The largest question looming over this year’s FFOTY awards is whether any other player can really hold a light up to Beth Mead.
That’s not to snub the other candidates. This shortlist drips with a ridiculous amount of quality. Mead, Sam Kerr, Rachel Daly, Bunny Shaw, Leah Williamson, Lauren Hemp, the former of which without her corner against Germany in front of a sold-out Wembley in the summer, the Chloe Kelly shirt swing perhaps never happens.
Indeed, it’s a shortlist that would reduce any seven-a-side squad to glacial traffic cones – and there’s only six of them.
But can the likes of Williamson, Daly or even Kerr really claim to have had a genuinely greater year than Mead? The Arsenal forward was England’s best player, England’s top scorer and voted Player of the Tournament at the Euros last summer. She seized the starring role as the Lionesses’ won the country’s first major tournament since The Supremes topped the music charts.
The tournament was a mere extension of the vein of form Mead found herself in. With 14 goals and 19 assists in 40 appearances for Arsenal over the season, Mead’s total goal contributions for club and country came to 70. After claiming Euro2022 glory, Mead finished runner-up for the 2022 Ballon d’Or and UEFA Player of the Year Award.
That Mead's season has been cut short by an ACL injury feels like the cruellest twist of fate and the forward faces a race against time to return to health before next summer's Women's World Cup.
Of course, Kerr might argue, having sealed another historic double for Chelsea as she scored twice against Manchester United on the final day of the season to claim the Blues’ third successive league title, along with another brace in the dramatic FA Women’s Cup Final win over Manchester City at Wembley.
Kerr is a player designed for the big occasion but her ruthless ability to consistently terrorise the WSL is admirable, if not remarkable. Her face on the front cover of FIFA23 was long overdue.
Then again, Williamson’s impenetrable and composed performance at the heart of the Lionesses’ defence deserves pages of praise, if not least for finally ending the agonising drought of not seeing an English footballer lift a trophy above their head.
The arguments for and against can whistle on for ages, and the Mead argument burns incredibly bright.
But don’t take our word for it. Vote for your FFOTY from December 9 and don’t forget to tell us why you think Mead should or should not be crowded the worthy winner in the comments section below.
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