Jill Scott has become the second member of England s Euro 2022-winning squad to announce her retirement in as many days, with the nation s second-most-capped player hanging up her boots at the age of 35.
The midfielder, the only member of the victorious Lionesses squad who remained from their previous final defeat in 2009, brings the curtain down on an 18-year career just weeks on from beating Germany at Wembley.
Scott follows England s record goalscorer Ellen White in announcing she is bowing out of the game, revealing her decision in a lengthy feature penned for The Players Tribune.
Two things have always been true about me, the former Manchester City stalwart wrote. I ve always been stubborn, and I ve always loved football. It s been in my blood ever since I was five years old.
If you would have told me that I d live to see 90,000 people packed into Wembley Stadium for a women s European final? And that I d be playing in it? Impossible.
I m retiring from football. And I m leaving with a gold medal swinging from my neck.
A true great.
Join us in wishing the very best of luck for the future, after she announced her retirement from football.
— England (@England)
Scott began her senior career with hometown club Sunderland in 2004, but it was a move to Everton in 2006 that saw her establish herself as one of the English game s key talents.
She won FA Women s Premier League Cup and FA Women s Cup honours before a move to Manchester City in 2013, where she helped the club become one of the dominant forces in the Women s Super League, winning in 2016.
At international level, Scott made her debut against the Netherlands as a teenager in August 2006 and went on to win 161 caps across a 16-year Lionesses career, and a further nine caps for Great Britain.
She was a member of the 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cup squads, making the semi-finals in the latter two, as well as the 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022 European Championship squads.
