Beth Mead: 10 things you may not know | OneFootball

Beth Mead is officially a Blue!

Women's Team

Mead: City’s style suits me really well

The England international has become Manchester City’s first summer signing with the forward penning a contract which will keep her at the Joie Stadium until 2029.

An icon of the women’s game, she arrives after nine-and-a-half illustrious years at Arsenal and on the international stage with England.

Get to know the versatile forward more below!

Women's Team

Mead: I’m here to win trophies 

HOW MAY I ASSIST YOU?

At the heart of Mead’s immense success has been her ability to consistently provide for her team-mates on the field.

Such is her fantastic ability to register assists, she currently holds the highest number in Barclays Women’s Super League history with 54, and she became the first player to reach half a century in September 2025.

Perhaps one of her most precious came in Europe, though, when she set up Stina Blackstenius’ winner in Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Barcelona in the 2025 UEFA Champions League final.

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BIGGEST FEAR

For someone who has achieved all she has in football so far, Mead certainly appears fearless.

But she told englandfootball.com in November 2023: “Footballing wise, it would be fear of failure. I don’t think anyone enjoys it.

“Physical fear, it would be spiders. I can’t understand why something needs eight legs. I don’t understand it! I had one in the house the other day and it laid eggs and had babies.

“So, there was a big spider and loads of babies. It was hell on earth!”

Picture Special

Gallery: Mead makes City switch

INTERNATIONAL

At England’s legendary 2022 European Championships, Mead played a starring role for the Lionesses who prevailed on home soil in the Wembley final over Germany.

City’s newest recruit finished as top goalscorer and was named Player of the Tournament after scoring six goals and registering five assists in six matches.

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In the semi-final success over Sweden, she scored and provided two assists as Sarina Wiegman’s team reached Wembley’s showpiece.

After her heroics in 2022, she was then a key member of the England team who retained their Euro crown in the summer of 2025 in Switzerland, featuring in all six of the Lionesses’ matches.

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PERSONALITY

Following her phenomenal domestic and international exploits in 2021/22, Mead won the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, becoming the first female footballer to do so.

After winning the voting, she was also only the sixth footballer and first representative of Arsenal and Sunderland to claim the award.

NAIL-BITING

Good habits on and off the field are crucial to footballers, and Mead is no exception.

However, she revealed to England in November 2023 one of her less desirable practices.

She said: “Biting my nails. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but I do it more when I’m either stressed or anxious. It is clearly a go-to which I need to still get out of the habit of doing but I am a lot better than I used to be.”

WRITING

In November 2022 Mead published her autobiography titled Lioness: Mu Journey to Glory with Ian Wright providing the foreword and Jermain Defoe penning the afterword.

The book details her life up to the 2022 European Championships and showcased the ups and downs of her career to that point.

Mead’s publication became a Sunday Times bestseller, and it went on to win the Sunday Times award for Autobiography of the Year in May 2023.

Then, in June 2023, she published Roar: A Football Hero’s Guide to Dreaming Big and Playing the Game You Love which targeted younger readers.

SKILL

In the spring of 2019, Mead seemingly created her own signature finish which was dubbed the ‘crot’.

For England against Brazil in the SheBelieves Cup she scored a phenomenal, dipping effort against the South Americans and she recreated the effort for Arsenal against Liverpool weeks later.

She told Arsenal.com at the time: “No, I was lucky with that one [against Liverpool]! It was meant to be more of a cross.

“It hit a bobble and it just happened to go top bins. I’m not going to complain, though, and everyone’s calling it a ‘crot’ at the moment, which I’ll take!

“I meant my goal for England but I can’t take today’s.”

LIFE AFTER FOOTBALL?

Speaking to England in May 2022, Mead expressed her love of animals.

When asked if she could anything for a day, she replied on England official YouTube channel: “I’m obsessed with animals. I’d love to just go to a farm.

“I think after football, I’d like to just open an animal farm. It’s random, but it would make me happy. ‘Meado Manor’”.

She currently owns a dog, Myle, who’s already a star of our social channels!

COMBINATION

City now boast three of the WSL’s record goalscorers among our ranks.

Mead’s haul of 72 places her joint fifth in the list alongside Fran Kirby, with Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Vivianne Miedema both featuring in the top three.

Shaw’s 83 means she’s currently third, while Miedema’s 97 is the most in WSL history.

That’s 252 WSL goals between the three of them!

EGGCELENT

And finally, Mead doesn’t just excel on the football field – but also at egg throwing!

In 2015, she won the 2015 inaugural Yorkshire Open Egg Throwing Championship in her hometown of Hinderwell!