Erin Cuthbert

Erin Jacqueline Cuthbert (born 19 July 1998) is a Scottish footballer who plays for Chelsea in the FA WSL and is a member of the Scotland national team. She studied at University of the West of Scotland, combining graduation from the Open University with being a professional football player.

Club career

Scottish football
Cuthbert played for five years at Rangers, making her Scottish Women's Premier League debut in September 2013 and being named the league's Young Player of the Year for the 2014 season. She transferred to Glasgow City in January 2015 and was part of the City team that won the domestic treble in 2015 then retained the SWPL title in 2016, though lost in both cup finals to Hibernian.

Chelsea
On 8 December 2016, Cuthbert left Glasgow City to join FA WSL club Chelsea. On 19 March 2017, she made her debut for the Blues in a 7–0 win over Doncaster Rovers Belles in the fifth round of the Women's FA Cup. On 30 April 2017, she made her league debut and scored the team's fourth goal in a 6–0 home victory against Yeovil Town. She finished her first season with 4 goals and 2 assists in 7 appearances in all competitions. On 15 November 2017, Cuthbert made her UEFA Women's Champions League debut for the Blues in a 1–0 win over FC Rosengård. On 4 February 2018, she scored her first hat-trick for the club in a 10–0 victory against London Bees in the fourth round of the Women's FA Cup.

Cuthbert was nominated for the PFA Women's Players' Player of the Year award in the 2018–19 season. During that season, she scored in Champions League ties with Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon.

Cuthbert signed a new contract with Chelsea in November 2022, which is due to run until the end of the 2024–25 season.

International career

Youth career 
Cuthbert represented Scotland at school, under 15, under 17, and under 19 level.  In August 2013, she took part with the U-17 national team in her home country in the first qualifying round for the 2014 Under-17 European Championship and scored the last goal in a 5-1 win against Montenegro.  After another 5-1 win over Northern Ireland, they lost 4-0 to the Czech Republic but finished runners-up in the second round. They went on to win the finals as group winners they had won the direct comparison against the Norwegians who had the same number of points. At the end of November and beginning of December 2013, she also took part in the early finals in England. There, however, they could only win a point in a goalless draw against eventual finalists Spain. They lost 4-2 to eventual winner Germany and 1-0 to France in the last game. In October 2014, she then took part with the team in Croatia in the first round of qualifying for the 2015 U-17 European Championship, which she came through with three wins, contributing a goal in each game. In the second round in Poland in March 2015, they beat the hosts and Slovakia but lost the third crucial game against France 3-1 and were fourth-best runners-up.

In September 2015, she took part with the U-19 team in the first qualifying round in Austria for the 2016 Under-19 European Championship. After beating Ukraine 3-2 and Albania 4-2, they won the decisive match against the hosts 2-1, scoring the winning goal.  In the second round in April 2016 in Portugal they could only win the first game against Greece 1-0. After a 1-1 draw against the hosts, they still had a chance of reaching the finals by beating France, but lost 2-0 and were eliminated as third in the group. In September 2016, she made a fresh start with the team in the first qualifying round in Albania for the 2017 Under-19 European Championship. After beating the hosts 11-0, in which she scored five goals, and beating Cyprus 8-0, nine Scottish players fell ill with gastrointestinal problems and were unable to play in the final game against Serbia. The UEFA then assessed the game lost 0:3 against Serbia, but they still reached the second round as the second-best runners-up. This took place in Ireland in April 2017 and with three wins the Scots reached the finals to be held in Northern Ireland in August. Cuthbert scored the winning goal from penalties in both 2-1 wins against Ireland and Finland and two goals in the 5-0 win against Ukraine, giving her a total of ten goals in both qualifying rounds. However, she was not nominated for the finals.

Senior career 
Cuthbert made her senior debut on 7 June 2016, coming on as a second-half substitute for Rachel Corsie in a 1-0 win over Belarus in qualifying for Euro 2017. She scored her first senior international goal in her third international match on 20 January 2017, in a 2-2 draw against Denmark during a training camp in Cyprus.  In March 2017, she then took part with the team at the 2017 Cyprus Cup, where she came to two starts.

She was then the youngest Scottish player to be called up for the finals of the European Championship, for which the Scots had qualified for the first time. She came on as a substitute in the 63rd minute of the 6-0 defeat by England. In the second game against Portugal, also in their first game, she came on as a substitute ten minutes early and scored Scotland's first European Championship goal in the 68th minute to equalize in the meantime. Four minutes later, the Portuguese were able to take the lead again and hold it until the end. Despite the two defeats, they still had a chance to reach the quarter-finals by winning by two goals in the last game against Spain when England beat Portugal at the same time. The English also did them a favor and her teammate Caroline Weir was able to beat the Spaniards for the first time with the second goal of the tournament for the Scots, but one goal was not enough. Erin was in this game for the first time in the starting XI of a competitive game and played over 90 minutes.

Cuthbert was one of seven Scots to play all eight games in qualifying for the 2019 World Cup. She was the team's top scorer with four goals, along with Jane Ross. The Scots qualified for the World Cup for the first time, where, like at the European Championship, they met England in the first game.

On May 15, 2019, she was nominated for the World Cup.  At the World Cup, she played in the three group games. After losing 2-1 to England and Japan, Cuthbert scored for Scotland in the 3–3 draw with Argentina. After that, however, they had to concede three more goals, including the decisive third goal in the fourth minute of added time from a penalty kick repeated according to video evidence. As a result, the Scots were eliminated after the group stage.

In the subsequent failed qualification for the Euro 2022, Cuthbert had seven appearances and scored three goals. In the first five games of the qualification 2023 World Cup, she was always used and scored two goals.

Career statistics

Club

International appearances
Scotland statistics accurate as of match played 14 July 2023.

International goals
. Scotland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Cuthbert goal.

Honours

Club
Glasgow City
 SWPL: 2015, 2016
 SWPL Cup: 2015
 Scottish Women's Cup: 2015

Chelsea
 FA WSL: 2017, 2017–18, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23
 Women's FA Cup: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23

 FA Women's League Cup: 2020–21
 FA Community Shield: 2020
UEFA Women's Champions League: Runner-up 2020–21

Individual
Scotland Player of the Year: 2019, 2021
 PFA WSL Team of the Year: 2018–19
Chelsea Player of the Year: 2019

In July 2023, Cuthbert was given a honorary doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland.

References

External links 

 
Erin Cuthbert profile at Chelsea FC

1998 births
Living people
Scottish women's footballers
Footballers from Irvine, North Ayrshire
Scottish Women's Premier League players
Women's Super League players
Scotland women's international footballers
Glasgow City F.C. players
Rangers W.F.C. players
Chelsea F.C. Women players
Women's association football midfielders
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players
Alumni of the University of the West of Scotland
UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players
Scotland women's youth international footballers