Alex Scott

Alexandra Virina Scott (born 14 October 1984) is an English sports presenter, pundit, and former professional footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal in the FA WSL.

Alexandra Virina Scott was born on 14 October 1984 in Poplar, East London, to a British mother with Northern Irish, English and Lithuanian-Jewish heritage and a Jamaican father.

During the filming of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? in 2021, she discovered that her maternal great-grandfather was Jewish and opposed fascism in East London, and that her four times great-grandfather was a black man who owned twenty-six slaves.

Scott attended Langdon Park School which has been granted Sports College status.

In 2022, Scott revealed in her autobiography that she had been a victim of domestic abuse from her father during her childhood; she pledged that all proceeds from her book would go to help women affected by similar abuse.

Scott signed on with Arsenal in 1992, at the age of eight.

After breaking into the first team as a striker or right winger, she was later converted to full-back.

Scott competed at the U19 and U21 levels for England, including at the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship in Canada.

At club level, Scott has had three separate spells with Arsenal, punctuated with a season at Birmingham City in 2004–05 and three years in the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) with Boston Breakers.

Scott remained with Arsenal until the 2004–05 season, after which she moved to Birmingham City.

With the addition of Scott, the club finished fourth in the FA Women's Premier League National Division.

However, due to Birmingham's financial difficulties, she returned to Arsenal for the 2005–06 season.

Upon rejoining Arsenal, Scott helped the club to a domestic double of the FA Women's Premier League and FA Women's Cup.

She was also a key figure in Arsenal's historic "Quadruple" season in which they won all of their trophy competitions, including the 2006–07 UEFA Women's Cup.

Arsenal were the first ever British side to win the competition, with Scott scoring the only goal in the two-legged tie with Umeå IK.

She appeared in 22 Premier League games, scoring two goals.

In all competitions, she made 40 appearances and scored four goals.

She scored the winning goal for Arsenal in the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup Final.

The 2007–08 season saw Scott appear in 21 games, scoring once.

In all competitions, she made 35 appearances, scoring three goals.

In the 2008–09 season, Scott scored once in 13 games.

In all competitions, she made 24 appearances, adding two goals.

Upon the creation of a new women's league in the United States, Women's Professional Soccer, it was announced on 25 September 2008 that her WPS playing rights had been assigned to Chicago Red Stars, whose head coach was former Arsenal assistant Emma Hayes.

Her rights were traded on 15 January 2009 to Boston Breakers and it was announced on 6 February 2009 that she would be leaving Arsenal to join up with her new team.

In the inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Scott played in 17 games for the Breakers.

She scored one goal and added one assist.

In 2010, Scott featured in 21 games and registered two assists.

She started 14 of her 15 matches in 2011.

In December 2011, Scott returned to Arsenal on loan for the duration of a three-match pre-season tour of Japan.

She made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

When the WPS collapsed ahead of the 2012 campaign, Scott returned for a third spell at Arsenal.

She was joined by Boston teammate Kelly Smith.

Scott was named captain for the 2014–15 season.

She did not take part in the 2015 Continental Cup final where Arsenal Ladies beat Notts County to the Cup.

In the following season, Scott helped take Arsenal to the final of the 2016 FA Cup against Chelsea, which the Gunners won 1–0.

, Scott is a pundit for BBC Sport and Sky Sports and was featured during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

She also covers the English Premier League.

In October 2023, she won The Sport Award in the 2023 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards.

Scott played her last game on 12 May 2018 against Manchester City Women which Arsenal won 2–1.

In 2019, Scott was inducted to the English Football Hall of Fame.