Albion player of the year retires from internationals - after 77 England caps
Albion star Fran Kirby has retired from international football.
She steps down after being told she would not be picked by England for the Euros this summer.
Kirby has 77 caps for the Lionesses and was a deserving winner of the Seagulls' player of the year award for the 2024-25 season.
Advertisement
She has been on international duty for pre-Euros warm-up fixtures and went on as sub in the win at home to Portugal at Wembley on Friday.
Kirby told the BBC: "It is something I have been thinking about for over a year. I knew this was going to be my last major tournament.
"The plan was to retire after the Euros but after speaking to Sarina I'm not going to make the squad.
"It was like a dagger to my heart but also a weight off my shoulders all at the same time. It was emotional for both of us but we both respected what each person was saying."
Kirby was injured on international duty last season, which ruled her out of club action for several weeks.
Advertisement
She was badly missed over that period but returned for the run-in as Albion finished a club record fifth in the WSL.
The former Chelsea star was praised by Seagulls head coach Dario Vidosic for a positive and professional attitude which got her back ahead of schedule.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
18 minutes ago
- New York Times
Ex-Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas sentenced to four years for involvement in drug smuggling plot
The former Arsenal player Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has been sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement in an attempt to smuggle 60 kilograms of cannabis into the United Kingdom. The 34-year-old will serve one year and seven months, having already served nine months on remand, before being released on license. The maximum sentence for cannabis importation in the UK is 14 years in prison. Advertisement At Thursday's sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court, Emmanuel-Thomas sat behind a glass-panelled dock in a grey suit jacket, flanked by two security officials. Prosecutor David Josse KC told the court that Emmanuel-Thomas was expecting a payment of £5,000 ($6,800) for his part in getting the cannabis into the country. 'It is clear this was about money despite you being in a position where you had the privilege of playing football as a living,' the judge, Alexander Mills, told Emmanuel-Thomas. 'It is through your own actions that you will no longer be known for being a professional footballer. You will be known as a criminal, a professional footballer who threw it all away, and put others at risk of imprisonment, in pursuit of money.' Appearing via videolink from HMP Chelmsford on May 21, Emmanuel-Thomas pleaded guilty to the charge of fraudulent evasion of the prohibition on the importation of cannabis, between July 1 2024 and September 2, 2024, at Chelmsford Crown Court. The former England youth international had been detained by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in September 2024 after the cannabis was detected in suitcases which had arrived on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand to London's Stansted Airport on September 2. The suitcases belonged to Rosie Rowland, 29, and Yasmin Piotrowska, 33, the latter being Emmanuel-Thomas' partner. Having been arrested at Stansted, charges against the women, who denied their involvement at an earlier hearing, were dropped by the prosecution. In May, Josse told the court that the investigation into their involvement was discontinued after analysis of Emmanuel-Thomas's mobile phone. 'They thought they were importing gold, not cannabis,' Josse said. Emmanuel-Thomas initially denied his involvement in importing class B drugs at a hearing at Carlisle Magistrates' Court in September but changed his plea to guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court in May. Advertisement He had been playing at Scottish Championship club Greenock Morton, who terminated his contract after he was charged. After making one Premier League appearance for Arsenal, Emmanuel-Thomas left the north London side in 2011. He then played for clubs including Ipswich Town, Bristol City and Queens Park Rangers, as well as teams in India and Thailand, before joining Morton in July 2024. (Top photo of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas playing for Aberdeen:)
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Sir Dave Brailsford was an architect of Man Utd's ‘disaster' season but his legacy is still salvageable
Fifteenth in the final league table. Their joint-fewest points since the club's most recent relegation more than a half-century ago. No European football next season for the first time in more than a decade. A 'disaster' of a campaign, all in all, as the team's head coach himself freely admits. But there will at least be a fancy new hydration point in the revamped canteen at the training ground next season. Advertisement Marginal gains, indeed. Sir Dave Brailsford is stepping back from his role at Manchester United following yet another reshuffle of Old Trafford's leadership team under co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. And perhaps it should be no surprise that the high priest of high performance in UK sport will be taking on diminished responsibilities following the club's lowest top-flight finish since they ended up second-bottom in 1974. Yet Brailsford's withdrawal from United duties is being described as a natural evolution by sources within Ratcliffe's INEOS empire, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions. They portray it as his work embedding a new management structure at United over the past 18 months now being complete. The 61-year-old will return to his wider portfolio at INEOS Sport, including his true passion of cycling, increasing his level of support to the latter's INEOS Grenadiers team. He will still be involved in United's affairs and keeps his seat on the club's board of directors. Brailsford had been less of a presence around United's Carrington training complex of late in any case, although that was at least partly because he suffered a broken leg on a skiing holiday earlier this year and has spent time recovering at his home in Monaco. But even before that unfortunate accident, there had been scepticism among figures who know Brailsford over whether his day-to-day involvement with United would last beyond the end of the season. Initial impressions of Brailsford among club staff were positive. He did most of the talking when he and Ratcliffe addressed employees for the first time in January last year, speaking frankly about the club's underperformance and future challenges. One of Brailsford's first presentations to the players left such an impression on forward Marcus Rashford that — days after missing training following a night out in Belfast — he requested a one-on-one meeting. Brailsford then had further individual chats with every squad member. Advertisement Yet amid a whirlwind start, which involved shaking as many hands around Carrington as possible in the days following the agreement of Ratcliffe's share purchase, some were left with the impression he was attempting too much, too soon and spreading himself too thinly as a result. Other interactions with United personnel were less impressive than that first meeting — one reference to sacrificing lavish Monaco for rainy Manchester went down poorly — or betrayed the sense that, by Brailsford's own admission, when he watches football, he is 'watching in black and white'. Clearly, his established reputation for delivering best-in-class, elite processes has not been immediately reflected in the team's results. And even away from the pitch, focusing purely on decisions taken by United's sporting leadership, there are already several blots on INEOS's copybook. Brailsford was part of the botched process which led to manager Erik ten Hag having his job security undermined, his contract extended and his employment ultimately terminated all in the space of five months, although he was far from the defining voice in that debate. He was more influential in the decision to target, pursue and eventually appoint Dan Ashworth as sporting director, having collaborated with him during the latter's time at the Football Association. Ashworth's swift demise — again, after just five months — might have damaged Brailsford's standing but if anything it increased his level of responsibility, creating a vacancy within United's hierarchy that he, chief executive Omar Berrada and technical director Jason Wilcox, two more INEOS choices, needed to fill. Even then, not all of Brailsford's instincts and ideas were acted upon. He had reservations over United's habit of touring far-flung destinations in pre-season and prioritised player recovery over the commercial benefits of packed schedules. The fact head coach Ruben Amorim and his players have just got back from Malaysia and Hong Kong after United's first post-season tour in 39 years, ahead of spending a chunk of pre-season in the United States, shows where priorities ultimately lie. Advertisement There was also the mixed response to his launch of 'Mission 21' and 'Mission 1', initiatives to win United's 21st and first Premier League and Women's Super League titles respectively, ideally dovetailing with 'Project 150', the club's 150th anniversary in 2028. While some at Carrington note the arbitrariness of those targets, or understandably scoff at suggestions to print T-shirts and banners bearing those slogans, part of their purpose was to shake the club from a stupor, having not won the Premier League since 2013. Brailsford noted an inertia about United during his first few months in Manchester, a lack of purpose and motivation. It is not an uncommon complaint — something even Amorim has echoed when he said United as a club were in need of a 'shock' while nosediving towards the relegation zone in December — and, ultimately, one that Brailsford's blue-sky thinking has not fully resolved. But ask Ratcliffe and he would chiefly describe Brailsford's purpose at United as improving elite performance — best illustrated by the £50million redevelopment of the men's training building at Carrington, announced last summer, which is scheduled to open in time for the players' return in early August from that trip to the States. Easy quips about hydration stations aside, Brailsford's impact on United is only likely to be felt on this wider, overarching scale and over the longer term. One of his priorities in the early days under Ratcliffe was to make key, high-ranking appointments quickly, to create a sense of momentum. But as he now retreats into the shadows, his chief legacy may be in how the executive team he helped put in place now fare. Ashworth's appointment was clearly a mistake, wherever the blame for it may lie. Berrada led on the identification and securing of Amorim as Ten Hag's November successor, but the jury is most definitely out on whether he will be a success. And to coincide with Brailsford stepping back, Wilcox takes on the title of director of football — a position he last held for little more than a year at Southampton, largely while they were in the second-tier Championship. Advertisement Wilcox has fulfilled many of the duties typical of the role while serving as technical director, and is highly regarded after his six years as youth academy director at Manchester City, but this summer will be his greatest test yet. There can be no doubt that he and Berrada are the key figures in United's football operations now, a structure Brailsford helped build. And from now on, the gains need to be more than marginal.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
England fast bowler Brydon Carse considered getting toe amputated
LONDON (AP) — England fast bowler Brydon Carse said he considered getting a toe amputated after encountering longstanding problems because of his bowling action. The damage to his second toe on his left foot became so bad over the winter when playing for England that Carse was forced to pull out midway through its Champions Trophy campaign in Pakistan and withdraw from a lucrative deal in the Indian Premier League. The 29-year-old Carse explored every option to deal with the issue, including a drastic remedy. 'It ended up being quite a severe wound I was playing with for the majority of the winter. It got infected a couple of times,' said Carse, speaking on Thursday ahead of England's first Twenty20 against the West Indies on Friday. 'It is a bit of a running joke in the changing room, my second toe. So we came up with the thought, 'Can we just get rid of the second toe?' 'Everyone has had their opinion on my second toe. At one stage I was going to bed thinking, 'I could actually do this, I think I could get rid of my second toe.' But then the medical staff said you need it for balance so that was quickly ruled out.' England test captain Ben Stokes' late father, Ged, famously took a similar course of action in his rugby league days, removing his middle finger at the knuckle to speed up his return to action. Carse has just returned to action and was picked on Thursday in England's 14-man squad for the five-match test series against India. ___ AP cricket:
