Jen Beattie: Former Scotland and Arsenal defender announces retirement
2025-01-21
Category: sports

Former Scotland defender Jen Beattie has announced her retirement after a successful 16-year career. The 33-year-old ends her time at United States club Bay FC having previously spent nine years at Arsenal across two spells, making 166 appearances.Beattie, who retired from international football in 2022, scored 24 goals in 143 games for Scotland and played at the 2019 Women's World Cup.She says the "timing felt right" to retire, and hopes to do more broadcasting, having worked with BBC Sport and Sky Sports."I'm nervous, I'm excited and all the things, but I'm ready for what's next," she added."To be honest, I think it's probably been on my mind for a couple of years now. It's probably been on my mind even before I retired from Scotland. "Since I've been doing the broadcasting a little bit more I've just had so much enjoyment from it. "Leaving Arsenal at any point was always going to be hard. So it's been on my mind for a while. Not being at my best anymore, I just felt like it was the right time."
'It keeps you close to football'
Beattie won four league titles with Arsenal and one with Manchester City during her time in England.She also played for French club Montpellier and had a loan spell in Australia with Melbourne City before moving to the United States in 2024.She is now following in the footsteps of her father John, who is a successful broadcaster and former Scotland rugby union player."I've absolutely loved working with different broadcasters and covering the women's game," said Beattie."I grew up watching my dad do it for rugby and I always thought that was really cool. "It's amazing the coverage that the women's game gets now and I want to be a part of that. It keeps you close to football. It's also the adrenaline of that live [sport]. "You feel your heart pumping right before. I think that's the closest thing I'll ever get to playing 90 minutes of football in front of a sold-out crowd."Beattie's football journey has not been smooth after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis in October 2020.She scored for Arsenal in a 5-0 win over Brighton three days later and recovered from cancer after having radiotherapy.Since then, she has advocated for cancer research and awareness, winning the Helen Rollason Award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2021."It definitely changed a lot of parts about my career. But it made me enjoy it even more because I'd gone through something so difficult," said Beattie."It brought me closer to team-mates, it made me appreciate my job even more and it got me working for something more than football. "I'll never regret speaking out about it and being as honest as I could, and still to this day I really find it important to share stuff that's really difficult."It made me realise the bigger picture of football - it's not everything. What really matters is health, happiness, friends and family."