Bay FC defender Jen Beattie on Tuesday announced her retirement after an 18-year career.
The 33-year-old made the decision public after one season with the NWSL expansion side.
“I retired from Scotland a couple of years ago, but now I’m hanging up the boots for good, and I feel pretty good about it,” the defender told media last week. “I’m nervous, I’m excited and all the things, but I’m ready for what’s next, and the timing just felt right.
“I think bottom line, when I look back at everything, my favourite thing of all of those is how fun it was. There are some training sessions where we’d be warming up and I would joke to teammates that this is the best job in the world and it absolutely is.
“I’ve loved every second of it, even all the hard stuff. I would do it all again, all the injuries and I would do every single aspect of it. I had so much fun the day-to-day stuff, the big games, everything. It was just so enjoyable and I feel so lucky to have got friends for life off the back of it as well.
“I know I still could have kept playing and kept going, but it was very much my decision. So to be able to have that control, I guess, was really nice. Not many players have that and I feel very, very lucky to have had that. I felt at ease. I felt calm and obviously talked it through with friends and family.”
The former Scottish defender moved to the NWSL in January 2024 from Arsenal, following eight years at the north London club across two spells. She made 166 appearances and scored 33 goals for the Women’s Super League (WSL) side.
“I think it’s [retirement] probably been on my mind for a couple of years now even before I retired from Scotland,” Beattie added. “I think leaving Arsenal at any point was always going to be hard. But no, I think it has been on my mind for a while and I think now not being at my best anymore, I just felt like it was the right time to stop, and I’m just really excited to get really stuck into the broadcasting stuff.”
Beattie announced her retirement from international football in January 2023 after 15 years, earning 144 caps and scoring 24 goals.
She spent three years in Scotland before joining Arsenal in 2009, winning one league title, two FA Cups and two League Cups before further spells at Montpellier, Manchester City and Melbourne City. She returned to north London in 2019 before departing for Bay FC last year.
While Beattie noted that leaving Arsenal was a tough challenge, she revealed that she has no regrets about signing and spending last season in San Francisco.
“I’m honestly so glad I did it [moved to Bay FC]. It was such an incredible experience and I think the NWSL was always that one league that I wanted to go and see what it was like and really experience and for it to have had the opportunity to live in California for a year was just amazing. The league was incredible. It was such a challenge and it is what I went for and I did find it really hard, but no living out there, getting to experience different states and visiting all the places was really amazing and I’m so glad I did it. It was a really fun way to end my career.”
In October 2020, Beattie was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery and radiotherapy. Despite treatment, Beattie continued to appear for both Arsenal and Scotland and was awarded the Helen Rollinson Award in 2021. She also won the 2024 Lauren Holiday Impact Award for outstanding service and character off the pitch from the NWSL.
“Obviously, going through something physical like that and health-related, it definitely changed a lot of parts about my career, but I obviously think at the same time it made me enjoy it even more because I’d gone through something so difficult and it for sure brought me closer to teammates,” she said.
“It made me appreciate my job even more and it got me just working for something more than football and I massively valued that. It was the worst and the hardest thing but so many positives came off the back of it with working with charities and connecting with communities that are going through really difficult things as well.
“I never regret speaking out about that and being as honest as I could. Still to this day, I really find it important to share stuff that’s not all roses and petals and things that are really difficult because nine out of 10 times, people are going through really difficult things, whether it be health or physical related.
“So that was one moment in my life, but I will continue to talk about that forever because it was really important and it brought me closer to friends, family, it made me realise the bigger picture of football and that as much as we work so hard for something, it is not everything and what really matters are health and happiness and friends and family.”
Beattie revealed three stand-out moments from her career — scoring in front of Arsenal’s first Emirates Stadium sellout during the Champions League semifinal against Wolfsburg, her final game for Man City at Wembley Stadium and scoring for Scotland in the 2019 World Cup on the same pitch where her father, former rugby player John Beattie, scored a try.
