It’s one thing trying to impress the England manager with your defensive prowess - but quite another to convince your young sons that as a centre back you could fire a 30-yard shot into the top corner of the net in an FA Women’s Premier League Cup final.

Former Arsenal and 90-times capped England captain Faye White MBE achieved both of those feats, though she admits that the second one took a fair while longer than the first.

“My two boys practise in the garden and they’re always trying to hit top bins,” explains White. “I used to say to them, ‘Mummy hit the top bins once,’ and they’d go, ‘yeah, yeah, whatever.’

“But I did; I scored from 30 yards in a League Cup final against Charlton - that’s the moment that stands out for me from all of the League Cup finals I played in.

“I tried to find some video footage of the game, searched YouTube for ages but could never find it. Then on one of my birthdays someone put it on socials, a short highlights package and they put: ‘this goal deserves to be celebrated on her birthday.’

“So I showed the boys and Jake, who’s four years younger than Lukas but is pretty sure of himself, had a double take and his bottom jaw dropped a bit. And I was, ‘there you go, told you!’ That was a lovely moment.”

So two lovely moments, almost 20 years apart, from one 30-yard shot. White actually scored twice in that 2005 League Cup final, a rare brace for the central defender that helped the Gunners beat Charlton 3-1 and deliver the fifth of her seven FAWPL Cup winners’ medals.

Add those seven gongs to the ones she collected as part of Arsenal winning teams in 10 National Division seasons, eight FA Cup finals, the 2007 UEFA Cup and the inaugural FA Women’s Super League in 2011, and by the time she retired in 2012 she had a collection of 27 winners’ medals in major competitions and another four in Community Shield fixtures.  

Awarded the MBE in 2007 for her services to sport, White is without question an absolute Arsenal legend. But it might have been so different if she had walked in the opposite direction through a proverbial sliding door as an 18-year-old in 1996.

She was already on the England radar while playing in the FAWPL Southern Division for Sussex team Three Bridges; and Croydon player-manager Debbie Bampton, who was to lead her side to the Premier League and FA Cup double in that 1995-96 season, wanted to sign her. But then came along what proved a fateful League Cup tie for Three Bridges against Arsenal. 

White had to mark England striker Marieanne Spacey and obviously impressed. “I remember (Arsenal player) Emma Coss coming up to me after the game to chat,” she says. “She’d been sent by Vic (Akers, Gunners manager), and after that I got speaking with Vic.

“But I was also talking to Debbie Bampton at Croydon, and that would have been closer to home for me. I talked to Debbie on the phone and she said, ‘I’ll talk to you in two weeks when I get back from holiday.’ In the meantime, Vic came down to meet me at a McDonald’s, and within the next week he asked me to go up to Highbury to look around.  

“I ended up thinking, ‘well, he wants me a bit more,’ and of course getting the chance to train at Highbury, and hopefully to play there, was a big pull. I can’t remember my next conversation with Debbie, but later on when we were on England duty together she used to give me some grief - not in a nasty way, but it was ‘you should’ve signed for us’ and little jibes like that.”

Her decision made, White joined the Gunners in the 1996 close season and then had quite the start to her top flight career. “My first game was away to Doncaster Belles, which was a toughie because they were one of the strongest teams with players like Kaz Walker and Gill Coultard. 

“And then the second match was against Liverpool at Anfield. So I’d played my last game for Three Bridges at a ground on Broadbridge Heath, and then two games later I was playing at Anfield - it was nuts!” 

A 2-0 win against Liverpool set Arsenal on their way to the League title that term, the victory at Anfield following a 1-0 loss at Doncaster and White’s ‘Welcome to the top flight’ moment.

She says: “I remember coming in at half time thinking, ‘we're doing alright,’ although we were 1-0 down. But when Vic walked in he kicked this football and it went flying around the walls and knocked all the cups of tea and everything else flying. And I was just like, ‘oh my god!’ 

“Later on though, Vic changed after Arsene Wenger came to the club (Akers was kit man for the Arsenal men’s team managed by Wenger). It was after Vic had seen Wenger do his half-time talks. Wenger's way was to come in and be quite calm and to let the players settle and have their own thoughts before talking himself.

“Vic started having the same half-time routine, coming in and not doing any talking for the first five minutes or so. There was one match in fact, I can’t remember who it was against,  but he walked in and he just didn't speak for like 10 minutes - we were looking at each other thinking, ‘what's happened to Vic? have we been playing that well?’”

Whatever modus operandi Akers used, it worked. Arsenal were by far the country’s most successful team in the pre-Women’s Super League era, especially from the turn of the century when - with White now captain - they won the League nine seasons out of ten, the League Cup four times and the FA Cup six times.

Dominant, they clearly were. But White insists, “It was never as easy it might look to people looking back at all the stats. I always remember teams like Croydon in the late 90’s, Donny, Fulham for a while when they were professional, Charlton and Everton - against teams like them, if you didn’t perform they could beat you.

“In 2008-09 in fact, Everton should have won the league. Normally we were sat at the top and they were chasing us, but this time it was us doing the chasing and it went on right up till the last game of the season, when we had to play them up at their place.

“They only needed a draw to be champions, but they just couldn’t close it out. We beat them (1-0) and won the league on goal difference. I just think we were more used to pressure situations than they were and they kind of fizzled out, couldn’t get themselves over the line.” 

If Everton had got the point they needed to win the league they would have ended a five-season run of Arsenal winning it. Instead the Gunners not only nicked the 2008-09 title but won it again in the following campaign to make it seven straight championships as the Premier League’s elite status was about to switch to the WSL.

Before the Super League kicked off, however, Everton gained revenge for their league disappointment by beating Arsenal in an historic 2010 FA Cup final - historic because up until that point the Gunners had never been beaten in the final.

Ten out of 10 wins was their proud record, but it was ended as the Toffees lifted the trophy after a thrilling 3-2 victory was clinched in stoppage time. And White, despite her collection of winners’ medals in the competition, admits: “That’s the final I remember the most. It’s because of the pain I felt at the end of the game.

“It’s not that I don’t remember the other finals I played in, there were some great ones. But we should have really won that one against Everton, we had so many chances and then Natasha Dowie went round (Arsenal goalkeeper) Emma (Byrne) and scored right at the end of stoppage time. And I’ll never forget that feeling of pain at the final whistle.”

White’s anguish at that one and only FA Cup final defeat was paralleled by the pain of several major injuries she suffered in her long and distinguished career. 

In particular two ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injuries cost her months of playing time, most notably in Arsenal’s biggest year of glory when they won the 2006-07 domestic treble and made it a quadruple by lifting the Uefa Cup - becoming the first English women’s team to win the trophy that was subsequently re-titled the Champions League.

Playing only a bit part in match action that term, White nevertheless contributed to the drive for success as club captain and as an occasional but strategically employed substitute.

“It was a very, very hard season for me, I’m not going to lie,” she says. “It was my second ACL and I was working on overcoming it for most of the season.

“But in that sort of situation you’re still part of the group, the team, and this was my team. And supporting them from the sidelines and and then being on the bench in that European season, you still have those memories. 

“Nobody expected us to beat (Swedish team) Umea in the Uefa final, they’d won it a couple of times and they had great players like Marta and top Swedish internationals in their side.

“But Alex (Scott) scored a great goal when we won 1-0 in the away leg and then Emma had a fantastic game in goal when we got a goalless draw at home to win the trophy.

“I played only the last few minutes of the game as a sub, and I was sent on only to waste time. I went on for (midfielder) Jayne Ludlow and went into the middle and yeah, just wasted time. And we won. And although I didn’t spend a lot of time on the pitch that season, winning the quadruple is one of my proudest achievements.”

Back to fitness by the end of that campaign, White played in her first World Cup - and suffered another injury, this one a broken nose courtesy America striker Abby Wambach’s elbow as England were beaten 3-0 in the quarter-final of the tournament held in China.

And two years later the now battle-scarred Arsenal and England captain had to wear a protective face mask in the EURO 2009 final against Germany after having her cheekbone fractured and dislocated against Finland in the quarter-final.

England lost the final, played in Helsinki, 6-2. But White says: “We may have lost the game, but playing in that EURO final was the highlight of my international career.

“We weren’t expected to get to the final, so that was an achievement in itself. And Germany were by far the best European team at the time, up there with America as best in the world.

“When the (England) girls got to the Euro final in 2022 it was hardly mentioned that we’d done the same in ’09 and you were like, ‘hello…’ But the profile and recognition of the women’s game had changed massively by 2022 and that was obviously a good thing - a great thing.”

White left the international stage in 2012 after announcing that she was expecting her first child, and a year later she finally called time on her playing career. 

“It’s quite emotional,” she told the BBC. “I’ve had quite a few injuries and I can’t go on forever. (But) I have no regrets over my career, for how long I’ve played and what I’ve achieved.”

Tributes poured in for the 35-year-old retiree, among them some heartfelt words from Akers - the most successful manager in the history of the Women’s Premier League. “She was a born leader,” he told Arsenal’s club website. “She had a great attitude and was, and still is, a great role model for the women’s game.

“She was one of my best signings. She captained the team magnificently and always showed a great attitude. She’s a great person too.” Great player, great person: Faye White.


“Training was eight (pm) till 10,” she explains, “so to make sure I was there in plenty of time I’d leave my house in Horsham at five and drive to Gatwick Airport, get the train from there to Kings Cross, and I’d get picked up from outside the station by Vic and driven to Highbury. 

“We did our fitness work for the first hour, on the rubber track that ran round the pitch and the steps that ran up to the top of the stands, then the second hour we did our football in the ball court underneath the stand. 

“By the time I got back home it would be after midnight, and if I was on an early shift for work I’d have to get up at six o'clock to get to my gym in Crawley.

“It was a tough schedule, but I wasn’t the only one doing it - lots of players around the country had to make that sort of commitment; it was the women’s game back then.”

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES - COME ON?

Arsenal lifted 31 trophies in White’s 17 years with the club, so lots to celebrate winning lots of medals. Well, yes; but the club’s long-time captain admits: “I wasn’t a party animal.

“It was important to celebrate - you’ve worked hard all season, won the league or got through a lot of rounds to win a Cup, and it brings the group together. 

“It was always a great feeling in the dressing room after winning a trophy, with champagne being thrown around and team pictures being taken, and we’d always have a celebration later; but it was never me arranging it. 

“We’d go out as a group, some would go to bed earlier than others and sometimes no-one would pick up the trophy. So that was up to me, and I can remember sleeping in my hotel room with a trophy in my bed on a few occasions. 

“Vic was always very much, ‘maintain standards, remember who you’re representing,’ and we’d never go out to celebrate in our tracksuits or anything like that.

“But sometimes I think we might have got away with stuff - it was never boring me, though….”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Images from Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO, Simon Mooney and Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal Football Club.