Former England international Alex Scott has been enshrined in women’s football history for many reasons; Her stunning strike to win the 2006-07 UEFA Women’s Cup for Arsenal against Umeå is near the top of the list.
In second-half stoppage time of the first leg in Sweden, Scott marauded up the pitch from right back for the visitors and let loose a powerful shot from 30 yards out that nestled just under the crossbar and above goalkeeper Carola Söberg’s fingertips. A goalless second leg at home the following week crowned Arsenal as European champions.
“For me to go and get the game-winning goal, it’s just stuff that you can’t write,” Scott said on The Athletic’s “Full Time” podcast this week. “For it to fly top corner, and then the whole team and everyone jumping on me and having that moment, and to put my name down in history with the club … it’s special.”
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Scott joined Arsenal’s youth teams in 1992, when she was eight years old. She went on to make over 300 appearances for the north London club, winning 22 trophies across three separate spells there during the 2000s and 2010s.
After an illustrious career that included a stint in the United States with the Boston Breakers between 2009 and 2011, the defender hung up her boots in 2018. Scott is fifth on England women’s all-time appearance list, with 140, and was part of the team to reach their first Women’s World Cup semifinal, in Canada in 2015.
Still, no season shines brighter than Arsenal’s quadruple season in 2006-07, which climaxed with Scott’s goal sealing a first European crown for an English women’s team.
When Scott reflects on that final, though, one moment doesn’t tell the whole story. What she remembers vividly is her defensive work and the weight she felt having to mark the best player in the world at the time, the Brazilian forward Marta.
“My job in that game was to stop Marta,” Scott said. “(I was) having sleepless nights, being like, ‘How do you stop the best player in the world?’. Like, I need to be on top of my game.”
And stop Marta she did. Scott and Arsenal shut out the then FIFA World Player of the Year in both legs.
Coached by Andrée Jeglertz, now in charge of a seemingly title-bound Manchester City in the Women’s Super League, Umeå and Marta were the heavy favorites against the English champions. In 2007, Arsenal were still a semi-professional operation. With no proven record on the continent, Scott looks back on that team as the “underdog” for the final.
“It is one of those fairytale stories,” Scott said wistfully. “No one (was) giving this Arsenal team, really, a chance because we were not professional then. We were only training a couple of times a week. So yeah, no one thought that we’d be going to get our hands on that trophy.”
Arsenal defender Alex Scott scoring the only goal in the 2006-07 UEFA Women’s Cup final (David Price / Getty Images)
On the bench as an assistant coach for Arsenal during those matches was Emma Hayes, now the head coach of the U.S. women’s national team. Scott refers to Hayes as “an incredible woman” and says she helped build her confidence as a defender.
“I think Emma was the first person that ever gave me the belief that I would be the best right back in the world. That was all Emma. She has this way of making you believe and giving you this motivation that you could be anything that you want to be,” Scott said.
After a stint in the United States with the Chicago Red Stars, Hayes swapped Arsenal red for Chelsea blue. This helped to fuel an enduring rivalry between the two most historically dominant London clubs in the English women’s game.
Hayes won 16 trophies with Chelsea before leaving in 2024 to join the USWNT. However, much to Arsenal’s delight, the one trophy she never won was the Champions League. The closest she and Chelsea came was when they reached the final in 2021, only to be heavily beaten 4-0 by FC Barcelona.
“(Hayes) left Arsenal to create her own bit of magic with Chelsea. Obviously, Chelsea went on to win so many trophies under Emma at the time,” Scott said. “A few ex-Arsenal players went over and followed Emma to Chelsea, which then started this rivalry, and it’s been there ever since.”
Chelsea and Arsenal will write another chapter in their rivalry when the two meet in the quarterfinals of this year’s Women’s Champions League, with the first leg at the Emirates Stadium next Tuesday, March 24, and the return at Stamford Bridge eight days later. Arsenal are the defending champions after lifting the trophy for a second time, again as underdogs, with a 1-0 win against Barcelona in Lisbon, Portugal, last May, and remain the only English women’s club to have triumphed in Europe.
Arsenal won their second Champions League trophy in May 2025, defeating Barcelona (David Ramos / Getty Images)
One of the biggest changes in European women’s soccer from 2007 to 2026 is the increased visibility and accessibility of the game. Scott, now a presenter for ESPN for their live Women’s Champions League coverage on Disney+ in the UK, is delighted to see how much of the sport is now broadcast around the world.
“There were times when I’d be playing for England and it wouldn’t be on TV, and we’d managed to get to a quarterfinal or a semifinal,” Scott said. “I love that now every single Champions League game can be watched and can be viewed.”
Although she won’t be on the pitch for Arsenal in this latest European challenge, Scott will be as close to the action as she possibly can, holding a microphone and with the cameras rolling. The novelty of now being part of broadcasting a competition her goal once decided has not yet worn off.
“For me to have won the Champions League and now be this side and present in the Champions League,” she said, “that’s the stuff that I don’t even think I’ve wrapped my head around.”
Since 2014, not only has Scott enjoyed her own bright career as a broadcaster, she has also helped pave the way for many more former women’s players to step into the media, such as 2006-07 Arsenal teammate and The Athletic columnist Karen Carney.
When all is said and done, Scott’s legacy won’t end with that historic strike in Sweden 19 years ago. Her impact on the small screen and at the broadcast desk may be just as big, or even bigger. Scott is not dreaming, she has changed the game.
“(When I retired) there weren’t any females in that space. There were a couple of female presenters, but they hadn’t come from the world of football or the sport that they were known to be in,” Scott said. “When I started, the dream was that I could get into space and that would be my next career. I didn’t have any doubts in that, but to go on now and be 10 years in and have presented some of the biggest shows, World Cups and Euros, both male and female. I think that’s still a pinch-me moment.”