The good, the bad and the OMGs: The 2025 Women’s Football Awards

This year saw the Lionesses win yet another European Championship, Arsenal defy the odds to lift the Champions League and shocking revelations.

It has been chaos, brilliance and drama in equal measure.

Brace yourself for the FourFourTwo Women’s Football Awards…

Warrior of the Year: Lucy Bronze

Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze lived up to every part of her name this year. Fresh off an instrumental role in Chelsea’s invincible, treble-winning season, she went on to play her seventh consecutive major tournament for England.

If any player embodies the word “tough,” it is Bronze. At Euro 2025, she played the entire competition with a fractured tibia, a fact she revealed only after England lifted the trophy. Sarina Wiegman later praised her “crazy mentality,” and it is hard to disagree.

Bronze stepped up to take the decisive penalty in a marathon shootout against Sweden and, honestly, who doubted she would score? During the match, she was caught strapping up her own leg on the pitch, an image that quickly became part of Lionesses folklore. She even ripped the bandage off herself before taking that all-important kick.

Warrior does not feel like a big enough word.

Shock of the Year: Arsenal winning UWCL

Even Arsenal fans will admit that the Gunners lifting the trophy in Lisbon was the shock of the season. Not just because they beat Barcelona in the final, but because their entire run felt like a never-ending audition for “The Greatest Comeback of All Time”… although the Lionesses might have stolen that role after their summer.

After finishing third in the 2023/24 WSL, Arsenal had to slog through two qualifying rounds before even reaching the group stage. They breezed through the first, then overturned a one goal deficit to Hacken with a 4-0 second-leg win, kicking off their comeback era.

The group stage began disastrously. A 5-2 thumping at Bayern Munich led Jonas Eidevall (remember him?!) to resign days later. Enter Renee Slegers, who turned chaos into momentum and steered Arsenal into the quarters.

Against Real Madrid, Arsenal returned from a 2-0 first-leg deficit, with a 3-0 Emirates comeback powered by Alessia Russo, Mariona Caldentey and two assists from Chloe Kelly- on loan from Manchester City at the time.

Lyon in the semis? Same story. Down 2-1 from the first leg, Arsenal stormed the eight-time champions with a ruthless 4-1 win.

There was no room for another comeback in the final. Arsenal defended for their lives and a 74th-minute winner from super sub Stina Blackstenius delivered the fairytale. It’s fair to say Katie McCabe enjoyed the victory parade at the Emirates the next day too.

Unlikeliest Duo: Sarina Wiegman and Burna Boy

Sarina Wiegman cemented her place among the all-time greats this summer, reaching her fifth consecutive major tournament final and claiming a third straight European Championship. If anyone had earned a celebration, it was the England manager.

The Lionesses becoming back-to-back champions demanded a proper party, and the victory parade along The Mall in central London delivered exactly that.

Wiegman had previously made her admiration for Nigerian superstar Burna Boy known, but nothing prepared fans for the moment the pair actually shared the stage outside Buckingham Palace.

Despite lifting three trophies, the biggest smile of her career appeared when she duetted “For My Hand” and danced like no one was watching. It was the most unexpected double act of the year and somehow the most wholesome too.

Jaw-drop Moment: Mary Earps’ international retirement and the confessions that followed

When Mary Earps announced her England retirement just five weeks before the tournament, jaws hit the floor.

The goalkeeper, who had been Wiegman’s nailed-on No.1 for the previous two tournaments, stepped away from international football after being told Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton would be first choice.

But the real shock came later. In November, Earps released her autobiography ‘All In’, and the tea was piping hot. She revealed she no longer wanted to stay in an environment where she “felt like bad behaviour was being rewarded” and admitted that “it didn't align with [her] morals and values to continue.”

It was the kind of honesty no one saw coming for a goalkeeper still in the prime of her club career.

Funniest Moment: GK Barry’s League Cup quarter-final draw

This might be recency bias, but GK Barry’s Subway Women’s League Cup draw was unforgettable for all the wrong (and right) reasons. The influencer overlaid her larger than life online personality on to the draw, dropping Subway innuendos about “lesbians handling balls” and said: “Even if you’re a lesbian, get a footlong,” referring to the sponsor’s sandwich.

The legitimacy of the draw was questioned after she casually put balls back into the bag, and the WSL were forced to apologise to Tottenham when she launched into the opening lines of an anti-Spurs chant.

They say all publicity is good publicity, and the League Cup had been drifting towards irrelevance… until GK Barry single-handedly revived it with the most chaotic draw in English football history.

Social Media Moment: Chloe Kelly’s statement

Things were not going well for Chloe Kelly in the first half of the 2024/25 season. She made just one WSL start for Manchester City, leaving fans baffled as to why she had fallen so far out of favour with then-manager Gareth Taylor.

Then came that post. Kelly took to social media stating it was ‘time to be open and transparent’ and that ‘dreams can be crushed while we live in silence’. In a bold and rare move, she publicly declared her desire to leave in a last-ditch attempt for a January transfer, largely driven by her determination to be a part of the England Euros squad…and we all know how that story ended.

In a remarkable show of courage, her empowering statement had the desired effect. She secured a loan move to Arsenal, where her career began, won the Champions League, earned a permanent move, fought her way back into the England setup, scored the winning penalty in the Euros final and picked up a Sports Personality of the Year nomination for good measure.

Who said social media was all bad kids?

Best Sh*thousery: Hannah Hampton’s water bottle antics

After the Euros final, England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton set social media on fire with her claim that she had thrown Spain keeper Cata Coll’s water bottle into the crowd because it contained penalty shootout notes.

The Lionesses went on to win the shootout and secure back-to-back titles, with Hampton named player of the match in the final, after saving penalties from Aitana Bonmati and Mariona Caldentey. Her water bottle story only added to the legend.

Speaking after the tournament, the 25-year-old said: “The Spanish keeper had it [the penalty notes] on her bottle. So I thought when she was going in goal I’ll just pick it up and throw it into the English fans so she can’t have it.”

But the plot thickened when Coll insisted the whole thing was untrue and that no such incident took place. So either Hampton committed the petty crime, or she fabricated an elite-level story.

Honestly, either way, she wins this award.

Biggest hate crime: Dodgy pitches

It is 2025 peeps. Why are professional footballers still being asked to play on pitches that look like they belong in Sunday League? The state of the ground at Derby’s Pride Park for the League Cup final in March was criminal.

But only later that week, Real Madrid said “hold my shovel.” The pitch for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final was so bad Ian Wright labelled it a “disgrace.” He was being polite. It looked more like a slip and slide than a football surface, and by full time Madrid’s iconic white shirts were the colour of wet cardboard.

Players deserve better and 2026 pitches need a serious glow-up.