From Rochdale to Barcelona and into Chelsea blue, Keira Walsh is a serial conqueror of Europe and will undoubtedly play a central role for England at Euro 2025
England’s Euros success in 2022 was when Keira Walsh stopped being an ‘unsung hero’ of Sarina Wiegman’s side.
It was in that tournament on home turf that Walsh started to be recognised as one of the best and most consistent midfielders in world football.
Three years on, nobody is questioning her value, with the 28-year-old the subject of two of the five most expensive transfers in the history of women’s football at the time of her move to Chelsea in January of this year.
Walsh has established herself as England’s most important player and one who is set to play a pivotal role once again during the Lionesses’ Euros title defence in Switzerland.
This is how she got here:
Blue beginnings
Walsh grew up in Rochdale in a Manchester City-supporting household.
Supporting City did not go back generations in the Walsh family, but the midfielder had little choice in who she would follow after her dad Peter had shunned his own father’s support of Liverpool to pick them as his team.
Walsh followed enthusiastically and was decked out in the new kits every year; her fandom even went as far as the names she gave her goldfish – Shaun Goater and Nicolas Anelka.
Her introduction to football was through City games, not at Maine Road but on the TV, which meant she had the chance to go straight from their living room to the field next door to practice the skills she had just seen.
She told Manchester City: “My mum said I was watching and said: ‘I want to do that’ and then as I got older, my dad used to sit me down, put the football on and tell me to watch different players like Yaya Toure or David Silva and say: ‘Watch how they play.’
“I’d sit next to him on the couch and watch how they played for 90 minutes. He’d say: ‘You can do that better, watch the way he turns with the ball, try to copy that…’
“There’s a field opposite my parents’ house. Dad would come home from work and we would go on the field and practice passing for two hours.
“Sometimes he didn’t want to, and he’d say: ‘Stop bothering me, I want to eat my tea!’ but he never said no, and I think that if I hadn’t have done that passing then, I wouldn’t play my position the way I do.”
From boys’ teams to Blackburn
Walsh knows the familiar feeling of being the only girl in a team, but it was not something that particularly bothered her as she joined Pearson Juniors with her best friend, and they were coached by his dad.
But when she reached 12 years old, she was no longer able to play with the boys and had to look further afield.
That meant travelling to Lancashire to join Blackburn Rovers’ junior section, which brought about her move to midfield.
Walsh joined Rovers as a centre-half before moving forward, literally and figuratively, quickly establishing herself in the junior sides before making her senior debut aged just 16.
It was perhaps one of the most fortuitous twists of fate in English football.
“I actually started out as a left-back. When you are younger, you play seven-a-side so you don’t really have centre-halves, so I was more of a left-sided centre-half,” she explained to England Football.
“I’m not even left-footed so I don’t know why I was shoved there!
“When I joined Blackburn, I joined them as a centre half and then at under-14s we had a different coach for an evening and he was like, ‘I think you would be good in midfield’, so they tried me in midfield for one session and I have been a midfielder ever since.”
No sooner had Walsh blown out the candles on her 17th birthday cake was she considering a move to the big leagues.
Back to blue
Having been credited with helping to save Blackburn from being relegated from the third tier of women’s football, Walsh needed a bigger challenge.
She was ready to pull on the blue of a Women’s Super League team, but originally it was not going to be City’s sky blue, who were joining the WSL that year.
Walsh told City’s website: “I was ready to join Everton at the time, and I was happy to.
“They had a young team, I hadn’t had to trial, and they were already established in the Women’s Super League.
“No-one knew what to expect from City and I wasn’t sure about what playing time I’d have. There are so many things to think about as a footballer rather than just: ‘I want to play for the club I support.’
“My mum told me to trial for City, saying that if I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to stay.
“So, I trialled for City’s Development Squad and I don’t think I even finished the trials before Nick Cushing rang my mum and said he wanted me to train and play with the first team!”
Making a splash
Walsh made her debut for Manchester City against Notts County, quickly establishing herself in the first team despite only being registered as a development player.
At 17 years old, she was too young to sign a professional contract so combined her football with A Levels at St Bede’s College.
Walsh was as unassuming then as she is now, telling her parents not to come to City’s League Cup final before impressing as she marked England legend Kelly Smith.
And while Walsh is not aware of her talent, those around her certainly are.
“Some players are almost touched by God – their journey is pathed out, they’re just special, and whatever happens to them, highs and lows, they’re always on this path to success,” former City boss Nick Cushing said to the Telegraph.
“In that season’s Cup final her job was to mark Kelly Smith when Kelly came on as a substitute.
“Kelly Smith, the greatest ever female player, who I have huge respect for, honestly had no space in that game, Keira dictated the game and we won 1-0. Looking back now, how crazy is that? She was 17.”
Walsh went onto win two trophies with City in 2016, securing both the WSL title and League Cup before claiming the first of three FA Cup trophies a year later.
Lioness loading
Walsh had gone right through the England ranks as a junior, making her U15 debut aged just 12, but received tough love from coach Mo Marley, who told her to work harder.
The studious Walsh duly did so and was ultimately rewarded when Marley, in interim control of England, called the midfielder up to her first senior camp in 2017.
Becoming the 200th woman to play for England, Walsh made her debut against Kazakhstan, providing an assist.
Just a year later and against the same opponent, Walsh captained her country aged 21 as England concluded their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 6-0 win.
By the time the 2019 Women’s World Cup rolled around, she was a starting midfielder at her first major tournament.
However, her performances were not up to her usual high standards, and she admitted questioning her place in the game after targeted abuse on social media.
Working with a psychologist saw her return to her best and nowhere was that clearer than during the 2022 Euros.
Walsh was named Player of the Final as England surged to glory on home soil, with her perfect pass setting up Ella Toone for the opening goal.
While her assist is well-remembered it is her work controlling play from the midfield that goes unnoticed but should not be underappreciated.
Conquered all of Europe
No sooner had Walsh become a European champion in the international game, she set out to do the same on the domestic level.
On transfer deadline day in 2022, Walsh joined Barcelona for a rumoured world record fee for a women’s footballer of around £400,000.
Silverware poured in during her time with Spain, with Barca dominating domestically by winning back-to-back Liga F titles alongside further triumphs in the Copa de la Reina and Supercopa Feminina.
But it was in the Champions League where Walsh truly achieved her goal as Barcelona came from behind to defeat Wolfsburg in the 2023 final before they beat Lyon to retain their European crown the following year.
Success came alongside her Lionesses colleague Lucy Bronze as well as superstars of the Spanish game such as Aitana Bonmati and Mariona Caldentey, players who would ultimately deny Walsh and England glory on a global scale.
‘I’ve done my knee’
Everyone became expert lip-readers as they saw Walsh’s pained expression having gone down in a challenge during England’s second group game of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, against Denmark.
Four little words that spelled the end of the Lionesses’ chances, how could they do without their midfield maestro?
It turned out, they need not have worried as an ACL injury was quickly ruled out by physios, as Walsh sat out one match before returning for England’s last 16 game against Nigeria.
Walsh was as calm dealing with an injury as she is with the ball at her feet.
She told BBC Sport: “Obviously, it was really painful at first, that was probably the main thing I was thinking about.
“The stretcher came on and they [the Lionesses] all found it really funny that I had to go off on a stretcher.
“More so, because I was embarrassed. Obviously, they were worried about my knee, but they know me as a person.
“The worst-case scenario is what you immediately think about, for me, when I went down, I wasn’t too worried about my ACL, everybody else was in the media, but I straightaway knew it wasn’t.”
Walsh went on to help England reach their first-ever final, but the last hurdle proved too high to clear as Spain – complete with several of her Barcelona clubmates – defeated the Lionesses 1-0 in Sydney, Australia.
Deeper shade of blue
Walsh returned to English football in January when she signed for Chelsea for a reported £440,000, bringing her in domestic opposition to Manchester City, her childhood club, for the first time in her career.
Just like at Barcelona, she had joined a dominant force with the Blues finishing the season with a domestic treble.
Walsh did not play in their Women’s League Cup final victory over City, but she helped Chelsea to a sixth consecutive WSL title before she helped them defeat Manchester United 3-0 in the Women’s FA Cup final.
This took her to tally of major honours in her career up to 19, while her standing in the game is emphasised by her being named in the FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11 in each of the last three years.
The midfield metronome even scored her first international goal – in her 83rd cap – against Belgium in April of a year she hopes will bring further glory with the Lionesses as they defend their Euros crown.
