Jennifer Patricia Beattie (born 13 May 1991) is a retired Scottish 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 played for

Bay FC Bay Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the San Francisco Bay Area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The team began play in the NWSL as an expansion team in the 2024 Nat ...

of the

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

and the Scotland national team. Her other clubs include

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

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 ...

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

and

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 ...

. Beattie is a tall, strong, right-footed player. Although typically a defender or midfielder, she is also an accomplished goalscorer. She is the daughter of former

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and British Lions

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player John Beattie.

Early life

Beattie began playing football with her brother

Johnnie Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Variant ...

and his friends, while at primary school. She was eventually selected to the Glasgow Primary School select team, as the only girl, and was named captain. Beattie then played with

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

's boys' teams.

Club career

Queen's Park

Beattie began her senior career in the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL (previously styled as ''SWPL 1'') and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of th ...

with Queen's Park FC Ladies as a 15-year-old. She helped the club reach the final of the Scottish Women's Premier League Cup in November 2007; Queen's Park lost 4–0 to a Hibernian Ladies team containing Beattie's future Arsenal teammate

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 ...

Celtic

In January 2008 Beattie moved to Celtic Ladies. She spent a year and a half with the club before leaving to join

Arsenal Ladies Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as just Arsenal, is an English professional women's association football, women's football club based in London Borough of Islington, Islington, London, England. The club plays in the FA Women' ...

Arsenal

Beattie joined

in July 2009; her first goals for Arsenal came on 8 November 2009 where she scored a stunning treble to seal a comeback against Chelsea after being 2–0 down at half-time. In March 2010, Beattie played in attack during Arsenal's 2–0 defeat by

FCR 2001 Duisburg FCR 2001 Duisburg (full name: ''Fußballclub Rumeln 2001 Duisburg'') was a German women's football club from Duisburg. The first team played in the Bundesliga (women), Bundesliga. They originate from a women's team formed in 1977 under the umbrel ...

in the quarter-final of the

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. ...

. While at Arsenal, she won the 2009 Women's Premier League, the 2011 and 2012

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 ...

, now called the Continental Cup, and the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

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 ...

FA Cups. In the 2012–13 Champions League, she scored the opening goal when Arsenal defeated Barcelona 3–0 in the round of 16 first leg at the

Mini Estadi Miniestadi (, meaning in English "Mini Stadium"), officially named "Miniestadi", was a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The 15,276-seat stadium was situated across from Camp Nou, the home stadium of FC Barcelona. The stadium was ...

; Barcelona managed to keep the return leg at Meadow Park goalless by half time, at which point Beattie was brought on as a second half substitute to replace forward

Kelly Smith Kelly Jayne Smith (born 29 October 1978) is an English former football forward who spent three spells with FA WSL club Arsenal. After moving to the United States, Smith broke records with Seton Hall University then played professionally with ...

. Beattie scored the first goal in the 53rd minute and completed her

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 ...

by converting a penalty in added time, with Arsenal winning 4–0.

Montpellier

Beattie left Arsenal in July 2013 to join French

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

side

Montpellier HSC Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (; ), commonly referred to as Montpellier HSC, is a French professional association football, football club based in the city of Montpellier in Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie. The original club was ...

on a two-year contract. While at Montpellier, she made 25 regular season appearances with the side, scoring 5 goals in the process.

Manchester City

Beattie returned to England with Manchester City Women for the 2015 season. In November 2018, she became the fifth player to reach 100 appearances for the club. She played a role in City's victories in the

2016 FA WSL The 2016 FA WSL 1 was the sixth edition of the FA WSL since it was formed in 2010. The WSL 1 was expanded to nine teams. The season started on 23 March and Chelsea were the defending WSL 1 champions. Manchester City Manchester Cit ...

, the 2016–17 and 2018–19 editions of the

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 ...

, and the

2018–19 FA Women's League Cup The 2018–19 FA Women's League Cup was the eighth edition of the FA Women's Super League and FA Women's Championship's league cup competition. It was sponsored by Continental AG, who sponsored the competition from its creation, and was officially ...

Melbourne City (loan)

Beattie joined Manchester City's sister club Melbourne City during Manchester City's offseason, before the third round of the 2015–16 W-League season. While at Melbourne City, she helped the club during its double W-League and

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

wins, as well as their 100% record season.

Return to Arsenal

Beattie rejoined

in June 2019, subsequently winning the FA Women's Super League in 2019, and the 2023 Continental Tyres League Cup in a final against local rivals Chelsea.

Bay FC

Beattie left Arsenal in a transfer for an undisclosed fee to

expansion club

on 2 February 2024, with her contract through the 2025 NWSL season with an option for 2026. But she chose to retire in 2025.

International career

Beattie represented

at under-17 level, and made her debut for the under-19s at the age of 14. Beattie made her debut for the senior Scotland side in March 2008, against 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 ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, as second-half substitute for

Leanne Ross Leanne Ross (born 8 July 1981) is a Scottish former football player and current coach who is in charge of Glasgow City. Primarily a midfielder who was also utilised in defence and attack at different stages of her career, Ross played at club ...

. She went on to establish herself in the national side during the 2009 European Championships qualifying campaign. She scored her first international goal as Scotland beat

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 ...

4–1 in a European Championship qualifying game in May 2008. Beattie played in both legs of the qualifying play-off defeat to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in October and November 2008. After the first leg, Beattie and

were identified by football writer

Graham Spiers Graham Spiers is a Scottish sports journalist who writes for the Scottish edition of ''The Times'' newspaper. He has won Scotland's Sports Journalist of the Year award four times. Spiers grew up in Edinburgh, Fife and Glasgow, and attended the U ...

as talented youngsters. In March 2011, Beattie played as a striker and scored in Scotland's 2–0 win over

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 ...

, the first time Scotland had beaten England since 1977. Beattie became a regular with the Scotland national team. While she was instrumental in helping Scotland reach its first major tournament, the 2017 UEFA Women's Euro Championship, she missed out on the tournament due to injury. She continued her contribution helping Scotland qualify for its first

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

, the 2019 tournament in France. On 15 May 2019 Beattie was named to the Scotland's 2019 Women's World Cup squad. In the group stage, she scored in the 3–3 tie with

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 ...

. On 27 January 2023, Beattie announced her retirement from international football, having made 143 appearances and scoring 24 goals.

Personal life

Beattie is the daughter of former

and British Lions

player John Beattie, and the sister of former Scottish rugby union international

Johnnie Beattie John William Beattie (born 21 November 1985) is a Scottish former rugby union player. A number 8, he played for Glasgow Warriors, Montpellier, Castres and Bayonne. Background Beattie is the son of former Scotland number 8 John Beattie and b ...

. She attended

Jordanhill School Jordanhill School, located in Jordanhill, Glasgow, educates children from age 4–19. It was formerly run by Jordanhill College of Education as its demonstration school, and was previously known as Jordanhill College School. Uniquely among Sc ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and on signing for Arsenal enrolled at Hertfordshire University. In October 2020, Beattie was diagnosed with

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

. Despite this Beattie scored in Arsenal's 5-0 win over Brighton just three days after being diagnosed. She had surgery to remove the lump and, as the cancer had not spread, began

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...

instead of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

. Despite treatment Beattie continued to appear for both Arsenal and Scotland. Beattie won the Helen Rollason Award for 2021, in recognition of her work since the cancer diagnosis. Beattie was appointed

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 services to association football and charity. She was dating television personality and former Love Island winner Amber Gill, however they split in November 2023 due to conflicting work schedules. Together with

Rachel Yankey Rachel Aba Yankey (born 1 November 1979) is a former English footballer who played as a winger or forward. Yankey is best known for her long association with Arsenal Ladies, for whom she played 15 seasons over two separate spells, and is rank ...

and

Izzy Christiansen Isobel Mary Christiansen (born 20 September 1991) is an English football pundit and former footballer who played as a midfielder or forward. She is known for her time with Manchester City Women between 2014 and 2018, and Everton (2019–2023). ...

, Beattie presented a podcast on

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 ...

Football

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, ''3 Players and A Podcast''. On Thanksgiving 2024,

Ali Krieger Alexandra Blaire Krieger (born July 28, 1984) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player who played as a right back or center back. She made more than 100 appearances for the United States women's national soccer team ...

confirmed that she and Jen Beattie were in a relationship.

Career statistics

International appearances

:''Scotland statistics accurate as of match played 11 April 2023.''

International goals

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

Honours

Arsenal *

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 ...

: 2008–09, 2009–10,

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 ...

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 ...

2010–11 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 ...

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 ...

FA WSL 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 ...

: 2012,

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 ...

Melbourne City *

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Fe ...

: 2015–16 Manchester City *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: 2016–17, 2018–19 *

, 2018–19 Individual * Northwest Football Awards Women's Player of the Year: 2018 * Helen Rollason Award: 2021 *

* Lauren Holiday Impact Award: 2024

References

External links

* *
Jen Beattie
at

(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beattie, Jen 1991 births Living people Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers Women's association football defenders Celtic F.C. Women players Arsenal W.F.C. players Montpellier HSC (women) players Manchester City W.F.C. players Melbourne City FC (women) players Footballers from Glasgow Scottish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in France Women's Super League players FIFA Women's Century Club Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Première Ligue players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Queen's Park Women players Members of the Order of the British Empire Scottish expatriate sportspeople in France Scottish LGBTQ footballers Scotland women's youth international footballers Bay FC players National Women's Soccer League players 21st-century Scottish sportswomen