England Star Ellen White Announces Retirement From Football

Manchester City and England striker Ellen White has sprung a surprise in the world of women’s football by announcing her retirement from the game.

The 33-year-old has scored a record 52 goals for the Lionesses and was part of the all-conquering side that recently won Euro 2022.

White has had an amazing career, dating back to 2005 when she made her debut for Chelsea. She made 48 appearances for the London Club and scoring 21 goals in a three-year spell with the Blues.

In 2018 White made the move up north to play for Leeds Carnegie where she played 24 games in a two-year spell, notching up 17 goals.

During this time, she made her international debut in an England shirt and went on to play for the Lionesses on no less than 113 occasions after making her debut against Austria back in March 2010.

White has also featured for Notts County, Birmingham City and Manchester City where she has won both the Women’s FA Cup and FA WSL Cup twice in the course of three seasons.

The Aylesbury born forward has also been named England women’s player of the year three times. A Golden Boot WSL winner once in 2018 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Bronze Boot in 2019.

White has had an eventful career having missed most of the 2014 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury. In June 2016 she scored her first international goals in nearly three years when she bagged a brace in England’s 7-0 win over Serbia in European Championship qualifying campaign.

She has certainly faced criticism at times over dips in form but has always answered her critics by bouncing back and delivering goals.

Overall she has been a true professional and a credit to her sport. Her retirement from the sport comes two weeks before England are due to play Austria and Luxembourg in their final World Cup qualifiers and would dearly have wanted to add to her tally of 52 goals for England- one short of Wayne Rooney’s all-time goal scoring record.

But White has never been one for records and thinking of herself, she has always put her team mates first.

Legend is a word sometimes overused, but on some occasions, it should be used. For the sake of English women’s football in this instance it should defiantly be used.

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