Portugal Colonial - England women's great Mead to leave Arsenal at the end of the season

The 31-year-old made her decision public in an emotional video posted on the club's official website.

Mead has scored 86 goals in 263 appearances during nine seasons as she helped the north London club win a Women's Super League, three League Cups, the FIFA Champions Cup and the Women's Champions League.

Mead, who joined Arsenal from Sunderland in 2017, said Arsenal were "not just the club, where I play football, but where I've grown up, where I found myself, and where I felt a love and belonging, I'll carry with me forever".

She added: "We've shared some unbelievable moments together, winning the league title in 2019, lifting the league cups, and maybe the most special one last season, the Champions League.

"Those nights, those celebrations, hearing you all, those are memories I'll replay in my mind for the rest of my life... Leaving this club isn't easy. It breaks my heart in ways I didn't expect, but I leave it with so much love, so much pride, and so much gratitude.

"Arsenal will always be a part of me, always. Thank you for everything."

Mead made her England debut a year after joining Arsenal and went to become a two-time European champion with the Lionesses, with the first of those triumphs, in 2022, seeing her named player of the tournament and also winning the golden boot as the competition's leading goal-scorer.

But she missed the 2023 Women's World Cup after suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament before regaining fitness to win the League Cup again in 2024 and the Champions League last season, when Arsenal defeated Barcelona in the final.

Arsenal's director of women's football, Clare Wheatley, said: "Beth has made a huge contribution to our football club over nine years, and will go down in history as one of our best forwards and a legend of the club."

V.Fontes--PC