Faye White

White began playing football at the age of ten, when she joined in the training sessions of her brother's team Horley Town. After three years of playing with her brother and his teammates she decided to go to an all-girls coaching session, at which she met Jim Muir, the coach of a local girls' side Horsham Sparrows Ladies . She began playing for the reserves before becoming a first-team player at the age of 14. While still at Horsham, aged 16, White was called up for the national team by Ted Copeland. In the 1996–97 season White was tapped up by Vic Akers and Arsenal Ladies, and earned her first international cap against Scotland. White broke into the first team, cementing a position at the heart of Arsenal's central defence. She collected her first trophy that year, the FA Women's Premier League. In 1997–98, due to White's performances in north London she was named the Premier League Player of the Year. Arsenal won the FA Women's Cup and Premier League Cup. In June 2007, White had a brief loan spell at Ottawa Fury, in order to improve her fitness ahead of the 2007 World Cup, having missed most of the season recovering from an ACL injury. White achieved major success despite suffering numerous injuries including two cruciate ligament injuries, which kept her out of football for nine months each time. During her career she amassed 31 major trophies at club competition level, winning the FA Women's Premier League 10 times (including seven consecutive years from 2003–04 to…

White made her England debut against Scotland in 1997, aged 19, followed by her full debut against France in 1998 when she was named player of the match. White went on to represent her country in her first major tournament at UEFA Euro 2001 in Germany. In 2002, she was named by Hope Powell as England captain against Nigeria, during the qualification campaign for FIFA World Cup in USA. White was to keep the armband until her international retirement in 2012. She led the Lionesses at UEFA Euro 2005 in England, 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China, UEFA Euro 2009 in Finland and 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. At the Quarter Final stage of the 2007 World Cup vs USA in Tianjin, White's nose was broken by an elbow from Abby Wambach ten minutes before half time. White played the remaining duration of the game with the injury, making several vital headed clearances, but was unable to prevent a World Cup exit to the top ranked national team in the world. In 2009, in her third major championship finals as captain, White led England to the final of Euro 2009 in Helsinki, Finland, where the team lost out to Germany. She wore a protective face mask in the final after breaking her cheekbone in the quarter-final win over Finland in Turku, just six days after having surgery. In the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Quarter Final penalty shoot-out versus France at the BayArena, Leverkusen, White missed England's fifth penalty, seeing the French win 4–3 and progress to the…

White was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Hertfordshire in November 2013. White acted as the Ambassador for the 2012-13 UEFA Women's Champions League Final in London. She is also an ambassador for the sporting charity Football Foundation. She was a marketing officer for Arsenal LFC in the FA WSL and is a qualified sports massage therapist. White appears regularly as co-commentator and studio pundit on television and radio for the BBC, BT Sport, SKY Sports, FATV, ESPN, Eurosport and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Arsenal

FA Women's Premier League National Division: 1996–97, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 Women's Super League: 2011 Women's FA Cup: 1997–1998, 1998–1999, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11 FA Women's Premier League Cup: 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2004–05, 2008–09 Women's FA Community Shield: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008 UEFA Women's Cup: 2006–07 England

UEFA Women's Championship runner-up: 2009 Individual

Member of the Order of the British Empire: 2007 English Football Hall of Fame: 2015 FA Women's Player's Player of the Year: 1997–98