Arsenal Women Crowned Club of the Year at Ballon d’Or Awards

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·24 September 2025

Arsenal Women Crowned Club of the Year at Ballon d’Or Awards

While domestically the UK will host a few more awards in 2025 to celebrate England retaining the Euros, Monday night the rest of Europe got to celebrate the huge strides women’s football continues to make, beyond a level most could only dream of.

I can proudly declare that Arsenal and England were front and centre of those celebrations. The fantastic Aitana Bonmatí won the Ballon d’Or for the third consecutive year.

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Of the voted 10 best female players, half were English and four were Gunneresses. Leah Williamson finished 7th, Chloe Kelly 5th, Alessia Russo 3rd and Mariona Caldentey runner-up.

So considering Arsenal can boast two of the best three talents in Europe, it will surprise very few to hear that Arsenal Women were named Club of the Year for the first time.

Legacy and recognition

While the accolades in Paris will only add to the lucrative sponsorship and endorsement deals these girls deserve, it was a chance to celebrate the legacy they continue to grow in the sport.

For the majority mentioned in France they have done more than enough already to leave a pathway for youngsters to follow. That is their biggest achievement, long before 2025. Williamson, Kelly and Russo, together with Gunners Beth Mead & Lotte Wubben-Moy, had already lifted the Euros on home soil for their country three years ago. Caldentey had three Champions League medals (with Barcelona) before moving to London.

If these players never kicked a ball again, they would still be remembered forever for leaving the sport in a better place than they found it. How many people in any industry can say that? That is something very unique that you cannot take away.

These types of ceremonies can be subjective, with some accusing too much emphasis being placed on what you do or do not do in one-off tournaments for club and country, while domestic form can be overlooked.

In that sense, a lot of importance went into the Champions League as Arsenal got the nod ahead of treble winners Chelsea. Yet look at the players we faced in that final, and as underdogs you would struggle to say that was not one of the great team achievements to triumph in Lisbon to become the Champions of Europe.

(Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

The bigger picture

I also heard the same people complaining that Bonmatí did not deserve the main prize this year because Barcelona did not get over the line in Portugal, yet in the next breath Arsenal should not be judged on just their European form. Some will never be happy.

If the idea is to celebrate 2025, I felt the right names got a shout-out. Sarina Wiegman got her flowers for consecutive European Championships, while the top 10 players were either Spanish or English apart from Ewa Pajor, which felt appropriate considering who contested the club and country Euro finals.

Yet I always remind fans that this generation plays with a different pressure to their male counterparts. One gender has an established audience no matter what. The Three Lions can have a poor World Cup, yet sponsors and TV deals are still guaranteed. If Mikel Arteta gets knocked out of Europe early, he still knows 60,000 are rocking up next week.

The girls are not just playing for themselves but to keep interest in the product growing. They were the first ever champions of Europe to have to qualify, and they lost in Sweden. It is no exaggeration to say if that second leg was not turned around, maybe not as many names are being printed on the back of shirts, or it is not viable to play at the Emirates again.

Because the Gunneresses were not just advancing round by round, but making friends along the way, making memories, entertaining. We had lost the first leg of both our quarter-final and semi-final. To turn both around was like Renée Slegers was making movies.

Arsenal winning or losing to the Spanish champions was the difference between a few more thousand deciding to carry on following the WSL. The same applied with England in Switzerland.

In terms of fame and fortune, the girls deserve everything they are now getting. In the Love City of the World, what better place to say well done to the women who stole our hearts and made so many fall in love with the sport.

Dan Smith

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