Fresh from yet another Euros triumph, Chloe Kelly’s story is one of resilience, resurgence, and raw talent. From nearly walking away from football to becoming a national hero (again), we dive into the stats, the setbacks, and the statistical case for why she should be one of the first names on any team sheet, despite her incredible impact as a substitute.
If there’s one player who deserves the ‘clutch’ label in the history of European football – both men’s and women’s – one name should come to mind: Chloe Kelly.
Back in January 2025, questions loomed over Kelly’s place in Sarina Wiegman’s Euro 2025 squad. Now, just six months down the line, she stands as the proud holder of not one, but two major European titles: the UEFA Women’s Champions League with Arsenal and the UEFA Women’s European Championship with England.
Kelly’s journey is one marked by triumph and adversity. Having rediscovered her passion and joy for the game, she has returned to the spotlight with a vengeance.
From scoring the decisive goal in the Euro 2022 final to calmly converting the winning penalty in the shootout on the same stage three years later, Kelly’s fingerprints are all over England’s back-to-back European championship success. Here is how she did it…
Kelly’s Summer Heroics
Kelly’s Euro 2025 heroics perfectly align with everything we’ve come to know about her game and character.
England needed magic moments multiple times this summer: they were 2-0 down to Sweden with 12 minutes to go in the quarter-final, trailed Italy 1-0 with one minute left on the clock in the semi-final and finally, were staring down defeat once more as they trailed the reigning world champions in the final.
While many of England’s players, like Michelle Agyemang, Lucy Bronze, and Hannah Hampton, earned well-deserved praise for their heroics, this tournament will go down in history with Kelly’s name written all over it.
Even without knowing her full backstory, Kelly’s tournament numbers are impressive.
Despite playing just 248 minutes – all from off the bench – Kelly delivered when it mattered most in Switzerland.
She was directly involved in three goals across the Euro 2025 knockout stages, helping overturn half-time deficits in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final as the Lionesses became the first team to reach a Women’s Euros final after conceding the first goal in both the quarter-final and semi-final.
In fact, Kelly’s assist for Alessia Russo’s equaliser against Spain meant England’s substitutes registered 10 goal involvements at Euro 2025, the most on record (since 2013) by a team at a single edition of the tournament.
Sarina Wiegman’s masterful use of subs wasn’t just limited to the introduction of Kelly. Overall, the players she brought on scored five goals, made five assists, registered 24 shots and created 19 chances between them. Other than Spain’s subs producing 26 shots, England led the tournament in all of those categories.
Read more on Wiegman’s Tactical Genius
Women’s Euro 2025Five Straight Finals: England’s Sarina Wiegman Belongs Among International Football’s Managerial Greats
6 days ago Maya Shah, Louise BawdenTeen sensation Agyemang sparkled on the biggest stage, with the 19-year-old deservedly named Young Player of the Tournament. She led all England players with an impressive 3.9 shots per 90 minutes of action.
Beth Mead also made an impact from the bench. With one goal and two assists across the tournament from the bench, she now ranks second across all players to have ever played at the Women’s Euros for goal involvements (13). Only Sweden’s Kosovare Asllani has more (14).
But no one made their mark quite like Kelly. Among the four England players to make the Euro 2025 Team of the Tournament, it’s strange to think that a player who didn’t start a single game will be one of the names most closely tied to this tournament’s legacy.
Aside from helping England win their first major tournament on foreign soil, men’s or women’s, Kelly’s data across Euro 2025 highlights just how valuable she is to Wiegman’s all-conquering side.
We’ve already referred to a few of Kelly’s top-line numbers standing out among substitutes, but there’s a lot more if we dig below the surface.
Not only did she lead all players for chances created off the bench (10), she also did so at a rate of 3.6 per 90 – that was more than any England player in the tournament, and third behind only two Spain players across all players, whether as a starter or not.
A lot of those chances came from her whipped crosses, which were consistently dangerous. From her open-play crosses (14), Kelly created more expected goals for her teammates than any other player at the tournament (1.33).
It’s clear her attacking ability, whether that be from dead-ball deliveries or her relentless desire to cause chaos in the opponent’s box, was instrumental in giving the Lionesses that extra edge in front of goal, especially when it mattered most.
Although she’s provided many important moments in open play, she’s also clearly a dead-ball specialist.
She took 17 corners for England, the most among all her teammates, and England had a shot following eight of those. At 47.1%, that rate was second behind only Selma Bacha (50%), showing just how often her team threatened the goal following her deliveries.
But clearly, the most important element of her dead-ball work is from her spot-kicks. Her trademark hop, skip and smash penalty technique to crown England back-to-back European champions was reminiscent of both her winning spot-kicks at the 2023 Finalissima and at the last-16 stage of the 2023 FIFA World Cup.
Indeed, Kelly has scored the winning spot-kick in three of the four penalty shootouts England have won under Wiegman.
She has consistently delivered game-changing performances to carry England through their toughest moments, none more so than in this year’s Euros.
Rediscovering Her Smile
But none of this was supposed to happen.
At the turn of the year, Kelly had managed just 165 minutes in the 2024-25 Women’s Super League (WSL) season across nine appearances for Manchester City, registering zero goal involvements. Few thought she would be able to retain her Euros place in a squad that is extremely talented.
In fact, at the start of 2025, Kelly came close to walking away from the game altogether, having been ostracised by City and very low on confidence.
Aware that earning a place at the Euros required regular playing time, she eventually secured a loan move to Arsenal, but only after taking to social media to share her heartfelt desire “to be happy again.” It was a full-circle moment as she returned to her childhood club.
In her first start, Kelly was at her brilliant best, leading her side to a thrilling comeback against West Ham, as Arsenal recovered from 3-1 down to win 4-3. She scored one and set up another, the assist coming, unsurprisingly, from one of her trademark corners.
Similarly, Kelly’s two assists from inch-perfect crosses in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid helped the Gunners overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first fixture.
Despite featuring for just eight appearances and 511 minutes overall, Kelly was one of Arsenal’s most influential players during the latter half of the season. She led all Arsenal players for attacking sequence involvements in open play (7.4), showing how involved she was in passages of play that ended in a shot for her side.
Overall, she created 3.0 chances per 90 minutes, the most across all Arsenal players to have played 100+ minutes. In true Kelly style, she also led the team for successful crosses (2.1) per 90, as well as assists per 90 (0.53) across those to have played 150+ minutes.
She started six out of a possible eight WSL games for the Gunners, often playing ahead of superstar Mead, and totalled five goal involvements overall (2 goals, 3 assists).
Her impact in such a short time mirrors her international form, where she has consistently made a strong impact despite limited minutes on the pitch.
Such has been her dribbling and creative threat out wide, our player comparison radars have even compared her style of play to the likes of Raphinha, Desiré Doué, Savinho and Lamine Yamal across the 2024-25 season, demonstrating the elite-level company she’s keeping.
It was no surprise when she earned a permanent move to Arsenal, confirmed on 2 July 2025.
More Than a ‘Moments’ Player?
However, is Kelly more than a ‘moments’ player? Should her influence extend beyond England and Arsenal’s latest silverware? We are, after all, talking about a player who’s played in England’s top flight for almost a decade.
Indeed, her best season on record came all the way back in the 2020-21 season, with a league-career high of 21 goal involvements (10 goals, 11 assists).
It was during this campaign that Kelly, aged 23, became just the third player on record at the time to register a hat-trick of assists for Manchester City in a single game, doing so against Brighton & Hove Albion in January 2021.
Her prosperous campaign was cut short when she suffered an ACL tear in the penultimate game of City’s 2020-21 season. At this point in time, getting fit for the Euros in 2022 seemed a stretch.
But she fought back. After returning in April 2022, she racked up four goal involvements in just 303 minutes before Euro 2022, where she famously scored the winner in the final.
Off the back of such a successful tournament, Kelly kicked back into full swing, topping the charts for many different attacking measures during the 2022-23 WSL season.
Kelly created 82 chances in the 2022-23 WSL season — more than any other player and the second-highest total in a single season in the league’s history. Her average of 4.2 chances created per 90 minutes (min. 300 mins played) was the best that season.
She also set an all-time WSL record for crosses per 90 minutes in a single season, again among players with at least 300 minutes played (12.4). Her accuracy was just as impressive: her 3.8 successful crosses per 90 was unmatched during that campaign.
Her threat isn’t limited to dead balls or deliveries from wide areas. Kelly’s direct ball-carrying has become one of the defining traits of her game. Among both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 WSL seasons, Kelly ranked top for carries leading to a shot (either taking the shot herself or setting up a teammate), amassing 57 in 2022-23 and 47 in 2023-24. These records sit first and second, respectively, for the most carries ending in a team shot in all-time WSL history.
Her desire to take on players and create that moment of magic is something she has proven time and time again. While her 43 carries followed by a shot in her first full year at City (2020-21 WSL season) was considerably lower than her tally in 2022-23, she still ranked highest for that metric across all players in that league season.
She has consistently proven herself an asset to any team’s frontline, whether coming off the bench or starting from the first whistle.
And now the question looms: should she continue to be deployed as an impact substitute, or is it time for Renée Slegers to fully unlock her potential as a regular starter, something the Arsenal head coach has shown she is prepared to do?
At just 27, Kelly is entering her peak. She’s already etched her name into England folklore, but the opportunity is now there to cement her legacy as one of the WSL’s all-time greats.
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