After pulling off a exceptional within the Ladies’s Champions League semi-finals final month, Arsenal are 90 minutes away from European glory.
Barcelona stand between Renee Slegers’ aspect and a second European crown, 18 years for the reason that Gunners final appeared within the closing.
Commercial
In April 2007, Arsenal turned the primary – and to this point solely – English aspect to win the competitors, then referred to as the Uefa Ladies’s Cup.
Vic Akers’ quadruple-winning group overcame Sweden’s Umea 1-0 on mixture in a two-legged closing, with Alex Scott’s long-range stunner in first leg injury-time proving the distinction.
That Arsenal group was full of legendary gamers who went on to attain exceptional feats each on and off the pitch.
Lining up towards the Gunners was a 21-year-old Brazilian ahead named Marta – everyone knows the place she ended up, however what occurred to Arsenal’s history-makers?
Emma Byrne
Goalkeeper Emma Byrne performed a key position in Arsenal’s dominance of the 2000s and early 2010s, profitable 11 top-flight league titles, 9 Ladies’s FA Cups and three League Cups.
Commercial
Over 16 years she made 459 appearances for Arsenal, essentially the most within the membership’s historical past.
The previous Republic of Eire worldwide was capped a document 134 occasions for her nation, and in 2018 turned the primary feminine participant to be inducted into the Irish Soccer Affiliation’s Corridor of Fame.
Byrne left Arsenal in December 2016 on the finish of her contract, and after enjoying for second tier Brighton within the 2017 Spring Sequence, introduced her retirement on the age of 38.
In 2019, she got here out of retirement to hitch Terrassa FC in Spain, however an Achilles harm compelled her to retire once more.
Byrne has since coached in Arsenal’s academy, labored as a goalkeeper coach with Eire and supplied punditry and commentary.
Alex Scott
Alex Scott turned to broadcasting after retiring from enjoying [Getty Images]
Alex Scott had three separate spells at Arsenal after graduating from the membership’s academy, making 313 appearances and profitable 18 main trophies.
Commercial
The fitting-back represented Nice Britain on the 2012 Olympic Video games and earned 140 caps for England, a complete bettered solely by former Gunners team-mate Karen Carney, Jill Scott and Fara Williams.
Since retiring in 2018, Scott has turn into one of many faces of BBC Sport, protecting each girls’s and males’s soccer.
She’s additionally branched out into non-sports broadcasting as an occasional host of The One Present.
Anita Asante
Anita Asante’s 20-year profession started at Arsenal after progressing by the membership’s youth ranks, the place she made 160 appearances.
After retiring in 2022, the previous defender turned a first-team coach at Bristol Metropolis, who she helped win promotion to the WSL, and has coached the England Underneath-23 group.
Commercial
Asante often seems as a pundit on BBC Sport’s protection of the WSL and the Ladies’s FA Cup.
Katie Chapman
Katie Chapman performed a key position in Arsenal’s success each in central midfield and defence, following spells with Millwall, Charlton and Fulham.
She spent seven years with the Gunners – with a brief spell with Chicago Purple Stars sandwiched within the center – earlier than leaving in 2013 to play for London rivals Chelsea.
Chapman – who earned 94 England caps – is now an envoy for Chelsea.
Mary Phillip
Versatile defender Mary Phillip solely spent 4 seasons at Arsenal between 2004 and 2008, however in each she helped the Gunners to league and FA Cup doubles.
Commercial
Phillip earned 65 caps for England and have become the primary black captain of the Lionesses.
After retiring in 2008 aged 31, following a quick stint with Chelsea, Phillip turned to teaching.
In 2019, she turned supervisor of males’s non-league aspect Peckham City – a place she nonetheless holds immediately – two years after she was identified with a number of sclerosis (MS).
A 12 months later they turned the primary senior males’s group to win a trophy with a feminine supervisor.
Karen Carney
Karen Carney received the FA Cup, the league title, the League Cup and the Uefa Ladies’s Cup in 2006-07 with Arsenal [Getty Images]
Karen Carney is maybe higher identified for her time at Chelsea and Birmingham Metropolis, however she was a key a part of the quadruple-winning aspect of 2007.
Commercial
The midfielder made appearances for England and represented Nice Britain on the 2012 London Olympics.
Since retiring in 2019, Carney has been a outstanding pundit on each males’s and ladies’s soccer for numerous broadcasters, protecting worldwide tournaments, Champions League and home competitions.
In 2022, she was appointed chair of the Way forward for Ladies’s Soccer Overview for the Division for Digital, Tradition, Media and Sport, trying into methods the federal government can develop girls’s soccer.
Jayne Ludlow
Jayne Ludlow performed 356 video games over 13 years at Arsenal, placing her third on the membership’s all-time look record.
Commercial
The midfielder scored 221 targets – essentially the most in membership historical past – and captained the aspect in each legs of the European closing. She additionally received 9 league titles and 6 FA Cups.
The previous Wales worldwide moved straight into teaching upon retiring in 2013, holding youth teaching roles with Arsenal and Wales.
Ludlow took cost of the Wales girls’s group in 2014 after a season managing Studying, earlier than spending three years as technical director of Manchester Metropolis Women’ Academy till early final 12 months.
Ciara Grant
With 403 appearances to her title, solely Emma Byrne has performed extra video games for Arsenal than Ciara Grant.
Commercial
The midfielder – who earned 105 caps for the Republic of Eire – introduced her 16-year affiliation with Arsenal to an finish by becoming a member of Studying in 2014, earlier than retiring a 12 months later.
Grant – who received 9 league titles with the Gunners whereas working full-time as a improvement officer for the membership – has had two youngsters since retiring.
Arsenal received an unprecedented quadruple in 2007 [Getty Images]
Rachel Yankey
Rachel Yankey loved two spells with Arsenal amounting to fifteen years, throughout which era she received eight top-flight league titles and 9 FA Ladies’s Cups.
She received one other two FA Cups and the league title throughout a four-year stint with Fulham, earlier than returning to Arsenal in 2005 the place she stayed till her retirement in 2016.
Commercial
The midfielder’s 314 appearances are the fourth most in membership historical past, whereas 129 England caps places her seventh on the all-time record.
Awarded each an OBE and MBE, Yankey is taken into account probably the most influential figures in girls’s soccer historical past.
Since retiring Yankey has coached at London Bees and Barnet, in addition to offering periods for school-age ladies.
Yankey additionally often works in broadcasting, and is an occasional visitor on the BBC’s Ladies’s Soccer Present.
Julie Fleeting
Julie Fleeting scored within the Ladies’s FA Cup closing towards Bristol Academy in 2011 [Getty Images]
Julie Fleeting is taken into account one of many pioneers of girls’s soccer, largely as a result of she helped forge a pathway for British gamers to play in the US.
Commercial
In 2002, the striker joined San Diego Spirit, turning into the primary Scot to play as a full-time skilled within the Ladies’s United Soccer Affiliation.
She joined Arsenal in 2004, the place she made 141 appearances and received eight league titles in eight years.
Fleeting stays Scotland’s most prolific goalscorer, with 116 in 121 video games.
For a lot of her time at Arsenal, the Scotland worldwide continued to work as a PE trainer, flying all the way down to London for matches.
Since retiring in 2016, Fleeting has continued to work as a PE trainer alongside broadcast work with BBC Scotland.
Lianne Sanderson
Ahead Lianne Sanderson joined Arsenal at 9 years previous, earlier than making her first-team debut at 15.
Commercial
She made 184 appearances over two spells with the Gunners, and earned 50 caps for England.
After enjoying in Spain, Cyprus, the US and Italy, Sanderson retired in 2019. The 37-year-old often covers girls’s soccer as a tv pundit.