-seated capacity of 34,742, although provisional planning permission is in place to expan ...

in Middlesbrough. In February 2020, Mead was left off the squad for the

2020 SheBelieves Cup The 2020 SheBelieves Cup was the fifth edition of the SheBelieves Cup, an invitational women's soccer tournament held in the United States. Featuring national teams from Spain, England, Japan, and hosts United States, it began on March 5 and ende ...

due to injury.

2021–22: Record-breaking European champion

On 23 October 2021, Mead scored her first international hat-trick in a 4–0 win against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in the 2023 World Cup qualification phase. Her hat-trick came within a fourteen-minute second-half spell. She became the first woman to score a hat-trick at Wembley for England. On 30 November 2021, Mead had her second international hat-trick, as well as a hat-trick of assists as England defeated

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

20–0 in another World Cup qualifying match. This was England's biggest-ever win. Another

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

on 8 April 2022 saw Mead score four goals in a 10–0 demolishing of

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. On 24 June 2022, Mead scored a brace against reigning European champions and World Cup finalists the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

as a half-time substitute. Her first goal came only 54 seconds after the Dutch missed a penalty when the match was tied at 1–1. Her goal put England ahead for the first time. She added her second and England's fifth when she twisted and turned past the Dutch defence in the box and finding the bottom corner. She won England's Player of the Match award. Her goals took her to 14 in the season for England, surpassing

' long-standing record of the most goals scored in a single season by an England player of either gender, when he scored 13 in the 1960–61 season.

UEFA Women's Euro 2022

on home soil, Mead won the Golden Boot, as well as becoming the Player of the Tournament and top assist provider with 6 goals and 5 assists in 6 matches, helping England win the tournament. It was the Lionesses' first major trophy and the first win by an England senior-level team of either gender since

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. She became the only English player of either gender to win both the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament award at the Euros or World Cup. Her six goals tied the record for most goals ever scored in a single edition of the Women's Euro and most goals at a single major tournament by an England player of either gender. She was directly involved in half of England's goals at the tournament. Besides scoring the most goals and assisting the most in the tournament, Mead created the most chances (16), made the highest assists per 90 (1.00, over 20% of 2nd place) and won the most Player of the Match awards (2). Mead scored the tournament's opening goal against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in a 1–0 win. Against

, she scored her fourth career international hat-trick and assisted a goal. Naming her the Player of the Match, the UEFA Technical Observer said: "She showed fast, strong dribbling and a real will to score. She was brave in one-on-ones and sent some great balls into the box, as well as scoring three herself." Her second goal of the match was selected as one of the top ten goals of the tournament. Against Northern Ireland, she scored a goal and assisted two to cap a run of scoring in every group stage match. In the semi-final against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, she scored the first goal of the match against the run of play and provided 2 assists, leading England to the final. She was again named the Player of the Match and UEFA's Technical Observer panel praised her showing: "She was consistent and extremely hard-working on the right wing, constantly linking up play and making key passes. She took her crucial goal excellently. Her delivery, providing two assists for teammates, made it a supremely productive evening." In total, Mead scored 20 goals and assisted 16 in 19 matches for England in the 2021–22 season, breaking

' aforementioned record.

2022–23: Post-Euros acclaim

Following her impressive performance at the Euro 2022, Mead was named BBC Women's Footballer of the Year, ''World Soccer'' World Player of the Year,

, and FSA Player of the Year; and finished runner-up for the

, UEFA Player of the Year, IFFHS World's Best Player, and ''The Guardian'' 100 Best Footballers in the World. She is only the second English footballer of either gender after

Michael Owen Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker for Liverpool F.C., Liverpool, Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid, Newcastle United ...

in 2001 to win the ''World Soccer'' World Player of the Year award.''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' named her the best player in Europe in 2022. She was voted third in Fans' Footballer of the Year, ahead of prominent Premier League players such as

Bukayo Saka Bukayo Ayoyinka Temidayo Saka (born 5 September 2001) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger for club Arsenal and the England national team. Known for his creativity, dribbling, and work rate, he is regarded as one ...

Erling Haaland Erling Braut Haaland (, ; born 21 July 2000) is a Norwegian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and the Norway national football te ...

Kevin De Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne (; born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club SSC Napoli, Napoli and captains the Belgium national football team, Belgium national team. After spending mos ...

, and

Harry Kane Harry Edward Kane (born 28 July 1993) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Bundesliga club FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich and Captain (association football), c ...

. She is the first and only women's footballer on the shortlist in awards' history. She made the final three-woman shortlist for

Globe Soccer Awards The Globe Soccer Awards are awards which acknowledge achievements in football. The event is organized by Globe Soccer and involves participation from international football organizations such as UEFA, UAE Pro League, ECA (European Clubs Associ ...

Player of the Year and voted fourth in Goal 50 for the best female players in the world. She was selected in the IFFHS World Team 2022 and ATA Football World Team of the Year. Mead was named

, one of the UK's longest-running and most prestigious awards, by a landslide. She is the first female footballer to win the award. It was the first time that a female footballer has appeared in the top three of the voting. She is only the sixth footballer to receive the accolade, with

Bobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA ...

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and one of the best English footballers of ...

, Michael Owen,

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

, and

Ryan Giggs Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; born 29 November 1973) is a Welsh football coach, former player and co-owner of Salford City. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, and one of the best wingers in the history of footba ...

; and the first since 2009. She is the first Arsenal and former or current Sunderland player of either gender to win the award. She is the second out LGBTQ+ player to win the award, after

John Curry John Anthony Curry, (9 September 1949 – 15 April 1994) was a British figure skater. He was the 1976 European, World and Olympic Champion. He was noted for combining ballet and modern dance influences into his skating. Early life Curry was ...

in 1976. Speaking at the ceremony, Mead said: "This is for women's sport and for women's sport heading in the right direction, Let's keep pushing, girls. Let's keep doing the right thing." It was a historic night for British women's sports which saw female winners for the team (Lionesses), coach (

Sarina Wiegman Sarina Petronella Wiegman (; born 26 October 1969), also known as Sarina Wiegman-Glotzbach, is a Dutch football manager and former player who has been the manager of the England women's national team since September 2021. In her playing caree ...

of Lionesses, the first woman to win the award) and young personality (

Jessica Gadirova Jessica Gadirova (born 3 October 2004) is an English Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast of Irish birth and Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani descent, representing Great Britain women's national artistic gymnastics team, Great Britain internationally ...

) awards all in the same year for the first time. Mead's back-to-back win with last year's honoree

Emma Raducanu Emma Raducanu ( , ; born 13 November 2002) is a British professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 10 by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA, and is the current British No. 1. Raducanu was the 2021 US Ope ...

made them the first consecutive female winners since 1971–72. Her Arsenal teammates celebrated the award on the team bus after their win against

FC Zurich FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

in the

2022–23 Champions League The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

and congratulated her via facetime. Mead was named Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) Sportswoman of the Year, the oldest of their kind in Britain. She is the first footballer to win the award. She finished runner-up for the European Sportswoman of the Year awarded by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). ''

L'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor, '' ...

'', a French sport newspaper, voted her ninth in

L'Équipe Champion of Champions ''L'Équipe'' Champion of Champions () refers to four awards presented by the daily sports newspaper '' L'Équipe'', to female and male international sports athletes and female and male French sports athletes. Various special awards have also bee ...

. She was the only Brit in the top 10.

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

named her one of Sporting Superstars of 2022 alongside international stars such as

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

and

Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player and point guard for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Chef Curry", he is widely regarded as the ...

. She was named Yorkshire Sports Performer of 2022 and Yorkshire Young Achievers Personality of the Year. She was nominated for ''Sunday Times'' Sportswomen of the Year and BT Sport Action Woman of the Year. Mead was appointed a

(MBE) in the

for her services to football. In October 2022, Mead revealed that it was her mother's terminal ovarian cancer diagnosis that fuelled the best season in career so far. She said, "It made me look at life a lot differently. My mum's now having a lot of her life taken away from her from this disease. I don't think you can waste time anymore worrying about things that are not worth worrying about." When the family was unsure if she would even be alive by the time Mead played in a home Euros, Mead made the conscious decision to "strip it all back" and just go out and play with freedom and youthful abandon. She said, "My motivation was my mum. … I wanted to make her proud. I wanted to make her happy." She said that she had spent all year "trying to put a smile on my mum's face." Mead earned her 50th cap against Japan on 11 November 2022. She has scored 29 goals in all competitions for England, 12 more than any other member of the latest Lionesses' squad. She has been directly involved in 37 goals in 23 appearances under Sarina Wiegman (21 goals, 16 assists), 13 more than any other teammate. Mead was the top scorer (8) in all women's UEFA competition for club and country in 2022, tied with

. She finished second for the IFFHS World's Best International Goalscorer, meaning that she has scored the second-most goals (15) in international matches for the club and country in 2022. Mead was allotted 204 when the FA announced their legacy numbers scheme to honour the 50th anniversary of England's inaugural international. On 31 May 2023, Mead was left out of the England team for the Women's World Cup due to suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury that had already kept her out of action for six months. The tournament coming too early in her recovery process, with the risk of further injury significant if a return to football occurs too early.

2023: Squad return

Mead was selected again for England in November 2023 and made her return on 1 December, during the match against the Netherlands in the

UEFA Women's Nations League The UEFA Women's Nations League is a biennial international Women's association football, women's football competition contested by the senior List of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the member association ...

group stages. Coming on at half time when the team were down 2–0, she was a big part in their eventual win of 3–2, with Tom Hamilton of ESPN noting that " ead'spresence on the right wing saw her help England rebalance midfield having been outnumbered and out-passed in the first half". In February 2025, after originally being selected for England's upcoming Nations League matches, Mead withdrew due to sustaining an injury, and was replaced by

Chloe Kelly Chloe Maggie Kelly (born 15 January 1998) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Arsenal, on loan from Manchester City, and the England national team. Kelly started her senior career at Arsenal ...

. Mead returned to the squad in March 2025, ahead of their Nations League matches against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. On 6 June, Mead was named in the squad for

UEFA Women's Euro 2025 The 2025 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2025 or simply Euro 2025, will be the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the wome ...

Advocacy

Beth Mead scholarship

Whilst playing for

, Mead gained BA (Hons) in Sports Development from

. Inspired by her experience, Mead and her alma mater launched Beth Mead Scholarship in February 2022 to support dual career students who have the potential to reach professional, national or international level within women's football. Beth Mead scholars receive a bursary of £1,200, as well as bespoke sport science support to help them unlock their full potential. This includes strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, sport nutrition, sport psychology, biomechanical analysis and sport physiology from a team of experts at Teesside University. In addition, scholars also receive one-to-one and group mentoring with Mead during their studies, as well as branded sports kits and gym membership.

Women's football

In February 2020, Mead joined ''#WePlayStrong'', a social media campaign by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

. The campaign aims to increase participation levels among 13–17-year-old girls by shifting perceptions of women's football. The series follows the daily lives of female professional footballers. Her fitness routines have been shared online as part of the ''#TrainAtHome'' series. In August 2022, Mead launched the

Trainline Trainline (formerly Thetrainline.com) is a British digital rail and coach technology platform operating across Europe. It sells train tickets and railcards as well as providing free access to live train times and railway station information t ...

'Tenner off Match Day Travel' campaign, offering fans traveling to WSL fixtures £10 off rail travel. In September 2022, Mead became McDonald's Fun Football ambassador, which aims to give every child, from every background, gender and ability, the opportunity to enjoy football for free. Soon after UEFA Women's Euro 2022, the England players wrote an open letter to

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

and

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...

, the candidates in the ongoing Conservative Party leadership election, in which they declared their "legacy and goal was to inspire a nation". They saw their victory "as only the beginning". The letter pointed out that only 63% of British girls could play football in school PE lessons and concluded: "We – the 23 members of the England Senior Women's EURO Squad – ask you to make it a priority to invest in girls' football in schools, so that every girl has the choice". In October 2022, Mead was nominated for the European Diversity Awards Media Diversity Champion of the Year for promoting women in football.

Ovarian Cancer Action

Mead is an ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Action. In February 2023, she announced her captaincy for Walk in Her Name initiative in March for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. She asked fans and supporters to walk 100 km for Ovarian Cancer Action's goal of at least half of women with ovarian cancer surviving for 10 years by 2032. Currently, only 3 in 10 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will live beyond 10 years. In January 2023, she started a fundraising campaign in honour of her mother to make ovarian cancer a survivable disease for everyone diagnosed. In December 2022, she partnered with Ovarian Cancer Action on a limited edition Christmas card.

Other

Mead has advocated for

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (now known as Battersea) is an animal shelter, animal rescue centre for dogs and cats. Battersea rescues dogs and cats until their owner or a new one can be found. It is one of the UK's oldest and best known animal re ...

, an animal rescue centre for dogs and cats. Battersea was featured in

' ''Inside the WSL: Beth Mead Special'' in September 2022. In October 2022, she appeared in Battersea's ''Wear Blue for Rescue'' promotion video. Mead has spoken openly about her sexuality, and hopes that by setting an example she can help bridge the gap between LGBTQ+ discussions in the men's game. She has been nominated for

British LGBT Awards The British LGBT Awards are a British award show that aim to "recognise individuals and organizations that display outstanding commitment to the LGBTQ community". The awards were founded in 2014 by Sarah Garrett . LGBT celebrities and straigh ...

in 2020 and 2022.

Books

Mead published her autobiography ''Lioness: My Journey to Glory'' () in November 2022, with a foreword by

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English media personality and former professional footballer. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven year ...

and an afterword by

. It details her early life, her struggles with anxiety and self-belief, being dropped from

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. ...

squad for

2020 Tokyo Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, regaining her confidence under the guidance of Jonas Eidevall and

, her mother's terminal ovarian cancer diagnosis that fuelled the best season of her career yet, England's triumphant Euros campaign, and her

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

for gender and LGBT equality, particularly in football. It became a ''Sunday Times'' bestseller, eventually going on to win the Sunday Times award for autobiography of the year in May 2023. Mead's book for younger readers, ''Roar: A Football Hero's Guide to Dreaming Big and Playing the Game You Love'' () was published in June 2023.

Personal life

In 2015, Mead won the first

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

Open Egg Throwing Championships in her village,

. In October 2022, after her successful UEFA Women's Euro 2022 campaign, Mead revealed it was her mother's terminal ovarian cancer diagnosis in summer 2021 that fuelled the best season in her career so far. She said, "It made me look at life a lot differently. My mum's now having a lot of her life taken away from her from this disease. I don't think you can waste time anymore worrying about things that are not worth worrying about." When the family was unsure if she would even be alive by the time Mead played in a home Euros, Mead made the conscious decision to "strip it all back" and just go out and play with freedom and youthful abandon. She said, "My motivation was my mum. … I wanted to make her proud. I wanted to make her happy." She said that she had spent all year "trying to put a smile on my mum's face." Mead's mother died on 7 January 2023. Mead has previously been in relationships with Rachael Laws when at

and then-

teammate

Daniëlle van de Donk Daniëlle van de Donk (; born 5 August 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club London City Lionesses and the Netherlands national team. She helped her national team to win the UEFA Euro ...

. Mead is currently in a relationship with former Arsenal teammate

, who currently plays for

. Mead is good friends with her former Arsenal teammate

. She used to look up to Nobbs as Nobbs was at the

Centre of Excellence in the age group above her and was known as a huge talent at England youth teams. Since Mead had a similar pathway to Nobbs: Middlesbrough Centre of Excellence, Sunderland, then Arsenal; Mead has joked that she followed Nobbs.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mead goal.''

Honours

Sunderland *

Women's Super League 2 The Women's Super League 2, also known as Barclays Women's Super League 2 for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in England, operated by WSL Football. It is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The div ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Women's Premier League: 2011–12,

* Women's Premier League Cup: 2011–12 Arsenal *

: 2018–19 *

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

runners-up: 2017–18,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Women's League Cup The Women's League Cup, also known as the Subway Women's League Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since t ...

: 2017–18,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2023–24; runners-up: 2018–19, 2019–20 *

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

: 2024–25 England #

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Arnold Clark Cup The Arnold Clark Cup is an invitational women's association football tournament hosted by the Football Association in England, starting in 2022. It is named after car retailer Arnold Clark, who signed a multi-year sponsorship deal. ITV acts as t ...

SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup is an invitational women's association football, women's soccer tournament held in different cities in the United States in late February or early March. In its first three years (2016, 2017, and 2018), it was contested by t ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

England U19 *

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is an annual competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belon ...

runner-up:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Individual * WPL Golden Boot: 2011–12,

Forward of the Decade: 2011–2020 *

Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 *

Player of the Year: 2011–12,

, 2015–16 *

Silver Boot:

* England Young Player of the Year: 2015, 2018 *North East FWA Player of the Year:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

* WSL Player of the Season:

* WSL Golden Boot:

: 2015–16 *

: 2015–16, 2017–18 * WSL Top Assist Provider: 2018–19, 2021–22 * WSL Goal of the Season: 2018–19 * FSA Player of the Year: 2018, 2022 * WSL Player of the Month: March 2019, April 2019, September 2021 *

Ballon d'Or Féminin The Ballon d'Or Féminin (), also known as the Women's Ballon d'Or, is an association football award presented by ''France Football'' that honours the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Overview The Ballon d'Or ...

runner-up: 2021–22 * UEFA Player of the Year runner-up: 2021–22 *

: 2021–22 *

Player of the Season: 2021–22 *

Supporters Club Player of the Season: 2021–22 * PFA Fan's Player of the Month: November 2021, September 2022 * BBC Women's Footballer of the Year: 2022 * ''World Soccer'' World Player of the Year: 2022 * ''The Guardian'' 100 Best Footballers in the World runner-up: 2022 * IFFHS World's Best Player runner-up: 2022 *

FIFA FIFPRO Women's World 11 The FIFPRO World 11 are the best association football men's and women's teams of the year. FIFPRO invites all professional men's and women's footballers to compose the teams. Initially known as the FIFPRO World 11, the award began in 2005 and c ...

IFFHS World Team The IFFHS World Team is a football award given annually since 2017. The award is given by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). Men's winners List of winners In 2017, IFFHS started to nominate a world team ...

: 2022 *

Player of the Tournament:

Golden Boot:

Top Assist Provider:

Team of the Tournament:

Player of the Month: September 2022 Media *

* AIPS European Sportswoman of the Year runner-up: 2022 * SJA Sportswoman of the Year: 2022 * Yorkshire Young Achievers Personality of the Year: 2022 * Yorkshire Sports Performer of the Year: 2022 *''Yorkshire Post'' Sports Hero of the Year: 2019 * Scarborough and District Sports Awards ** Special Achievement Award: 2023 ** Top Female Achiever: 2013, 2014, 2015 ** Mavis Clayton Memorial Trophy for Outstanding Achievement: 2012 * SportsByte Sports Person of the Year: 2014, 2015 State and civic honours *

(MBE) for services to association football:

*Freedom of the

Borough of Scarborough The Borough of Scarborough () was a non-metropolitan district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. In addition to the town of Scarborough, it covered a large stretch of the coast of Yorkshire, including Whitby and Filey. It bordere ...

: 2023 *

Freedom of the City of London The Freedom of the City of London started around 1237 as the status of a 'free man' or 'citizen', protected by the charter of the City of London and not under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord. In the Middle Ages, this developed into a freedom or ...

: 2022 Records Continental * Most goals in a single edition of the

: 6 (

) England * Most goals for England in a season by either gender: 20 (2021–22) * First English player of either gender to win both the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament at the Euros or World Cup (

) * Most goals at a single major tournament by an England player of either gender: 6 (

) * First woman to score a hat-trick at Wembley for England ( vs

) Women's Super League * All-time most assists: 42 * All-time second-most goal contributions: 97 * Most assists in a season: 12 ( 2018–19) * Most chances created in a season: 72 ( 2021–22) * Most chances created from open play in a season: 54+ ( 2021–22) * First player to create 50 open play chances in a single season ( 2021–22) * Second-most chances created in a calendar year: 46 (2022) * Youngest Golden Boot winner: 20 (

) * Most goals in the first ten games for a club: 11 (

) * Most Player of the Month awards: 3 (March 2019, April 2019, September 2021) * Second-fastest hat-trick: 18 minutes ( vs Chelsea) * Most combined goals between two players: 22 (with

) Other * First women's footballer to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (

) * First Arsenal and former or current Sunderland player of either gender to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (

) * Second out LGBTQ+ player to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (

) * Second English footballer of either gender to win the ''World Soccer'' World Player of the Year award. (2022) * First footballer to win the SJA Sportswoman of the Year award (2022) * First women's footballer to be shortlisted in Fans' Footballer of the Year (2022)

Notes

References

External links

Profile
at the Arsenal F.C. website
Profile
at the Football Association website * * *
Beth Mead
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Beth Living people 1995 births 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century English LGBTQ people Alumni of Teesside University Arsenal W.F.C. players English LGBTQ footballers English autobiographers English women's footballers England women's international footballers England women's under-23 international footballers FA Women's National League players Footballers from North Yorkshire LGBTQ people from Yorkshire Members of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from Whitby, North Yorkshire Sunderland A.F.C. Women players UEFA Women's Championship–winning players UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players Women's association football forwards English women autobiographers Women's Super League players 21st-century English sportswomen BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players

Early life

Youth career

Club career

Sunderland, 2011–16

2011–13: Back-to-back WPL titles and Golden Boot awards

2014: Leading Sunderland's promotion

2015–16: The youngest WSL Golden Boot winner

Arsenal, 2017–present

2017–18: Second England Young Player of the Year Award

2018–19: WSL title and most assists in a season record

2019–21: New long-term contract and the COVID-19 pandemic

2021–22: WSL all-time assists leader and Arsenal Player of the Season

2022: WSL all-time second-most goal contributions and ACL injury

2023–24: Return from ACL injury

2024–25

International career

2010–17: Youth

2018: Senior debut

2019–20: World Cup and England Player of the Year finalist

2021–22: Record-breaking European champion

UEFA Women's Euro 2022

2022–23: Post-Euros acclaim

2023: Squad return

Advocacy

Beth Mead scholarship

Women's football

Ovarian Cancer Action

Other

Books

Personal life

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

See also

Notes

References

External links