Fran Kirby

Grassroots club: Caversham Trents
County: Berks & Bucks CFA

Fran Kirby was one of the most recognisable faces of England's rise across the course of her eleven years as a Lioness, enjoying quite the transformation from her breakthrough as a talented youngster to being one of the team who helped England become European champions in 2022.

She first burst onto the Lionesses scene when she travelled to the 2015 World Cup in Canada as the second-youngest member of the Lionesses’ squad and was relatively unknown outside of England having made her debut the previous year with a goal in a 4-0 humbling of Sweden in Hartlepool.

But the diminutive forward from Reading served notice of her ability with the opening goal in England’s 2-1 win over Mexico before helping the Lionesses to third place in the world and that was the platform from which her career blossomed at both international and domestic level. 

Kirby added more special memories, including key strikes at EURO 2017 and at the 2018 SheBelieves Cup while also excelling in the domestic game as a major player for Emma Hayes' all-conquering Chelsea team following her switch to Stamford Bridge.

She was pivotal to the Blues' success, helping her side win successive Barclays Women's Super League titles, Women's FA Cups and Continental Tyres League Cups. And in the summer of 2024, she completed a move to Brighton & Hove Albion.

On the international front, shortly after helping England win the inaugural Arnold Clark Cup, it was announced that Kirby would be taking a break from football due to a fatigue-related illness but she returned in time to make the Lionesses' provisional EURO 2022 squad.

And she went on to start in all six games for Sarina Wiegman's team in the competition, scoring memorable goals against Northern Ireland in the group stage and Sweden in the semi-final as the Lionesses went on to win the title on home soil.

After 79 caps and 19 goals, Fran announced her retirement from international football in June 2025.

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