In January 2025, Chloe Kelly came close to walking away from football completely. Confined to the bench at Manchester City as her contract ticked down, and blocked from leaving, the winger's once-bright career seemed to be unraveling.
A transfer seemed to be her only hope. Offers had come in, and sources told ESPN that both Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion made loan approaches, but although she wanted to remain closer to home in Manchester, City weren't keen for her to join their rivals and eventually accepted Brighton's offer ahead of deadline day.
Kelly didn't want to go to Brighton, however. So, with no movement over a new contract at City and her mental health deteriorating on the sidelines, she took the bold step of speaking out publicly. Sharing her frustration and pain in a statement on social media, she hit out at the club for "dictating" her next move and said she would no longer tolerate certain individuals' "negative behavior."
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The post triggered a wave of support. Her England teammates rallied around her, fans voiced solidarity, and even celebrities weighed in. It was clear that Kelly, usually so composed, had reached a breaking point. She wasn't just desperate for minutes on the pitch; she was fighting for her future in the sport. Another six months on the bench would have destroyed her career.
Then, as the final hours of the transfer window ticked down, a twist: Arsenal made their move. The club where Kelly had spent her formative years, rising through the academy and making her senior debut before leaving for Everton aged 18 in 2018, offered her a short-term loan deal, and she accepted.
There was no tearful goodbye at leaving City, just relief. And on the eve of her emotional return to north London, Kelly released an even more pointed statement, accusing individuals at City of attempting to "assassinate" her character with "false accusations," adding another layer of intensity to an already dramatic saga.
Now, eight months on, she is preparing to face her former club on Saturday as a UEFA Women's Champions League (UWCL) winner and two-time European champion. But how did a redemption arc unlike any other unfold?
Feeling "worthless" and "isolated"
Kelly joined Manchester City from Everton in 2020 and quickly became a cornerstone of the team. In her debut season, the winger delivered some top performances at crucial moments, establishing herself as a fans' favorite. Her 10 goals (at an xG of 8.3) and 11 assists from 21 games in the WSL marked her out as one of the league's most potent attacking threats.
Then came a setback. In May 2021, Kelly suffered a devastating anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, just over a year before the European Championship on home soil. The race to return in time was on, but it came at a cost as she missed that summer's Olympics in Tokyo, and the isolation of rehab took its toll.
"Sometimes, you do feel isolated," she told the City website for Mental Health Awareness Week in 2022. "There are some moments where you don't feel part of the group. It feels like you don't have any worth not playing your sport, or being able to do your job, having that taken away from you, and that was difficult for me.
"[City manager] Gareth Taylor really looked after me in those moments. He didn't allow me to feel that way, and as soon as I was back in with the girls, I felt like a new player coming back and it was great. You feel worthless in those moments. I didn't think I could overcome it, but it's about having good people around you."
Incredibly, despite only playing five games in the 2021-22 WSL season, Kelly made it back just in time to be selected in the England's Euros squad. And the rest is history. Her winning goal in the final against Germany secured England's first-ever major trophy, a career-defining moment on the biggest stage, and Kelly -- forever etched into history for her iconic celebration, as she whipped her shirt around her head in her sports bra -- became a household name overnight.
"In that moment, I celebrated the goal for what it was," she told The Guardian. "I just went crazy. I just tried to live in the now and embrace the experience. I didn't feel the pressure of anything. It was such a big tournament, but I played without fear and enjoyed myself. I had spent so much time away from the pitch -- you just want to appreciate the times when you're on it."
A sliding doors moment
Kelly rode the wave of adulation for the next few years, with 14 WSL goal contributions in 2022-23 followed by 10 in 2023-24, and stayed clear of injury. But then everything began to unravel.
Suddenly, with her contract up in year and no progress over an extension, Kelly was placed on the fringes of the City team and told to warm the bench for the start of the 2024-25 season. Her minutes dropped sharply, with Mary Fowler and Aoba Fujino emerging as Taylor's preferred options in attack. And, even amid an injury crisis that left City short of attacking options, Kelly remained sidelined.
Across City's first nine WSL games of the season, stretching to the Christmas break, Kelly was an unused substitute three times and made only one start. In total, she played only 169 minutes across six matches before her loan to Arsenal at the end of January.
The situation didn't go unnoticed by England manager Sarina Wiegman, who described Kelly's lack of game time as a "concern." And while Kelly was still named in the national squads for friendlies in 2024, thanks largely to the credit she'd built up over previous years, by the time the all-important February camp came around, her absence from City's team -- and a three-week wait to make her Arsenal debut -- caught up with her and she was left out just five months before the start of Euro 2025.
Had the Lionesses not been dealing with a string of injuries up front, Kelly might not have got in at all, but she was given a chance when Beth Mead pulled out injured. Still, Wiegman's message was crystal clear: Start playing regularly or risk missing out.
Kelly's move in January was a true sliding doors moment. It changed everything. With renewed focus and determination, in familiar surroundings in north London, the winger started six of Arsenal's eight WSL matches, scoring twice and assisting three times. And she also played five times as the Gunners won the UWCL for the first time since 2007 (then known as the UEFA Women's Cup) with a 1-0 win over favorites Barcelona.
After the final whistle in Lisbon, the loanee tapped the Arsenal badge and pointed to the ground, a clear message to fans in Portugal that she wanted to stay. So it was no surprise when, weeks later, it became official and Kelly signed permanently.
A redemption complete
In February 2025, Kelly admitted she "just want[s] to be happy again." At Arsenal, she found exactly that. And England fans can be grateful she did.
While she had grown unhappy at City on the bench, her role as a super-sub at Euro 2025 was a masterstroke by Wiegman. She may have only been handed limited minutes, but the winger's drive to attack brought a fresh dimension to the Lionesses, who suffered a surprising 2-1 defeat to France in their first game before overcoming Netherlands and Wales to set up a quarterfinal against Sweden.
Kelly inspired England in that game after they went down 2-0 inside 25 minutes, as she came on in the 78th minute to deliver perfect crosses for Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang to level things, and then converted a crucial penalty in one of the craziest shootouts of all time to keep England's hopes alive.
Chloe Kelly speaks at England's trophy parade for their Women's Euros victory.
In the semifinal against Italy, it was Kelly again who stepped up again, as she scored the winning 119th-minute penalty after Agyemang's 96th-minute equalizer had broken Italian hearts. Though her initial effort was saved, her composure on the rebound saw her fire home and book England's place in a second consecutive final.
The miss. The recovery. The winning goal. It was the perfect snapshot of Kelly's career: resilience, redemption, and rising to the occasion when it mattered most.
Fittingly, it was Kelly who took the last kick of the tournament in Basel following the final against Spain, ending 1-1 after extra time. It was her thunderous effort in the penalty shootout that decided the penalty shootout and retained England's European crown. The pressure was immense, but Kelly delivered once again. And her story had come full circle.
"There were a lot of tears at full-time especially when I saw my family, because those were the people that got me through those tough dark moments," Kelly said afterward. "If that's a story to tell someone who maybe experiences something the same, tough times don't last. Just around the corner was a Champions League final, won that. Then a Euros final, won that. Thank you to everyone that wrote me off, I'm grateful."
Now a refreshed and reinvigorated Kelly returns to her former club a completely different person. And her words from February could come back to haunt them.
"When I'm at my best I have a smile on my face," she said. "Sport isn't always a journey that goes upwards -- there's going to be some bumps in the road throughout ... I'm a really resilient person, so I'm ready for the fight again, and I'm ready to show what I'm capable of again."