Beth Mead
Bethany Jane Mead (born 9 May 1995) is an English footballer who plays as a forward for Arsenal and the England national team. She was twice-named Vauxhall England Young Player of the Year in 2015 and 2018 and was awarded the PFA Women's Young Player of the Year award in 2016. In 2015, she earned the FA Women's Super League's Golden Boot award as the league's top scorer. Mead previously played for Sunderland. Club career. Sunderland, 2011–17. Mead began her youth career at California Girls FC before joining Middlesbrough F.C. Centre of Excellence  at age 10 before moving at age 16 to Sunderland, then in the FA Women's Premier League. In her first season she scored 23 goals in as many games, and ended the season with 29 goals in all competitions, followed by 30 goals in 28 matches the following season, and 15 goals in the 2014 FA WSL season to lead Sunderland to promotion to WSL 1. Although Mead turned professional upon Sunderland's promotion, she resolved to finish her final year at University. In her first match at the top level, Mead scored in Sunderland's shock 2–1 win  over reigning champions Liverpool. On 19 July 2015, Mead scored a hat-trick 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, sending Sunderland to the top of the WSL 1. She ended the 2015 season as leading goalscorer in the WSL1 with 12 goals in 14 appearances. Arsenal, 2017–. On 24 January 2017, it was announced that Arsenal Ladies had signed Mead on an undisclosed -length full-time deal. At Arsenal, summer 2017 signing Vivianne Miedema 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 WSL Continental Tyres Cup with Mead scoring in the knockout rounds against her former club  Sunderland in the Quarter Final and against Reading in the semi final. Mead finished the 2017–18 season as Arsenal's top goalscorer in the league with 8 goals and was voted Arsenal's player of the season. Despite this, Arsenal missed out on qualification to the 2018–19 Champions League. On missing out on Champions League qualification, Mead said, "It’s a bit frustrating, we had a few results this season where we slipped up and that was our fault. That took it out of our own hands today and Manchester City deserved to finish above us in the end." By  the 2018–19 season, Mead had fully reinvented herself as a versatile winger under Joe Montemurro and built up a good relationship on the pitch with Arsenal leading goalscorer Vivianne Miedema combining nine times to score, more than any other duo. She also broke the record for most assists in a single season with 12 and created more chances than any other Arsenal player with 54. She finished third in the WSL for total goal contributions with 7 goals along with her 12 assists. Mead capped a great season off by scoring the 3rd goal in Arsenal's 4–0 title clinching  win at Brighton and Hove Albion on 28 April 2019. Mead signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal on 28 November 2019. She 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, which led to her being omitted from the England squad for the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. During a match against Chelsea on 15 November 2020, Mead scored in the 86th minute of the 1–1 draw. And then she scored twice against Chelsea at The Emirates against the defending champions where  the match ended 3-2. International career. Mead has represented England at every age level from under-15, and played in all three England under-20 matches at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup where she scored a long-range goal against Mexico. In April 2018, Mead made her debut for the senior England women's national football team as a substitute in a 0–0 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification draw with Wales in Southampton. She started her first match in September 2018, scoring twice in England's 6–0 win over Kazakhstan in Pavlodar. In February 2019, Mead  scored a "stunning" game-winning goal against Brazil during England's first match of the 2019 SheBelieves Cup. A few days later, she scored during the team's 3–0 against Japan to win the tournament. On 9 April, she scored the game-opening goal in the 36th minute against Spain lifting England to an eventual 2–1 win. Mead started in the first two games of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France. She provided the assist to Jodie Taylor's goal during the team's second group stage match against Argentina — a 1–0 win. After finishing first in  Group D and defeating Cameroon 3–0 in the Round of 16, England faced Norway in the quarter-finals. During the 3–0 win, Mead provided the assist on Lucy Bronze's goal in the 57th minute lifting England to a 3–0 win. During the semi-final against 2015 champions, the United States, Mead started on the left flank for England and provided the assist on Ellen White's equalizer goal in the first half of the match. England was ultimately defeated 2–1. The semi-final match was the most watched programme on UK television thus far in 2019, with 11.7 million  viewers. In October 2019, Mead scored England's game-winning goal against Portugal. Later that month, she created more chances than any other player during a 2-1 loss against Brazil in front of a record-breaking 29,238 fans at Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough. On 9 November 2019, she competed in a 2–1 loss against Germany in front of a record-breaking 77,768 spectators at Wembley Stadium. In February 2020, Mead was left off the squad for the 2020 SheBelieves Cup due to injury. On 23 October 2021, Mead scored a first international hat-trick as England defeated Northern Ireland  4–0 with all four goals coming within a fourteen minute second-half spell. On 8 April 2022, Mead scored a third international hat-trick (her second was against Latvia) and four goals as England defeated North Macedonia 10-0. Personal life. Whilst playing for Sunderland, Mead gained a degree in Sports Development from Teesside University. She was in a relationship with former Arsenal teammate Danielle van de Donk. In popular culture. We Play Strong. In February 2020, Mead joined "#WePlayStrong", a social media and vlogging campaign which was launched in 2018. The campaign's "...aim is to promote women's  football as much as we can and to make people aware of women's football, really". "The ultimate goal is to make football the most played sport by females by 2020." The series, which also originally included professional footballers Lisa Evans, Sarah Zadrazil, Eunice Beckmann, Laura Feiersinger and now also includes Petronella Ekroth and Shanice van de Sanden, follows the daily lives of female professional footballers. Her fitness routines have been shared online as part of the "#TrainAtHome" series. Honours. Sunderland Arsenal England Individual