Ellen White has announced her retirement from football as the Lionesses’ record goalscorer and one short of the overall England record.
White scored the last two of her 52 international goals as England won this summer’s European Championship and the Manchester City striker has now called time on her career shortly before the new Women’s Super League season.
Here, the PA news agency looks at White’s career.
International half-century
White’s hat-trick in November’s astonishing 20-0 win over Latvia took her past Kelly Smith’s England record of 46 and she moved on to a half-century by scoring against Germany at the Arnold Clark Cup and North Macedonia in World Cup qualifying.
She netted twice in England’s 8-0 hammering of Norway at the Euros to bring Wayne Rooney’s national record of 53 goals tantalisingly within reach but missed several chances in the remainder of the tournament as she began to play second fiddle to super-sub Alessia Russo up front.
Smith had surpassed Kerry Davis’ mark of 44 goals for England and White surged past the pair after a series of inspirational performances – most notably at the 2019 World Cup, where she netted six times as England reached a second consecutive World Cup semi-final and had a potentially crucial seventh disallowed by VAR in that loss to the United States.
Her prolific form continued through the 2020 SheBelieves Cup and the current World Cup qualifiers, in which she scored 10 goals in eight appearances.
Having scored on her debut against Austria in 2010, she notched 17 goals in her first 26 caps to the end of 2013 before a spell out of the team and a goal drought.
Her goals in back-to-back European Championship qualifiers against Serbia in June 2016 were her first for England in nearly three years but sparked a major return to form.
The hat-trick against Latvia capped a run of 20 goals in 19 games, which became 24 in her last 31 caps despite her subdued contribution to the Euro 2022 win.
She was named England’s player of the year on three separate occasions – in 2011, 2018 and the 2020-21 season.
While not part of her England total, she also scored six goals for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics and two more in a warm-up friendly.
Trophy cabinet
Thank You Football… pic.twitter.com/WmeDGeX9zT— Ellen White (@ellsbells89) August 22, 2022
England’s success this summer added to an impressive medal haul through White’s career at domestic level with Chelsea, Leeds, Arsenal, Notts County, Birmingham and Manchester City.
Her most successful spell came with the Gunners, where she won Women’s Super League titles in 2011 and 2012 as well as two FA Cups and three League Cups.
She won both cups once more with City, the FA Cup in 2019-20 and the League Cup last season, having also won the Premier League Cup – now known as the National League Cup – with Leeds in 2010.
On a personal level, she was the WSL Golden Boot winner after scoring 15 goals for Birmingham in 2017-18 – the season that also brought her only hat-trick in the competition, against her former club Arsenal.
