“My favourite thing of all is how fun it was,” Jen Beattie says with a smile. “There would be some training sessions where we would be warming up and I would joke to teammates that this is the best job in the world, and it absolutely is. I’ve loved every second of it, even all the hard stuff.”
As the curtain comes down on a glittering career, she reflects on her time as a player with nothing but pride. The 33-year-old Scotland defender announced her retirement on Tuesday after an 18-year journey that has taken her around the world. She has lifted silverware 14 times and made history with her country at their first World Cup.
As the daughter of John Beattie, the former Scotland rugby international, playing professional sport is clearly in her family (her brother Johnnie was also a professional rugby player). Growing up in Glasgow, she started her senior career at Queen’s Park before moving to Celtic. It was not long before Arsenal came calling and she moved to London aged 18.
During her first stint at the club, she helped the Gunners lift four domestic titles, two FA Cups and two league cups before heading over to France and Montpellier.
An original participant of the Women’s Super League, she came back to England in 2015 and signed with Manchester City. She became a stalwart of their defence and claims those days “were some of my favourites of my entire career” as she increased her medal haul. Sandwiched in between was a loan to Melbourne City during the English off-season where she added the W-League title to her collection.
She departed for the NWSL after five years at Arsenal and joined the expansion club Bay FC in summer 2024 having amassed 166 appearances and 33 goals in her two stints with the Gunners. Scoring for Arsenal in their 2023 Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg remains one of her favourite memories.
“I know we didn’t get the result but scoring in front of a sold-out Emirates is everything I’d ever dreamed of,” she says. “We didn’t make the final but it just felt like such a huge moment.”
Another highlight was lifting the 2018-19 FA Cup with Manchester City at Wembley, her final appearance for the club.
Beattie’s impact was no different on the international stage. For Scotland, she was part of a generation of players that made significant progress as they qualified for back-to-back major tournaments. After making her debut at 16, she represented her country 143 times. She missed out on Euro 2017 through injury but played an integral role at the 2019 World Cup.
“My Scotland [highlight] is scoring at the World Cup against Argentina in a pretty crazy game,” she says. “I did it on the same pitch that my dad scored a try for Scotland and that will always be a huge memory for me.”
Paving the way has not come without its difficulties. Beattie has not shied away from difficult conversations and she played a role in the players’ dispute with the Scottish FA over equal pay and resources that was resolved in 2023.
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“It’s not about what we do; it’s about what we do mattering for who’s coming up next,” she says. “While playing for Scotland, I was very conscious of challenging the people above. I’m sure every single player in my position has had difficult conversations with board members and associations and it’s all been for the greater good and what’s next. It’s a credit to everyone out there who’s done it, not just me.”
Beattie’s journey has been far from easy. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 – the “hardest thing” to deal– but “it brought me closer to teammates; it made me appreciate my job even more; and it got me working for something more than football”.
Her openness about her battle with breast cancer led to her partnering with breast cancer charities and winning the Helen Rollason Award in 2021.
After 12 months at Bay FC and experiencing the NWSL, Beattie has decided to hang up her boots on her own terms, which says she feels very lucky to have been able to do. After dipping her toe into the broadcasting world, she realised this was her next step.
One thing is for certain, Beattie will not be resting on her laurels for too long. She will not be seen on a football pitch again but her time in the sport is far from over. “The coverage that the women’s game gets is amazing and I want to be part of that growth,” she says. “It’s the adrenaline too. You feel your heart pumping before you go on live and that’s the closest thing I’ll get to playing 90 minutes of football in front of a sold-out crowd.”
Source: theguardian.com
