Once banned from playing in a local league, Ellen White retires as an all-time top scorer for England Lioness

Back in 1998, The Bucks Herald, an England newspaper running since 1832, had reported about a young Ellen White being banned the local league for boys. The then nine-year-old couldn’t understand why she couldn’t play in the league.
24 years later, as the 33-year-old announced her retirement with a Euro Women’s title, two WSL titles, Women’s FA Cup title, and being the all-time top scorer for the England Lioness with 52 goals in 113 matches and second on the all-time goal l behind Wayne Rooney’s 53 goals for England, The Bucks Herald reported about how the England footballer became a household name in England and football world.

The local paper, @bucks_herald from 1998. I remember it well. Wonder if Ellen carried on playing? #football #womensfootball #England pic.twitter.com/e5xNW4rlpo
— Scott Ottaway (@ScottOttaway) August 1, 2022
Post the England Lioness title triumph in Euro 2022 with a 1-0 win over Germany at the Wembley Stadium, twitter user Scott Ottaway tweeted the September 23, 1998 Herald article about the ban on a young nine-year-old White.
White, who was a student at the Grange School in Aylesbury, played for the boys’ team at the school and had scored more than 100 goals in 1997 for the Aylesbury Town juniors team before being picked up Arsenal’s junior team and captaining their U-11 team the same year.

Thank You Football… pic.twitter.com/WmeDGeX9zT
— Ellen White (@ellsbells89) August 22, 2022
The local league held at Buckinghamshire titled as Chiltern Youth League did not allow White to play for the club, which sent mixed teams to other local competitions, citing concern over the use of mixed changing rooms the players in the league.
“Our league has made the decision and we are standing it. The club has a right to appeal. They have not done so yet. The ball is in their court,” league chairman Chirs Davidson had told the newspaper.
White’s father John, who was also the chairman of Aylesbury Town Football Club at that time, termed the decision outrageous.
“It’s a total mess; The league seems stuck in medieval times. Women’s sport is a fast-growing sport and they should be going along with what the FA is saying and allow girls to play mixed football,” John was quoted the newspaper.
Fast forward to 2022 and White retired having played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, having a European Trophy and multiple FA and FA League titles under her belt.
On Monday late night, in a message posted on Twitter, White announced her retirement from the England Lioness. “It has been my greatest honour and privilege to play this game. In particular playing for England has and always will be the greatest gift. My dreams came true on 31st July and winning the Euros and becoming a European Champion,” White tweeted.
The 33-year-old made her international debut in 2010 when she played against Austria and would play in the London Olympic Games apart from the Tokyo Olympics netting six goals in eight games in the two Olympics.
The England footballer would also play for Chelsea, Leeds, Arsenal, Notts County, Birmingham City and Manchester City and would feature in two FA Cups title wins, three FA Women’s League Cups and two WSL title wins for Arsenal apart from helping Manchester City win FA women’s League Cup in 2021 and Women’s FA cup in 2020.

Congratulations on 100 @Lionesses appearances, @ellsbells89 🥳 #TB to Arsenal Academy days 👇 pic.twitter.com/ehfbqDwbIM
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) November 27, 2021
White, who scored six goals in Tokyo Olympics including a hat-trick against Australia in the quarter-final loss, was the joint-top scorer for England with six goals in the 2019 Women’s World Cup , where her google-eye celebrations caught the attention of the football world. White would share that her husband Callum Convery suggested that she celebrate like FC Cologne striker Anthony Modeste.
Earlier this month, White also flew to Cologne to watch the Bundesliga match between FC Cologne and Schalke with the match being Modeste’s last match for the club. “I like watching the Bundesliga.I support FC Cologne and striker Anthony Modeste, that’s his celebration,” White had told Goal.com in 2019 about her google-eye celebrations at the 2019 World Cup.
White, who stays with her husband Callum Convery, a sports development officer with Nottinghamshire Football Association, in Nottingham, though makes her husband annoyed on one thing, and that’s not putting the dishes into the dishwasher. Talking to England Football about one bad habit, White would say, “My husband would say I have 100! I am someone who always says sorry and my husband is always saying to me why are you saying sorry? Another would be that I take things close to the dishwasher but they don’t necessarily make their way into the dishwasher. My husband gets really annoyed with that and will say, ‘you did so well getting it all the way to the dishwasher but you couldn’t quite get in,”
The footballer, who now holds the record of England’s second highest goal-scorer, men or women, has a superstition. “I do always put my right shin pad and my right boot on first. And I always have the same pre-match meal of porridge,” White had told England Football.

Prior to the Euros triumph, White’s image was projected on the white cliffs of Dover on England’s coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France to promote the tournament and White’s jerseys were one of the top sellers among the English fans during England’s title march.
The day England won the horic Euros title, White, who is ahead of Harry Kane, Bob Charlton, Gary Linekar and Kelly Smith in goal-scoring for England, was cheered young fans at Aylesbury. “The girls all know Ellen from Aylesbury, we have got the mural in the town centre as well,” Paul Timmins, chairman of the Aylesbury Football Club, told The Independent.
When White returns to the town post her retirement, young fans would be eager to see her posing with the mural, iconic to the city as much as Roald Dahl’s children’s museum and gallery in the county town of Buckinghamshire.