Drew Spence (born 23 October 1992) is a 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

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 ...

club

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

. Born in England she played for the

England national football team The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

in 2015, and as of 2021, represents

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Club career

Chelsea

Chelsea and England teammate Gilly Flaherty recalled playing alongside Spence in the

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 ...

Centre of Excellence. Spence progressed to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

's youth team, before signing for Chelsea in 2008. Spence and Chelsea reached the

FA Women's 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 ...

final for the first time in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, but were eventually beaten by

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

after twice taking the lead in a 2–2 draw. Spence's effort was saved by Becky Spencer. In 2015, Spence won her first ever major trophy, in the 2015 FA Women's Cup Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Spence secured her first

FA WSL 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 ...

title as her team beat

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 ...

4–0 in October 2015 to secure the League and Cup "

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

". At the end of the season Spence signed a new two-year contract with Chelsea. During a 5–0 thrashing by

in October 2018, Spence left

Kim Little Kim Alison Little (born 29 June 1990) is a Scottish professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal of the English Women's Super League. Before her retirement from international ...

nursing a broken leg with what Arsenal's website described as a "heavy tackle". The match officials were criticised for failing to send off Spence, who left Little ruled out for around ten weeks. In 2020 Spence signed a new contract that will see her stay with Chelsea until 2022.

Tottenham Hotspur

In June 2022, Spence signed a two-year contract with

, leaving Chelsea as their longest serving player.

International career

National coach

Mark Sampson Mark Geraint Sampson (born 18 October 1982) is a Welsh football coach who was most recently a first team coach at Stevenage F.C., Stevenage. Born in Creigiau, Wales, Sampson played amateur football for Cardiff Corinthians F.C., Cardiff Corinthi ...

gave Spence her first senior call up in October 2015, in an understrength squad for the 2015 Yongchuan International Tournament. She won her first England

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

on 23 October 2015, as a substitute in England's 2–1 defeat to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

. In September 2017, Spence's Chelsea team-mate

Eniola Aluko Eniola Aluko (born 21 February 1987) is a British football executive, football broadcaster and former professional player who played as a winger and striker. Aluko has been a regular broadcaster for live football on ITV, BT Sport, Amazon Prim ...

was pursuing allegations of racial discrimination against

The FA The Football Association (the FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsibl ...

through the pages of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper. Spence was drawn into the controversy when she was revealed as the previously-anonymous "The Player" who was said to have been "upset and offended" by Mark Sampson on the trip to China. In November 2022, Spence was recognized by

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

as one of the England national team's legacy players, and as the 192nd women's player to be capped by England. Spence qualified for

through her heritage and made her debut on 24 October 2021.

International goals

Personal life

Spence's brother Lewwis Spence is also a professional footballer. Spence spoke on a podcast in 2020 about being part of the LGBT+ community.

Honours

Chelsea *

FA 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 ...

(5):

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 ...

, 2017–18, 2019–20,

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 ...

, 2021–22 *

FA WSL Spring Series The FA WSL 1 Spring Series was an interim edition of the FA WSL between the sixth and seventh full seasons. The Spring Series ran from February to May 2017 to bridge the gap from the 2016 FA WSL season which ran from March to September as a summer ...

(1): 2017 *

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 ...

(4): 2014–15, 2017–18,

, 2021–22 *

FA 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 ...

(2): 2019–20,

Women's FA Community Shield The Women's FA Community Shield was an association football competition in England. It was a national super cup, and the equivalent of the FA Community Shield in male football. It was the first competitive match of the football season. The match ...

(1):

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Individual *

CONCACAF W Championship The CONCACAF W Championship is a women's association football competition for national teams organized by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) that often serves as the qualifying competition ...

Best XI:

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 ...

References

External links

*
Drew Spence
at

Chelsea FC Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club was founded in 1905 and named after neighbouring area Chelsea. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, pl ...

Drew Spence profile
at

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

Drew Spence news
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Drew 1992 births Living people Dual internationalists (women's football) Jamaican women's footballers 21st-century Jamaican sportswomen Women's association football midfielders Jamaica women's international footballers Footballers from London English women's footballers Arsenal W.F.C. players English LGBTQ footballers Jamaican lesbians LGBTQ people from London English lesbian sportswomen Fulham F.C. Women players Chelsea F.C. Women players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Women players FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players England women's under-23 international footballers England women's international footballers English people of Jamaican descent Sportspeople of Jamaican descent Black British sportswomen 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century English sportswomen