Everton and England international midfielder Izzy Christiansen has announced she will retire at the end of the season.
The 31-year-old, who began her senior career with the Blues before re-joining in 2020, has enjoyed outstanding success throughout her 14 years at the top level of women’s football.
Christiansen first tasted success with Birmingham City, helping to upset the odds by defeating Chelsea in the final of the 2012 FA Cup.
Making her England debut while at Manchester City in 2015, Christiansen notched up 31 senior England caps, six international goals and a SheBelieves Cup winners’ medal, having helped the Lionesses lift the trophy in 2019.
Christiansen could fittingly make her final professional appearance against Manchester City, for whom she won a WSL title, an FA Cup and two FA WSL Continental Cups during a superb four-year spell between 2014 and 2018.
During that period, Christiansen was named PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year and included in the PFA WSL Team of the Year in 2016.
Following her trophy-laden stint in Manchester, the Macclesfield-born midfielder joined defending European champions Olympique Lyonnais in 2018 and scooped a treble in her first season with the French outfit, winning Division 1 Féminine, Coupe de France and the Champions League, as well as the Trophée des Championnes the following summer.
Christiansen sealed a return to the Toffees in January 2020, having left 11 years previously, and while unable to make an appearance during the 2019/20 season owing to injury and the WSL season being curtailed early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a key figure the following term.
She was named Everton’s Player of the Season for 2020/21, notching six goals and six assists in the league as the Blues achieved a fifth-placed finish.
Christiansen was also instrumental as Everton reached the FA Cup final in November 2020 and assisted Valerie Gauvin for the Blues’ equaliser against Manchester City at Wembley, before the Toffees were eventually edged 3-1 after extra-time.
The following campaign, Christiansen’s consistent performances were rewarded with the captain’s armband on the field while Dan Turner remained as the Club captain.
Christiansen, who in recent years has become a highly-rated football pundit on television and radio, retires having made more than 300 appearances for club and country, scoring 62 career goals.
