Jen Beattie insists she is “nowhere near done” as she looks ahead to another season with Arsenal.
The 32-year-old Scot is in her second spell with the club, having first joined in 2009 and had subsequent stints with Montpellier, Manchester City and Melbourne City before returning to north London in 2019.
She signed a contract extension last month and is loving every minute of life with the Gunners.
“Each or every contract extension, I’m more and more grateful for because I don’t want to retire,” Beattie told the PA news agency. “I’m nowhere near done and I love being at such a top club at a top level.
“It definitely makes me more proud to still be a part of it, having seen the game go from amateur, semi-pro to professional.
“I think I was about 22 when I first got my professional contract – that’s quite late, considering how long I’ve played.
“It’s amazing, you never dream of playing at the Emirates in front of sell-out crowds, so to do that last year and to hope to still do that again next year or in the next couple of years is just exciting.”
Beattie’s contract extension announcement came two days after she was made an MBE at Windsor Castle for services to football and charity.
The centre-back has worked with charities to raise awareness about cancer after making her own recovery from breast cancer.
View this post on Instagram“It was incredible,” Beattie said. “Chatting to Prince William will always be one of the most surreal moments I’ve had.
“Windsor Castle was obviously an incredible place and stunning, just one of those things you never expect. It’s never on your radar when you start playing football so it was definitely a special day.”
Beattie was diagnosed with breast cancer during October 2020 and underwent radiotherapy while still playing football.
She has made a full recovery and praised the football community for helping her to raise awareness.
“It was without a doubt one of the most difficult periods of my life,” she said.
“I thought if we can all come together and have open and honest conversations about raising awareness – I was 29 with no family history and I think that’s important to say that it can happen to anyone, but if you find it early enough it can be OK.
“So getting checks is important – especially over Covid, and the middle of lockdown, the number of cancers being diagnosed had dropped massively – so I think speaking about it and raising that awareness meant a lot to me.
“I’ll always credit the football community, who were incredible during that time, because I might have started the conversation by talking about myself, but the football community definitely made it as big as it could’ve been.
“I’m so thankful for that, for spreading the word.”
Beattie is an ambassador for the McDonald’s Fun Football programme, the largest grassroots programme in the UK for 5-11 year olds, where 250,000 children have had access to free football in the last 12 months.
Her attention now turns to a new season with Arsenal, who were affected last season by injuries to key players including Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson.
Despite this, the Gunners lifted the Continental Tyres Cup, finished third in the Women’s Super League and reached the Women’s Champions League semi-finals, and Beattie has set her sights high for the 2023-24 campaign.
“If we get everyone back fit, onto the pitch, it’s scary what hopefully we can achieve,” she added.
“Like most people, when you get a taste for something, you just want more. But Arsenal and the way it’s run, the players that we bring in, the staff we have behind the scenes, that’s what we all want.
“That’s why we’re at Arsenal – to win trophies. That’s where we got back to with the League Cup final and that’s what we want next year.”
:: Jen Beattie was speaking at the largest ever McDonald’s Fun Football session to celebrate the landmark of over 250,000 children from across the UK benefiting from access to free football this season. Sign up to a free session near you at www.mcdonalds.co.uk/football
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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