Beth Mead: The star aiming to fire England to victory in the Euro 2022 final

The crushing disappointment of missing out on the Olympic squad for Tokyo has been used to drive the Arsenal player to new heights, writes Jamie Braidwood

Beth Mead scores England’s first goal against Sweden in the Euro 2022 semi-final (PA Wire)

The smoke was still rising long after Beth Mead led England’s demolition of Norway. “Beth Mead’s on fire!” echoed into the night in Brighton but the individual performance of Euro 2022 did not end there. England’s breakout star continued to show the way towards the final at Wembley. Mead’s stunning hat-trick in the record-breaking 8-0 win lit the torch for what would follow: the thrilling comeback against Spain, the triumphant dismissal of Sweden, and with six goals so far she now carries England’s hopes heading into Sunday’s showdown against Germany as well.

It was a crushing disappointment 12 months ago, however, that sparked the flame that has driven Mead at the Euros this month – or, as Ian Wright labelled it, kick-started the “Beth Mead revenge tour”. It is unthinkable now that the top scorer in the England squad would be omitted from a major tournament just last year, but Team GB coach Hege Riise’s decision to overlook Mead ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last summer served as the motivation the 27-year-old needed to “go up another gear”, and the transformation since has been extraordinary.

A desire for self-improvement and fierce determination to prove the doubters wrong led to Mead returning to pre-season training with Arsenal early, and she would hit the ground running at the start of the campaign. Fuelled by the disappointment of the Olympics, Mead scored two goals as Arsenal defeated Chelsea 3-2 on the opening day of the season. She did not look back, winning her league’s player of the month award and then translating her form to the national team with England. Last autumn, she made history by becoming the first woman to score an England hat-trick at Wembley in the 4-0 win over Northern Ireland.

However, for Mead, it was simply the standard that she now had to match. “I’ve been in great form, but I’ve got to keep at that level and keep that form now,” Mead told The Independent in December. The message was clear: there had to be more to come. Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall was also influential to her improvement. “When I started at Arsenal people were saying Beth Mead is in form. I just saw a great player,” Eidevall said this month. “I told her, ‘This doesn’t have to last for a month. You have those abilities. You can do this game in, game out.’ That’s what she is doing now.”

It has been quite the journey from Whitby, North Yorkshire, to leading the race for the Euro 2022 golden boot, standing on the verge of ending England’s 56 years of hurt, and emerging as one of the favourites for the Sports Personality of the Year award. One of Mead’s formative moments in football was attending the Women’s FA Cup final between Sunderland and Arsenal in 2008. She was 14 at the time and the Sunderland team, where she played in the club’s academy, featured the likes of Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes and Jordan Nobbs, who would all go on to become England internationals.

By the time Mead signed her first contract with Sunderland at the age of 16, those players had moved on to the bigger sides in the Women’s Super League, such as Manchester City and Arsenal. It opened Mead’s eyes to the possibilities of playing football professionally and she made it her mission to follow in their path. She would join Arsenal in 2017, but before then completed a degree in sports development at Teesside University. There is now the Beth Mead Scholarship at the university, where aspiring professional players can receive support while also pursuing higher education.

At Arsenal, Mead took up a new position on the right wing, forced to accommodate the Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema, but last season proved she could be just as prolific from out wide. She finished the Women’s Super League campaign with 11 goals and eight assists, while the appointment of Sarina Wiegman as England manager signalled a new dawn with the Lionesses, too. Before the start of the Euros, Mead had scored 14 England goals in as many games under Wiegman. However, even then, once the tournament arrived there were few predicting that Mead would catch fire quite like this.

She scored the opening goal in the nervy 1-0 opening win over Austria at Old Trafford and then destroyed Norway with a sublime performance that has yet to be topped by any attacking player at the tournament. Further goals against Northern Ireland and then the crucial opener against Sweden in the semi-finals put her top of the golden boot standings, where she has since been joined by Germany’s Alexandra Popp.

With momentum on her side and the biggest match of her life to come, Mead can continue to blaze a trail at Wembley.