A decade of service comes to an end at Arsenal
Arsenal’s Katie McCabe to pull curtain down on decade of service at end of the season
One of the best attacking-minded wing backs of her generation, McCabe won every major trophy on offer during her time in north London, conquering Europe in 2025 before winning the first ever FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
Speculation arose as to her future at the club when McCabe was seen to be in tears on the players’ lap of appreciation around the Emirates Stadium, with the club confirming the curtain would come down on a memorable 10 years in an Arsenal shirt.
“It’s a huge chapter of my life closing and there are so many people and moments that mean so much to me,” she said in an open letter to Arsenal supporters.
“I arrived at Arsenal as a young girl from Dublin in 2015, not really knowing what to expect - just knowing I wanted to be here. Over time, it became so much more than football. It became home.
“I’m incredibly proud of how far we’ve come together, and Women’s football as a whole. We represent something far greater than our individual objectives. To have been part of that journey is something I’ll always cherish.”
‘She only scores bangers’
What’s been so impressive about McCabe’s play, largely from left-back, isn’t just her 37 goals during her time at the club – it’s just how good most of them were.
Speaking to Sky Sports two years ago, Arsenal’s two-time player of the season admitted that she probably isn’t able to score when presented with a tap in and would much rather blast a shot home from distance with her cannon of a left foot.
Look no further than her only goal this season, which came against Everton at Goodison Park in December. As many have said is her speciality, it was an absolute ‘banger’.
It was a picture-book goal to add to a long list of efforts from range: that 30-yard lob against Aston Villa, that volley against Everton a week later, that free kick in the North London Derby.
Yet its bearing on her team’s season was also significant, helping the Gunners on their way to a victory that lifted them into second place and automatic qualification for the Champions League. They’re still defending it to this day.
To pull all of this off takes a certain level of bravery and trust in your own ability that some players seem to be gifted with. Katie McCabe is one of those players.
The day McCabe became an Irish icon
McCabe’s quality transcends women’s football and has been on full show ever since she represented her country for the very first time, facing Hungary in March 2015.
She didn’t take much longer to score her first goal, netting against Italy in the 2016 Cyprus Women’s Cup at 20 years of age. She would score another 33 over a mammoth 105 caps.
But the day that Ireland’s icon on the international stage truly became so was one of many that McCabe will never forget. At 21, she was made the youngest player to ever captain the national team by the then manager, Colin Bell.
You thought she was done there?
In September 2021, the Football Association of Ireland announced that equal pay would be implemented for the men’s and women’s national team after the left-back led the landmark negotiations alongside fellow Irish legend and men’s captain Seamus Coleman.
The left-back quickly became a symbol of the growth the women’s game was experiencing off the pitch, playing in front of rapidly growing crowds for both club and country.
There’s more. On the biggest stage of all, the 2023 World Cup, of course it was McCabe that scored Ireland’s first ever goal in the tournament. And she did it in McCabe fashion, curling the ball straight into the net with an audacious corner.
Who else would it have been.
The Ballon d’Or
If McCabe hadn’t already cemented herself as a bona fide icon for Ireland, then her inclusion in the prestigious list of names commending those at the very top of the game, in the eyes of France Football, definitely did.
Not only was her nomination for the Ballon d’Or in 2023 quite the achievement in itself, it was the first time an Irish player had been nominated since Roy Keane placed sixth in the award rankings 24 years prior.
In other words, Ireland hadn’t had that luxury since the turn of the new millennium.
End of an era for Arsenal
McCabe’s emotional departure from north London alongside teammates Beth Mead, Victoria Pevlova, and Laia ‘Codi’ Codina represents the end of an era, and the passing of the torch to the next generation of talent to put on an Arsenal shirt.
Above all of her other achievements at the club, their cult hero named the Champions League win almost a year ago as the one that tops them.
“If 10-year-old me could see what this journey became, she’d be so proud, ” she said.
"To say I’ve won it all here means everything to me. And I want to be an example to girls everywhere that if I can win it all, no dream is too big for you.
“Thank you for the memories, the belief, the support, and the love you’ve shown me from day one. Thank you for allowing me to live out my dream here for so many years.
“I’ll carry these memories with me forever."
