Arsenal Women’s 23-year-old England international centre-back Lotte Wubben-Moy has signed a new deal with the Gunners.
Arsenal announced today that Lotte Wubben-Moy has signed a new deal. The 23-year-old centre-back and lifelong Arsenal fan came through the club’s academy, made her senior debut aged 16 and rejoined the Gunners in 2020 after studying in the USA and playing for the University of North Carolina’s Tar Heels.
Wubben-Moy told www.arsenal.com: “It feels amazing. This contract means so much more to me and to my family than just it being a football contract. It’s a commitment to the club and it’s a commitment to Arsenal, the community that it’s active in and to my life as a whole, because that’s what Arsenal is – it’s my life.”
Now a regular member of Sarina Wiegman’s England squad and with seven caps to her name, Wubben-Moy has also emphasised her ambition to give back to the local area where she grew up and still lives, by committing to working closely with Arsenal in the Community to develop a programme which uses the power of football to help girls and young women to build self-confidence, develop communication skills and try new activities.
It’s refreshing to see players so keenly invested in ‘giving back’ and as a passionate believer in the importance of creative pursuits like art and writing and an advocate for sustainability and the environment, Wubben-Moy will participate in regular sessions spanning these fields, underpinned by football, at the Arsenal Community Hub near Emirates Stadium, for the duration of her contract.
Lotte spoke to the media ahead of this announcement and here’s a bit of the chat, reflecting on last weekend and of course looking ahead to an exciting future…
On what it meant to be ‘asked to stay’ by the club she feels such a special connection to:
It’s an extremely important show of respect and appreciation. It’s a commitment not only from myself to the club, but from the club to myself and that’s a special moment.
On how she assesses where Arsenal are as a team and their growth this season and into the future:
I guess that’s quite a prescient question with this weekend having just passed. I’m extremely disappointed, I think everyone in the team is because we set out this season being able to compete in every single competition, that was the FA Cup, the League Cup, Champions League and the league, and right now we’re looking at having three weeks left of the season and having the league only to play for. That’s gutting. We want to be winning, we want to be competing at the top level, that is the vision of the club.
On a positive note, we are still in the running for the league and albeit we might end the season with nothing, that’s not to acknowledge the growth and the building we have done as players and that can’t be underestimated. We’re a talented team and we are not even near the capacity we could be at. So yes, watch this space. We’ll be going into next season even more hungry. But we still have games to play for right now and we’ll be taking every game as it comes, and we can still win the league.
On how those losses [like Sunday’s cup defeat], disappointments and frustrating moments fit into her relationship with a club she says is ‘her life’:
I think these moments are a necessity, they’re are a lesson. There are so many cliches that can pin in [how] losses come with being a sports person or athlete and just in general life, if I’m honest. We will have all been through things that might not have been ideal, or that we might not have seen written or wanted to happen but in the long run – and this is what makes this contract so exciting and important – you know that there will be a next time that you can give and that you can learn from those lessons and use what you will have learned to push on and do something with those losses. And yeah, it hurts right now but there are definitely things that we will build upon that we will learn from and that we will endeavour to do better for the next times that come and that sort of weaves into my experiences at Arsenal. It is a club that competes at the highest level and wins. But obviously, there are inevitables that come with being an athlete, and being a team that competes in sport – there will be losses – and unfortunately, this just has to be one of them that we build upon and that we run from.
And, taking into account her life-long affiliation with Arsenal. What has been her favourite kit in that time?
It has to be the Nike gold kit with ‘SEGA’ on the front and the old badge, from 2001-2002. [with props to Tim Stillman for quickly clarifying the season!]
What did others at the club say about the new deal…
Head coach Jonas Eidevall said: “Lotte has proven herself as an important player for us this season and so I’m delighted that she has extended her stay with the club. She is one of the most exciting young defenders in English football and I believe she has all the tools to continue her progression here at Arsenal.”
Head of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley added: “We’re delighted that Lotte has committed her future to the club. Lotte knows this club inside out and we are all proud to see her establishing herself for both club and country. Her progression since rejoining us in 2020 has been impressive and we look forward to watching her continue to develop in the years to come.”
