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Chloe Kelly shot to the top of the Sports Personality of the Year odds by helping England win the Euros
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The smirk on Chloe Kelly’s face didn’t tell the whole story. Nonchalantly trotting towards England’s travelling supporters, one finger raised, half a smile spreading across her lips, her demeanour almost masked what she’d done. She broke character only to punch the air, before being mobbed by the stampede of team-mates bounding up behind her. Kelly’s ice-cold reaction to scoring the decisive penalty in the final of Euro 2025 was everything that has made her the team’s clutch star. She was the coolest person in the stadium, but why wouldn’t she be? For some time now, the 27-year-old has been England’s woman for the big moments.
Since tearing off her shirt to charge around Wembley in a sports bra after her winner in the final of the previous Euros, Kelly hasn’t stopped producing when her country has needed her. In 2023 alone, she scored the penalty that clinched the Finalissima against Brazil, won the golden boot as England lifted the Arnold Clark Cup, and netted the final spot-kick again to defeat Nigeria in a crucial World Cup shootout. CHLOE KELLY WINS IT FOR ENGLAND IN THE 119th MINUTE ? THE LIONESSES ARE IN THE EUROS FINAL! Absolute CHAOS. pic. twitter. com/CW92Yh GK4NJuly 22, 2025 Then came the Euros this summer. Every time the Lionesses needed a hero, Kelly donned her cape – setting up two quickfire goals to save the quarter-final against Sweden, scoring the winner in the semi-final with Italy, then providing the cross for Alessia Russo to level the final, before scoring the all-important decisive penalty in the shootout. The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week. “She thrives in those type of pressure situations, ” says ITV and TNT Sports pundit Lucy Ward. “She basically says, ‘I don’t mind having the limelight on me because I can handle it’. That takes the pressure off people who aren’t as bullish. She’s got to a level where she’s relied upon, not just by her coaches, but by her team-mates as well. ” Kelly’s evolution to serial protagonist can be traced back two decades, when she would join her five older brothers to play football in Southall’s Windmill Park Estate cage. It was on that concrete pitch in west London where her love for the game began to take hold.
“When you’re playing street football, you have to earn respect, ” explains Steve Quashie, Kelly’s junior coach at QPR from the age of eight. “You get that respect by having a no-fear attitude and a determination to not just be on a level playing field with players who are older, bigger, stronger – and in Chloe’s case, the opposite gender – but to be better than them. “It’s about doing those little things that get a reaction, whether that’s a nutmeg, a rainbow flick, a tackle or a goal. Being in that environment against older and physically stronger boys helped her develop the level of aggression needed in competitive situations. It gives you an edge. ” Kelly did more than simply survive – she flourished. It was those formative experiences that helped develop the jinky movement and fancy footwork that terrorised defences in Switzerland this summer, and spawned the mental toughness that has enabled her to overcome any setbacks. “I lived in the same borough as Chloe for many years, ” Quashie tells Four Four Two. “Through my work in schools with young groups, it was refreshing to hear boys of a similar age talking about how special she was and how many times they got out-skilled by her. They held her in high esteem. ” Naturally, Kelly was Quashie’s prized possession at QPR. She played with the swagger of a girl several years older and already had a right foot that could strike a ball with a power and accuracy that many in her age group couldn’t match. As a QPR season-ticket holder who idolised frontman Bobby Zamora, Kelly cherished every moment being around the club with unabashed enthusiasm. After playing in matches at Rangers’ Harlington training ground, she’d often be on the pitch after full-time, having a kickabout with her brothers until the groundsman shooed them off.
As an under-nine, Kelly got to play at Loftus Road in her first semi-competitive match against Enfield, and seized her chance. “She was wearing this baggy QPR kit, red-and-black hoops, it was drowning her, ” Quashie laughs. “But I remember her posing with her QPR sweatbands. Most of the players just went off to their parents at the end of the game, but Chloe had this natural pose of, ‘Yeah, I’m proud to be in my sweatbands’, like when Ronaldo scores and does his celebration. ” Scouts from bigger clubs soon started to hear about Kelly’s talent. Her head eventually overruled heart at the age of 12 when she joined Arsenal’s centre of excellence. She would make two-hour round trips to north London by train – returning home at 11pm each night, then going to school the next day. The Gunners were the dominant force in the women’s game and being an Arsenal graduate carried kudos. But it was difficult to break into the first team, and despite scoring 22 minutes into her debut as a 17-year-old, Kelly couldn’t nail down a regular place.
After turning 18 in 2016, she signed her first professional contract with Arsenal, but was loaned out to WSL 2 side Everton, helping the Toffees gain promotion before signing permanently. “As an Arsenal player, there was a level of expectation of the calibre of player who was coming into the building, ” recalls former Blue Simone Magill of her arrival. “But Chloe had a bit of flair about her. She wasn’t afraid to try things and express herself on the pitch. ” Magill became good friends with Kelly, driving the Londoner into training every day, and would get to see both sides of her new team-mate’s personality. The down-to-earth girl who was adjusting to life away from home for the first time and happily chatted away about her family and their dogs, and the fearless forward who bristled with a confidence unmatched by many others.
Kelly’s form for Everton earned a first international cap in a friendly against Austria in 2018, but it was after ankle surgery that she hit another level, with nine goals in 12 WSL appearances in 2019-20, winning September’s player of the month award in the process. Her displays included an eye-catching brace against Bristol City – the first a pinpoint finish following a mazy run, then the second a strike from 30 yards. “That was one of the times when I remember saying, ‘She’s a player’, ” Magill explains. “She scored an absolute rocket and single-handedly won us the game that day. It wasn’t a team thing; it was Chloe Kelly doing what Chloe Kelly does. "You knew that any time she got the ball, something might happen. She could get it on the wing and cross it in, or cut inside and shoot. ”
After turning down a new contract at Everton, Kelly joined Manchester City. The move didn’t slow her impressive form – she was named in the PFA’s WSL team of the year for a second season in succession, racking up 12 goals and 11 assists in her first 30 City appearances as they narrowly missed out on the title. “That year we’d signed Lucy Bronze and some more top-quality players, so we weren’t expecting as much as Chloe produced straight away, ” remembers Alan Mahon, the club’s former assistant coach. “She hit the ground running. We didn’t want to put too much pressure on her, but she took the reins herself. "Chloe is quite independent and just went about her business day to day. We had top players – Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood, Lucy – but she fitted in straight away, and got on with people thanks to her personality. It was an easy transition for her. ” However, the wave that Kelly was riding wouldn’t last – an ACL injury in an end-of-season clash with Birmingham left her sat on the sidelines for almost a year. She had been establishing herself as part of the England squad, but suddenly faced a race against time to be fit for Euro 2022. It wasn’t just about getting back on to the pitch, but proving she was at the level that England manager Sarina Wiegman would need on home soil. “Coming back from an ACL is key because it builds resilience, ” says Ward. “An ACL is a difficult injury – it’s a very slow and intricate recovery. Then there’s the mental side of it, too. That changed her – when she came back, she looked fitter and stronger. ” Seven appearances, two goals and three assists for City were all Wiegman needed to name Kelly in her squad for the Euros. Her role, as for so much of her Lionesses career, was to make an impact from the bench, being brought on in every match of the run to the final. It was in the Wembley showpiece against Germany where Kelly left her mark. With 10 minutes of extra-time remaining, she pounced on a loose ball to prod home from close range and snatch the trophy for England, a goal that propelled her into the national consciousness with her now iconic shirt-waving celebration. It was refreshing to hear boys of a similar age to her talking about how special Chloe was. That winning moment also moved her up the England pecking order, enjoying her best run of starts for the national team over the next 12 months, ahead of the 2023 World Cup. She started the first two matches of that tournament, but lost her place following the narrow group-stage win over Denmark, instead having to settle for appearances off the bench for the rest of the World Cup as Wiegman’s side reached the final, eventually succumbing to Spain. Kelly still managed to grab headlines in the last-16 victory against Nigeria. Handed the ball for the decisive penalty in the shootout, she performed her trademark spot-kick routine, cocking up her left leg like a dressage pony before skipping forwards and ramming the ball into the net. The strike was clocked at 69mph, the fastest shot recorded by that point of the Women’s World Cup, but impressively, also more powerful than any strike in the previous men’s Premier League season. “She had been doing that sort of thing from the age of nine, ” says youth coach Quashie. “Obviously, she wasn’t kicking it as hard, but the way she struck a ball even then allowed her to get that sort of power, relative to other players her age. ” Having played in all 13 of England’s tournament matches under Wiegman and performed in the biggest moments, it seemed unthinkable that Kelly would come so close to missing out on this summer’s Euros squad. Yet, if it wasn’t for her own belligerence, that could easily have been the case. Towards the close of the 2023-24 season, she increasingly found herself struggling for minutes at Manchester City. The issue worsened last season as she started only once and banked just 169 minutes in the WSL before January, due to an alleged souring of her relationship with boss Gareth Taylor. But instead of simply sitting out the rest of her contract in the shadows, Kelly took to social media, declaring that she wanted “to be happy again” by forcing a move before the January transfer window closed. She cited her desire to make England’s Euros squad and the negative impact the situation was having on her mental wellbeing – a period that she has since referred to as a “dark time”. The decisive spot-kick was almost a foregone conclusion. “I don’t miss twice, ” she said later.
The post had the desired effect, with Kelly securing a loan switch to Arsenal the next day, while Taylor denied that City had blocked any move and said her lack of minutes had been “for the betterment of the team”. Regardless of the ‘he said, she said’ situation that surrounded her departure, the drama had ignited a fire under Kelly. “There is nothing more powerful than a player with a cause, and all of a sudden she had one, ” Ward says. “As soon as Chloe recognised that she wasn’t valued, she made it her mission to prove herself right. And in turn, she proved her doubters wrong. ” Gunners manager Renee Slegers praised the extra intensity that Kelly immediately brought to training, and while it took a short while for her to break into the side, the winger grew into the challenge.
As Arsenal closed in on Champions League glory, she started the surprise 4-1 win at Lyon that booked their place in the final, then made the line-up again for the victory over Barcelona in Lisbon. By then, there was little doubt that Kelly would be going to the Euros – this summer, she seemed to embrace her super-sub role more than ever. “For every footballer, the penny drops at some point, ” Ward adds. “You become comfortable in yourself and what you offer. She accepted her role in the squad. She likes to be the centre of attention, and I mean that as a positive. She’s like, ‘Bring it on, I’ll take this on my shoulders because I’m happy within my skin’. ” Anyone who watched Kelly strut out on to the pitch in Switzerland would find it hard to disagree. Self-belief oozed out of her, and her arrival was like Wiegman playing her trump card. A pair of identikit crosses altered the quarter-final against Sweden. Brought on at 2-0 down with a mere 12 minutes remaining, she needed 180 seconds to twice chop back on to her right foot and fizz in balls for Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang to turn home. England had hauled level, and would later triumph on penalties. While other takers faltered – just five of 14 spot-kicks found the net during that shootout – Kelly smiled at Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk, before firing home her own effort. Even a penalty miss in extra-time of the semi-final against Italy didn’t deter Kelly – she followed up to squeeze the ball home regardless. Her two-handed celebration, signalling for fans behind the goal to calm down, said everything.
By the time she was presented with the penalty that could seal England’s second consecutive Euros triumph – the deciding spot-kick in the final shootout against Spain – it was almost a foregone conclusion. Of course Kelly scored it. “I don’t miss twice, ” she later beamed. Exactly like two years earlier against Nigeria, her winning penalty was faster than any shot during the previous men’s Premier League campaign – this time, it hit the net at a mere 68mph. Since that final, everyone has been talking about the Lionesses star. Her England shirt is a bestseller, and she became the early favourite to claim this year’s Sports Personality of the Year, following Beth Mead, who clinched the award after Euro 2022, and Mary Earps, the winner after the 2023 World Cup. Golfer Rory Mc Ilroy won the Masters after more than a decade of trying, and Lando Norris could still finish 2025 as Formula 1 world champion, while Luke Littler became global darts king at 17, but all have trailed Kelly in the odds, so inspirational was her role in Switzerland.
She’s even been talked about as a contender for September’s Ballon d’Or Feminin alongside Mariona Caldentey, Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmati and Alessia Russo. “You have to make hay while the sun shines off the pitch, and I think she’ll do that, ” adds Ward. “She needs to take advantage of that – all players do while they’re marketable. “But she’s also got people around her who won’t allow it to affect her football. Arsenal have recruited well, so they’ll be thinking ‘Right, we need to take the WSL title off Chelsea’, plus they’ve got the Champions League to retain, too. ” Whatever happens next, Kelly’s main impact may be back where her journey began. “We’ve just finished trials and we’re now training the young girls, ” says Quashie, still part of QPR’s development programme. “A lot are talking about Chloe, that she was their age when she started at QPR. They all aspire to be as good as her, they want to be the next Chloe Kelly – the next footballer who represents England, wins silverware and becomes a global name. ” Should any of those young players go on to emulate their idol, that will be Chloe Kelly’s true legacy. Chris Evans is a freelance journalist and has been a regular Four Four Two contributor since 2014, covering a wide range of stories up and down the football pyramid. Chris's work has also appeared in the Guardian, the Independent and other national newspapers, as well as on the BBC Sport and Mail websites. He is also the author of two books for Bloomsbury Sport, How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football's Top Managers in 2022, and Gary Lineker: A Portrait of a Football Icon, which was published in 2025. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
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