Despite the season’s disappointing and abrupt conclusion we still wanted to reward the amazing work that goes on within women’s football.
Of course, there have been a number of stellar performers over the course of the season, such as Everton’s Chloe Kelly, Sheffield United’s Katie Wilkinson and Arsenal pair Miedema and Van De Donk. For our panel, we were all in agreement that this award should take pride of place on Beth England‘s mantlepiece, right next to her Barclays WSL Player of the Year Award.
Beth scored 14 Women’s Super League goals for the Blues in 2019-20 as they won the title ended the campaign as the club’s top goalscorer.
Jayne Owen from the Chelsea Women Supporters Group describes what Beth brought to the blues last season, “Consistency with a lot of hard work is what Beth has and she brought that to the team with humbleness and passion to win by always playing for the badge. She may be a forward but she helps the team at the back as well and I think it’s given the team extra power and support which has been needed in crucial games, whilst also assisting goals in build-up play.”
These strong performances led to Beth receiving her first call up to the Lionesses in August 2019. On both occasions she came on as a substitute for Jodie Taylor. So far she has picked up five caps and two goals, her first goal coming from a powerful header in a friendly against Brazil at The Riverside.
Jayne added, “With having a good season in the 18/19 season, she had to show that she was capable of keeping that standard up as the league got more competitive and she did that throughout which highlighted her season as a whole.
“Obviously her performance in the Conti Cup by scoring in the 4th minute and then getting us the win in the 90+2 minute is definitely a highlight for us as a team as we hadn’t of won the cup before. But that just reflects her whole season of scoring in critical moments in big games and being ready to give her all out on the pitch.”
On winning the award Beth told Since 71, “I’d like to thank Since 71 for nominating me as their player of the year. It’s a big honour to receive this trophy and it’s not just a testament to my season but also my teammates for helping me have a great year.” We cannot wait for next season to get up and running so we can present you with the award in person.
Blues fans will have been pleased to learn Beth commited her long-term future to Chelsea earlier this summer by signing a four-year contract until 2024.
Everyone at Since 71 is excited to watch Beth’s continued development and we see her having a huge role in Sarina Wiegman’s new look Lionesses and a hopefully a trip to Toyko with Team GB.
