Keira Fae Walsh (; born 8 April 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club Chelsea and the England women's national team. She is considered both a playmaker and a defensive midfielder. She has previously played for Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, and Barcelona, and Great Britain at the Olympics. Walsh has numerous titles, having won the Women's Super League; the Liga F; the FA Cup; the Copa de la Reina; the League Cup; the Supercopa de España; and the Champions League all on multiple occasions. With Manchester City she achieved one domestic treble, while at Barcelona she successively achieved a continental treble and continental quadruple. For the 2024–25 season, Walsh achieved two domestic trebles, one each with Barcelona and Chelsea. She was part of the England teams that won the Euro 2022 and Euro 2025, and was named player of the match in the 2022 final.
Walsh became a first team regular at City as a teenager during their 2014 campaign, playing a key role in helping the team secure their first League Cup. She stayed with the side for nine seasons (in eight years), briefly captaining them several times, and in March 2022 became the second player to reach 200 appearances for them; when she left to join Barcelona later that year, she jointly held City's record for number of appearances and set a world-record fee for a female footballer.
She represented England for their age-group teams from the age of twelve, helping the under-17 team to fourth in the 2014 U17 Euro and being named in its Team of the Tournament. She made her senior debut in 2017, for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying, and started as captain in a match a year later. With England she has played in four major tournaments: the 2019 World Cup in which they placed fourth, the 2023 World Cup that they finished as runner-up, and the 2022 and 2025 Euros that they won. With Great Britain, she competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was named in the Team of the Tournament for the 2022 Euro, and is considered one of the best players and best midfielders in the world.
Early years Keira Fae Walsh was born on 8 April 1997 in Rochdale to Peter and Tracy Walsh, and was raised by the Pennines in Syke, a rural suburb of the town. Here she practised football with her father on the field across from their house from about the age of five. She played for local boys' teams Pearson Juniors under-7s, and then Samba Stars – both coached by the father of her primary school best friend, who initially took her along – until she turned eleven.
Walsh attended Haslingden High School and Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School Sixth Form, both in Rossendale; Haslingden High School had girls' football teams in the first few year groups, in which Walsh played. She joined Manchester City, the team she and her family support, in July 2014, when she was seventeen; City sent her to St Bede's College in Manchester to finish her A-Levels while she trained and played with them. Future teammate Georgia Stanway would also attend St Bede's.
A dedicated Manchester City fan, Walsh was inspired as a child by Spanish football, in part due to having family in Spain and often playing in the country when visiting them, and because her father encouraged her to watch Barcelona play. She also briefly supported Arsenal, due to being a fan of Cesc Fàbregas, until she saw David Silva, her favourite player, with City.
In 2008, aged eleven, Walsh was named Greater Manchester Young Sports Person of the Year. The award was principally for her achievements in badminton: she was ranked number 1 in the county in under-13 badminton between 2007 and 2009, having taken up the sport aged nine and representing Rochdale in it. Having nearly chosen badminton over football, Time stamps: 5:33–5:38; 09:00–09:20 she described it as her "second sport" and as of 2022 still played badminton in football's off-season "as a way of keeping fit". She took part in a variety of youth level sports in 2008, including playing cricket for Lancashire and football with the Blackburn Rovers Girls' Centre of Excellence. Walsh was one of eleven Blackburn Rovers players in the 2013 Lancashire Schoolgirls football team, a team she represented in 2012 and 2013 for the Northern Counties Championship and English Schools' Football Association (ESFA) County Cup. In both years they won the Northern Championship and were runner-up in the ESFA Cup.
Club career
Blackburn Rovers Youth, 2008–14
Seeking a way to continue playing football when she could no longer play with boys, Walsh attended a Football Association (FA) Skills Centre based at Kingsway Park High School at the age of eleven, where she was coached by Fara Williams. She then went to trials at the Blackburn Rovers Girls' Centre of Excellence, put forward by her childhood coach and encouraged by good performances at the Skills Centre, and joined them in 2008. She played for Blackburn Rovers in their age-group teams from under-12 through under-17. She began playing as a right-footed left-back, and then a centre-half, before moving to the central midfield at Blackburn when a new coach came in for the under-14 team and suggested she try the position.
With the Blackburn youth teams, while playing in defense and midfield, Walsh was a regular goalscorer, making four goals in six games in her first year at the club. She played for the under-17 team in the 2013 FA Girls' Youth Cup final against Arsenal, narrowly missing an opening goal, with Blackburn eventually losing the match. In the 2013–14 season, Walsh played in (and started) eleven matches for the Blackburn Rovers under-17 team, scoring ten goals to finish as their top scorer; in their 2014 FA Youth Cup quarter-final against Sunderland she scored a hat-trick in thirteen minutes.
In her five years in the Blackburn Centre of Excellence, Walsh's teams "only lost one or maybe two games". The club later saw recognition for developing midfielders in women's football, having successively produced England players Walsh, Stanway and Ella Toone. As part of the "Where Greatness Is Made" campaign, a plaque honouring Walsh was installed at Blackburn Rovers in 2022.
Senior, 2013–14
In February 2014, when she was sixteen, Walsh signed for Blackburn Rovers' first team until the end of the season, debuting as a half time substitute four days later. Walsh played for Blackburn as a striker: they had suffered a poor start to the league that season, and said that the addition of Walsh was key to maintaining their place in it. Still involved with the under-17 side, Walsh played in ten FA Women's Northern Premier League matches for the first team, scoring three goals, including the team's goal of the season – a "stunning" second goal against Derby County in March that brought Blackburn up from relegation. She also played for the team in the final of the Lancashire Women's Challenge Cup, said to be the best overall player in the match that the team lost, and in the fourth round of the FA Women's Cup. She left both youth and senior Blackburn Rovers sides in 2014, picking up a Contribution Award for six seasons with them.
Manchester City 2014 Walsh moved up to the Women's Super League (WSL) shortly after she turned seventeen. She had trained with Liverpool, which had just won back-to-back WSL titles, and been offered a place on Everton's development squad without trialling. With friends at Everton, Walsh was planning to join the club until learning Manchester City, the club she supports, was preparing to enter the WSL and holding trials for their development squad. She was uncertain about the opportunity, but her mother encouraged her to attend the trials; before the session was complete, first team coach Nick Cushing, who had gone as an observer, wanted to sign Walsh to the main squad as their holding midfielder. Cushing would later say that Walsh has "the best football brain" of any player he has coached, adding that "some players are almost touched by God"; in response, Walsh deflected praise, saying that Cushing's coaching style benefits technical and tactical players.
Within ten days of the City trials, in July 2014, Walsh made her senior debut for Manchester City as a substitute in a 1–0 win over Notts County; she would make her first start in September, against the same opponent. Too young for a professional contract, she officially trained with the development squad, for which she never made an appearance. By the end of the 2014 season she had gained a starting position in the first team and was considered important by City in their side that won the 2014 League Cup, starting in the final against Arsenal. Having not expected to play, she had initially told her parents not to travel for the game; she later said that Cushing having put his faith in her before the game led her to a successful career as it helped her believe in herself. She performed particularly well in the match, marking England legend Kelly Smith out of the game and "leaving the footballing world intrigued" by the unknown talent.
2015 In June 2015, Walsh signed her first professional contract with the club, until the end of 2017, though she did not play for much of the 2015 season due to injury. Manchester City added her to their 2015 League Cup squad in August. The team was briefly suspended for fielding Walsh, who the FA claimed was an unregistered player, before the matter was resolved; the FA admitted they "might have" lost the registration documents. The team's quarter-final against Arsenal, which City lost, had been postponed due to the investigation. A crucial part of his City plans since the start, Cushing started building the team around Walsh and made her one of its vice-captains.
2016 Walsh was injured again at the start of the 2016 league campaign but worked her way back onto the squad and, in September, was described as their "unsung hero" by 90min. Having gone undefeated, City won the league in September with a game to spare, Walsh described by Women's Soccer United as "unassuming" and "pivotal" in their success. In October, they won the 2016 League Cup for the domestic double. Walsh was named player of the match in City's first-ever Champions League match, a 2–0 victory against Zvezda Perm; a month later, on 9 November 2016, she scored her first goal for City, a long-range strike from outside the area, in a 1–0 victory against Brøndby IF in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. Cushing hailed her as "up there with the best, if not the best, players in the league" and, two days later, she extended her contract through 2020. For the 2015 and 2016 season, Walsh was nominated for the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Women's Young Player of the Year award; she would see further nominations for this award every year up to and including the 2018–19 season.
2017 With Manchester City, Walsh won all three women's domestic titles over what would be a regular 2016–17 season (2016 FA WSL, 2016 WSL Cup, 2016–17 FA Women's Cup); the WSL ran calendar year seasons until 2017, curtailing the season (known as the Spring Series) in spring to start a new one in autumn that matched European schedules. During the season, Walsh captained City for the first time, on 9 May 2017 in a 3–0 win over Bristol City. For the 2017 FA Women's Cup final a few days later, in which City defeated Birmingham 4–1, Walsh was named player of the match, saying only that "it was a real team effort" and that it was special to win a trophy at Wembley; Cushing and captain Steph Houghton heaped praise on Walsh's performance and maturity. City was the first team to hold all three England women's domestic trophies at the same time, but were denied another title by Chelsea, which won the Spring Series and left City second in a tight race decided on the final day.
2017–18