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It's inspiring, well-written, and filled with anecdotes of some of the most important moments in Beth Mead's life– from signing with her now-club Arsenal to winning the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 with England's Lionesses– and everything in between. Since this book came out, Beth has been voted Sports Personality of the Year for 2022 - quite rightly, in my opinion. Her talent was quickly identified and she eventually signed for WSL side Sunderland before joining Arsenal. i started reading this book with the view of “oh i like beth mead, let’s read this” but as i got further into the book, i realised just how much i related to beth, from her mental journey, to the locations (eg southampton, whitby, and st albans). I’m a huge Gooner (unofficially crowned as the biggest Gooner at Northville High School) but I’ve really only paid attention to the men’s game.
Success at the Euros has significantly increased the profile of women's football and female sport generally, which can only be a good thing. She's also very open about the mental struggles she's faced both on and off the pitch, and it's refreshing to see someone talk about it so honestly. It opens with a prologue detailing the disappointment of not making it to the 2020 Olympics, and then moves on to tell us her whole football journey from childhood to the 2022 Euros. She was also named Player of the Tournament and has since won England Women's Player of the Year and been nominated for the 2022 Ballon d'Or Féminin and the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2022. From childhood, Beth wanted to play football and was supported and encouraged by her parents and younger brother.To tire her out before bedtime, starting when she was 2, her dad would pass a ball back and forth on the hallway landing.
I don’t often read autobiographies, and have no time for the culture of celebrity, but this book is different. Beth Mead was the standout player from the England team, although to read her story you will be struck by just how humble she is.Well done Beth for telling your story and I was pleased to read, in the news recently,that the Lionesses were successful in getting the government to listen to them about PE in schools. I loved when Beth told Vivianne Miedema that they’d both been nominated for a Ballon d'Or and Viv “stared impassively” and said “Yes, it’s my fifth time. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.
But long before this, Beth was just an ordinary kid from Hinderwell, North Yorkshire who wanted to play football. I found out from this book that men receive new football boots EVERY game, while women are expected to play with the same ones until they can’t anymore? Just like Megan Rapinoe’s One Life, this was a great insight into what it’s actually like for female footballers, but this time from a British perspective. And at the end of every speech and team talk, she always closes with the words: ‘Go and enjoy yourself. The new found admiration and respect I have for not only Beth, but for every women’s football player, is unmatched.
The very core message of this book (besides stressing the importance of women’s sports) is simply that there is more to life than just football, and that you never truly know what someone is dealing with despite succeeding on the pitch. If, like me, you followed last summer's European Championships, you would have shared in the euphoria and pride at our Lionesses winning the trophy after a hard-fought final versus Germany. It really opened my eyes to the journey that these women have to take (unlike Saka, who I absolutely adore, being signed to Arsenal’s Academy at about 8 years of age).
The England team continues to work tirelessly to ensure that girls and women in sport receive equal recognition and treatment, whatever level they are playing at. It was emotionally intense and draining at times, the off-the-pitch socialising and finding her place and being away from home, and she wanted to give up more than once. I played football (soccer) as a teenage girl but in the USA, so I do come from a background similar but I Hr UK youth network is quite different and I appreciated seeing that difference. Beth takes a dive into her own personal life and what has happened over her career which helps her strive to be the best player, she takes difficult events in her life and uses them to power her mentality for the game.
I also loved how open and honest she was with the harder side of football, and the harder side of stepping outside of your comfort zone. Beth Mead has been an inspiration to me for quite a few years now and being able to read about her journey helped me understand her more as a person and player.
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