England's Izzy Christiansen announces her retirement as a player

England women’s senior international Izzy Christiansen has announced her retirement from football, after a successful career on both a domestic and international front.

The 31 year old has called time on her playing career having finished the 2022-23 season with Everton.

Born in Macclesfield, Christiansen was a midfielder with technical ability, a creative streak and an eye for goal which saw her signed as a teenager with Everton, where she came through the ranks.

She was a regular for England’s development teams and featured in the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand in 2008, before helping the Young Lionesses to the UEFA Women’s U19 EURO title in Belarus the following year.

Further caps followed at the 2010 WU20 World Cup in Germany and at WU23 level, but her journey with the senior team began in 2015 when she made her debut in a EURO 2017 qualifier against Estonia and scored in an 8-0 victory.

Over the years, Christiansen continued to contribute and showcased her versatility by playing in various positions, including as an attacking midfielder and a central midfielder and she was part of the Lionesses’ squad for EURO 2017.

Unfortunately, Christiansen's international career was curtailed somewhat due to injuries and her final cap came in the SheBelieves Cup in March 2019 when she played in a 3-0 win against Japan only to suffer an ankle injury that ruled her out of that year’s World Cup in France.

On the domestic front, after starting her career with Everton, she excelled with Birmingham City before moving to Manchester City and taking in a four-year spell. A season in France with Olympique Lyon followed in 2018-19 before she returned to Everton to captain her first club in the BWSL.