Alex Scott blazing a trail
Profile of the flying full-back who is still making her footballing mark on and off the pitch
An England centurion, a six-time league champion, a seven-time Women’s FA Cup winner, scorer of the only goal when Arsenal won the Women’s Champions League, an Olympian, awarded an MBE and now a leading sports broadcaster.
Labelling Alex Scott as a legend of women’s football would almost be an understatement given her vast array of accomplishments.
Scott is also a champion of equality, not only in sport and media but in society as a whole, as FA director of football participation and development Kelly Simmons explained when Scott announced her international retirement in 2017.
“The women's game is in a very different place to when she started playing and Alex has played a big role in that,” said Simmons.
“She has always been committed to helping grow the game and has inspired many young girls to kick a ball or watch a game.
“She is a true role model for so many and will no doubt achieve huge success in the rest of her domestic career and whatever she does in the future.”
Raised on an east London council estate by her single mother, Scott would start her football career in a concrete cage amid a group of boys before being picked up by Arsenal when she was eight years old.
“Nobody grows up wanting to be a Gary Neville,” her Sky Sports colleague Jamie Carragher famously joked and perhaps that was the case for Scott, who broke into Arsenal’s first team as a striker but her transition to a full-back was a career-changing experience.
Her pace, skill and strength saw her develop into one of – if not the – best full-backs in England and her performances down the right would see her become a Women’s Premier League champion and an FA Cup winner before she made her international debut against the Netherlands in 2004.
That summer of 2004 also saw her move to Birmingham City but she would return to the Gunners after just one season in the Midlands.
Having appeared for England at the 2005 European Championships on home soil, Scott’s first season back with Arsenal saw her add another title and FA Cup to her cabinet but arguably her greatest moment in club football came in the 2006-07 campaign.
After winning the Community Shield and a domestic treble (league title, FA Cup and League Cup), Arsenal had a chance to become the first British side to win the Champions League – then known as the Women’s UEFA Cup.
And Scott etched her name indelibly in the European history books by scoring the all-important 91st-minute winner against Swedish side Umea IK in the first leg of the final.
A hard-fought 0-0 draw in the second leg at Meadow Park meant the Gunners wore the European crown and completed an incredible quadruple.
After that astonishing accomplishment and a couple more trophy-laden seasons in north London, Scott decided to take herself out of her comfort zone by testing herself in a foreign country – joining Boston Breakers in the United States in 2009.
Scott would make 55 appearances in Women’s Professional Soccer League for the Breakers before returning to Arsenal for a third and final spell in 2012.
Her service to the Gunners was rewarded when she was granted the captaincy in 2014 and she would add three more FA Cups to her tally during that third stint, as well as the Barclays FA WSL title in 2012.
Alongside her club career, Scott became a Lionesses stalwart – competing at four Euros (2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017) with a runners-up medal from the second of those, three World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2015) and was also selected for the Team GB squad at the 2012 Olympics in her home city of London.
She would retire from international football in an effort to start a career in broadcasting in 2017 and at the time she was England’s second most-capped player, with 140 appearances.
Scott earned individual recognition when awarded an MBE for services to football in the 2017 New Year Honours list and has become a household name in British broadcasting, becoming one the first female pundits for the BBC when she covered the 2018 men’s World Cup.
She has also worked for Sky Sports on Super Sunday and has more recently been announced as co-host for Goals on Sunday alongside Chris Kamara.
And her reach goes beyond football, with Scott speaking openly about receiving therapy for the effect online trolls had on her mental health during her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.
Her endeavours and struggles are relatable for so many others and while her achievements on the pitch aren’t likely to be forgotten, Scott is so much more than just a footballer with a bulging trophy cabinet.