Leah Williamson

Williamson made her senior team debut the day after her seventeenth birthday when she came on as an 81st-minute substitution for Rachel Yankey in Arsenal's 0–2 defeat to Birmingham City in the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final.

She made her FA WSL debut on 16 April against Notts County.

Leah Cathrine Williamson (born 29 March 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays for Women's Super League club Arsenal and captains the England women's national team.

A versatile player, she plays in central defence or the midfield.

She has spent her entire senior domestic career at Arsenal.

She also represented Great Britain at the Olympics in 2021.

Williamson captained England to their first UEFA European Championship victory, and the women's team's first international title, in 2022, for which she was named in the Team of the Tournament.

Leah Cathrine Williamson was born on 29 March 1997 in Milton Keynes and grew up in Newport Pagnell on the northern edge of the urban area, attending Portfields School for primary education and Ousedale School for secondary.

She comes from a divided footballing family, with her brother and father fans of North London team Tottenham Hotspur, while she, her mother and grandmother are lifelong fans of Arsenal F.C. (Spurs' main rivals).

Williamson's mother played football when she was younger, cutting her hair short so that she would look like a boy and be allowed to play.

In 2006, she was selected as the mascot to the Arsenal men's team in a league cup match at the Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion, despite being on holiday, her mother, drove her the 430 mile round trip from Bude to ensure her dream was fulfilled, she was rewarded with a photo with Arsenal's Theo Walcott.

Williamson joined Arsenal's Centre of Excellence in 2006 at the age of nine.

In 2007, she was selected as a mascot for the Lionesses and accompanied Kelly Smith, the captain at the time and a future teammate who Williamson would later follow when she became England captain.

Smith autographed a photo for Williamson and told her to "dream big".

After watching long jumper Greg Rutherford, who also comes from Milton Keynes, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Williamson briefly considered switching her focus to athletics, a sport she had local experience in, inspired to become an Olympic athlete.

Williamson joined Rushden & Diamonds Centre of Excellence at the age of 6.

On that period, Williamson said, "My coach at the time left to go to Arsenal. I went across with her and had a couple of trials and luckily they took me on and I never looked back from there. So I owe it all to my coach from when I was 9."

After being part of Arsenal's youth programme from the age of nine, Williamson debuted for the senior team as a teenager at the end of their 2014 Champions League campaign; she started for them in the League Cup final that year, in which she had individual success.

With Arsenal, Williamson has won the League once and the FA Cup and League Cup twice each.

She has captained Arsenal on various occasions and reached 200 appearances for them in December 2022.

She won her first major title, the 2014 FA Women's Cup with Arsenal on 1 June in the final against Everton, in which she came on as a 76th-minute substitute for Jade Bailey.

On 13 July, Williamson netted her first professional goal for Arsenal in a 4–0 win away against Millwall Lionesses in the League Cup.

On 4 September, she scored her first league goal against Chelsea.

She made 12 appearances in the 2014 FA Women's Super League.

Williamson played in the 2014 League Cup final against Manchester City which Arsenal lost 1–0.

At the end of the 2014 season, she was named the League Cup Player of the Year, ahead of Jess Clarke from Notts County, Ji So-yun from Chelsea and Toni Duggan from Manchester City.

On 8 January, Williamson won the England Women's Youth Player of the Year award.

On 26 April, she was named the 2014–15 PFA Young Women's Player of the Year.

Williamson scored her first goal of the season in a convincing 3–0 home victory over Watford in the League Cup on 23 July.

Williamson was a key figure in the club's victorious League Cup campaign, after the quarter final win over holders Manchester City, who had beaten Arsenal in the final, Williamson said, "I think Arsenal as a football club have won a lot of trophies in the past and we wanted to keep winning silverware for the club. Even with the younger players in the squad we all thought we have got to win, the morale was certainly high before the game. Last year’s final was always in the back of our mind and we know how good a side City can be. After going 1–0 up it was all about defending which we managed to do and it was a great result for us. I think we can win the cup as we have won it three times but we have to keep on focusing on the next game."

Before the start of the 2015 FA Women's Super League, on 31 March, Williamson signed her first professional contract with Arsenal.

Williamson helped her team reach the final of the FA Cup of 2016, which Arsenal won by a 1–0 margin over Chelsea.

Williamson was ever-present in the 2017–18 FA WSL Cup as Arsenal ended as Champions beating the defending champions, Manchester City in the final.

Arsenal's league campaign was more disappointing with Arsenal missing out a top two finish and Champions League qualification for the sixth consecutive edition of the WSL.

She started the season in midfield but switched to central defence with the arrival of new manager Joe Montemurro in December 2017.

On her change of position, Williamson said, "I’m not sure in the long term and I never want to shut the door on either position, because I know I can do both. But I’m enjoying playing as a centre back with the way we play. Under Joe we want to play out from the back and that suits my qualities. At the minute I am enjoying playing at centre half, but I’m open minded about what the future holds."

Towards the end of the season, Williamson reflected on the season since Montemurro took over, "I feel like since Joe came in we’re back on a journey again, we had lost that a little bit. Despite today, I feel like we’re building something. But pretty much every game we have played since around November has been a must win game and that takes its toll emotionally. In every single game we have known no less than a win will do, in the league and in the cups."

Williamson represented England for all their age-group teams before making her senior debut in 2018, for 2019 FIFA World Cup qualifying.

She was used sparsely in her first years with England, then became a regular under manager Sarina Wiegman, who also made her permanent captain in 2022.

On 14 October 2018, Arsenal laid down a marker in their title challenge with a 5–0 thrashing of champions Chelsea, inflicting a first home defeat on the champions since July 2016.