Fran Kirby needs a reset, but she's still got so much more to give
An emotional goodbye confirmed the parting of the ways between Fran Kirby and Chelsea at the end of the season after a nearly decade-long association. What next? Well, plenty, or there should be...
11th May, 2015. Canada House in London is the venue for England’s World Cup squad announcement. It's far from a low-key event, with the place packed with media, despite the fact the women’s game is currently still crying out for wider attention.
There are few quirks, as head coach Mark Sampson names a squad similar to those that have gone before, but there is one player currently starring outside the top division of English football included in the form of Reading’s Fran Kirby.
12 months previous, Sampson had seen enough just months into the inaugural FA WSL 2 season to bring Kirby into his England squad, during a campaign which would see her end an 18-game season with 24 goals, 11 clear of next best in future England teammate Beth Mead.
Kirby, not long turned 21, scored on her senior Lionesses debut against Sweden and come the World Cup had all three of the top WSL challengers at the time chasing her signature.
In Canada, she scored the crucial opener against Mexico in England’s second game following a goal-shy defeat to France, before Sampson labelled her with the tag which would stick for years to come – ‘Mini Messi’.
Whether it was fair or not to place on a youngster still breaking through, it wasn’t particularly inaccurate, and it certainly didn’t halt Kirby’s progress.
With Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all chasing after her – the latter withdrawing due to Kirby’s preference to remain in the south – it was Emma Hayes who persuaded her Cobham was the place for her, and a moment which felt like the Blues had ‘arrived’ on the scene, with Arsenal double WSL title holders and Chelsea still chasing their first.
But Chelsea were on an upwards trajectory, and while being cup-tied meant Kirby had to sit out the first FA Cup final at Wembley a month after winning a bronze medal with England, she scored twice to help seal Chelsea and Hayes’s first of many WSL titles on the final day against Sunderland, their first Champions League goal, and the dramatic late winner which sent them back to Wembley 12 months later.
From there, it was strength to strength as Chelsea began to take a stranglehold on the English game, and Kirby ended the 2017-18 season as both PFA Player of the Year and WSL Player of the Year.
She would repeat the feat come the end of the 2020-21 season, where her 16 league goals and 12 assists in 18 games - 28 in 34 overall - saw her ranked as one of the best in the world, finishing in the top 10 of the Ballon d’Or.
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At that point, it was hard to foresee the tear-stained goodbye Kirby gave to the Chelsea fans on Saturday morning, announcing now what many had come to expect from a player who has been blighted by a combination of injury and illness in recent years.
Kirby missed much of the season between her two trophy-laden campaigns with Pericarditis and was even told there was potential she would not play again.
In 2022, she was suffering with ongoing fatigue and last season featured in just eight league games due to a persistent knee issue.
This season, she has featured in 18 of Chelsea’s 19 WSL matches to date, starting nine. Her two goals and two assists are a far cry from the form of three years ago, yet at 30 there’s little doubt Kirby still has so much to give for those who saw her at her peak.
She leaves with (currently) 115 goals and 72 assists and is by far and away the top scorer in Chelsea’s history, as well as six WSL trophies, four FA Cups and two Continental Cups, and there may still be time to add to that tally.
Now, it’s a reset. Kirby has battled plenty of adversity to be where she is, including all the way back to losing her mum at the age of just 14, and has shown more fighting spirit than many could muster to battle back from her various setbacks over the seasons.
Maybe this time around it won’t be Manchester City and Arsenal chasing her, although if you were Gareth Taylor or Jonas Eidevall, would you really rule out a move for the proven talent – and now experience – Kirby would bring to any squad?
But it’s hard not to feel Kirby could do worse than follow the well-trodden path of some of her former domestic and international teammates, such as Bethany England and Jordan Nobbs, who both sought sanctuary in the ‘second tier’ of the WSL to gain playing time, as well as potentially rejuvenating their international careers.
Kirby’s time with England is one of great mystery, with just the 19 goals in 70 caps. Not that it’s a bad figure by any means, but for someone who has been capable of close to the same figure in a single a season for Chelsea at her peak, her stats for the Lionesses don’t match, and it’s been a regular talking point over the years that various England coaches have failed to get the best out of the mercurial creative midfielder.
The problem with football is it moves fast, and it doesn’t take long for you to get left behind. Kirby made 14 England appearances in 2022, winning a European Championship along the way, but has made just five in the subsequent 18 months.
In that time, the England squad has changed significantly, and particularly in Kirby’s position where Chelsea teammate Lauren James and Tottenham Hotspur loanee Grace Clinton are fighting it out with the now more established Ella Toone for the number 10 shirt.
Tottenham invested heavily to sign England when she too made the decision to leave Chelsea in search of minutes, to the tune of £250,000. It was an inspired move, and one which sparked their route to the FA Cup final this weekend, given when England joined a mere 16 months ago they were in the midst of a relegation battle.
Robert Vilahamn has enjoyed an impressive first season in England and could yet top it with a first major trophy for the club in the women’s game, and it’s hard not to think a move to North London could spark Kirby’s career back into life.
It works geographically, their style of play and attacking players around her would suit Kirby, particularly given how long she trained and played with England for, and more notably with Clinton potentially going back to parent club Manchester United, there may well be a vacancy in the number 10 role, one which no doubt a club such as Tottenham would love to fill with the top-level experience Kirby has to offer.
Whatever she does, Kirby’s career to date deserves to be defined by what she’s achieved, and while there’s an element of others having overtaken her during her various strife’s, she has more than enough time left to remind everyone just how good Fran Kirby is, and the generational talent which sparked into a flame a decade ago.
I was at the euro 22 semi-final against Sweden & Fran was terrific that night culminating with that chip for the fourth goal. Spurs would seem the logical move for her to get more game time & stay in the England picture.