Kim Little Eyes Champions League Glory With Arsenal

One of the legends of the women’s game will lead out Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League final tomorrow in Lisbon aiming to win the only club trophy which was eluded her.

If Arsenal – who will become the first-ever women’s team to play 15 games in one Champions League season – can win on Saturday, Little will become the first Scottish woman to win the trophy in the Champions League era. Paul Lambert (1997) and Andy Robertson (2019) are the only Scots to have played in teams which won the men’s Champion League. Julie Fleeting and 26 Scottish men have played in European Cup winning teams in the pre-Champions League era of the respective tournaments.

The unassuming Scot first appeared in the competition as aged 16 years, 72 days for Hibernian against Espanyol. Now 19 years later, she will finally play in a Champions League final against another side from the city, three-time winners, FC Barcelona.

Little joined Arsenal, aged 17, in March 2008, months after they became the first, and still only, English side to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League in 2007. A month later she scored her first goal for the club in a 4-1 win over Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium, demonstrating her capacity to perform on the biggest stage. Then manager Vic Akers said of the teenager, “make a note of this kid, she’s going to be a big player.”

He was not wrong. Either side of a three-year spell turning out for Seattle Reign in the NWSL, Little has consistently been one of the standout players in the English game. She was voted by her peers as the first-ever winner of the PFA Women’s Player of the Year in 2013.

However, a European final continually has eluded Little during her two spells at Arsenal. She has been a part of five quarter-final defeats and four semi-final eliminations since 2008 and another semi-final heartbreak looked on the cards after a first-leg defeat at home to eight-time champions Olympique Lyonnais in this year’s semi-final last month.

Yet, inspired by a Player of the Match performance by Little in the second leg at the Groupama Stadium, Arsenal produced a staggering 4-1 win away to Lyon, propelling them into a second Champions League final against the defending champions FC Barcelona.

Seeking to become the second side after Lyon to win three successive European titles, it will be the Spanish side’s 100th match in the competition. Their first was also against Arsenal in 2013. On their European debut, the Catalans suffered a crushing 0-7 aggregate defeat, Little scored in the second leg.

Also, playing in that game was Alexia Putellas who will captain FC Barcelona. If she plays on Saturday, Little will make her 77th appearance in the competition for Arsenal, equalling the club record held by Emma Byrne, who also played against FC Barcelona in 2012.

Little’s 38 goals for Arsenal in the competition make her the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League. Prior to joining them in 2008, the teenage Little had already scored five times in six games for Hibernian in the competition. Going into the final on Saturday, she sits joint-sixth in the all-time goalscoring list in the history of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Speaking to BBC Scotland this week, Little recalls the emotion of the moment after the victory in Lyon when former Arsenal team-mate Kelly Smith, part of the team who won the Champions League in 2007 and now a coach at the club, spoke to her on the pitch. “I can’t remember what she said,” confessed Little, “but I know that it was like just this connection.”

Arsenal’s vice-captain Leah Williamson summed up the feelings of her team-mates in a post-match interview. “To be honest, the first person – and the only person – I wanted to see was Kim. Kim Little is an unbelievable footballer that goes under the radar all the time.”

“Unfortunately, the international stage didn’t provide her with any of these incredible opportunities but she’s a player worthy of seven or eight Champions League titles I think. I’m very proud that the team did that for her today and the way that she led us, it’s pretty special.”