There will always be men who look to devalue women in every aspect, but that is especially the case when it comes to women talking about men’s football. You need only take to social media when a female presence is on the board of pundits discussing the likes of a Premier League or Champions League match to see that play out in real time.
Thankfully, there have been more than a few names that have been able to break through the noise, with Karen Carney being a good example. Whilst people will attempt to levy all sorts of criticism at her, one thing that she can never be accused of is not knowing the sport thanks to her own successful career as a footballer.
Carney in the Media
Karen Carney is your Strictly Come Dancing champion! 🎉💙#Strictly 💃 pic.twitter.com/S3EQhD9M9F
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) December 20, 2025
When Karen Carney retired from football in the July of 2019, following the Women’s World Cup in France, she did so having become the second most capped England player ever, having made 144 appearances. From there, she decided to make the move into the world of the media, with Carney lending her insights to the BBC and BT Sport, covering both the men’s and women’s game and building the kind of on-screen presence that would soon make her one of the sport’s most prominent pundits. In the September of 2021, Carney joined Sky Sports as one of the channel’s lead Women’s Super League pundits.
Television
That role also extended into the men’s game, with Carney becoming part of the match-day team for both the Premier League and the EFL, providing expert analysis from the studio. It was a broad remit for a recently retired player, and one that reflected how much respect there was for her across the sport. In 2022, she joined ITV’s coverage of England’s women’s team, as well as working on the FA Cup, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2024 finals. That same year, she also commentated on Champions League matches for CBS Sports, then in the September of 2024, it was announced that she had joined the TNT Sports football broadcast team.
Sports Columnist
Alongside her television work, Carney established herself across print and digital media. She became a sports columnist for both BBC Sport and The Guardian, and a pundit for BBC Radio 5 Live. She co-hosts Long Story Short, a podcast with fellow former England international Jill Scott, which gave both women a direct channel to discuss the women’s game with a depth and authenticity that broadcast punditry does not always allow. Not everything about her transition to the world of the media was straightforward. Carney has spoken publicly about the online abuse she received during her time as a pundit and about the toll it took on her confidence and mental health.
Strictly Come Dancing Winner
She has used her platform to advocate for tougher social media regulation and it was in that context that her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in the autumn of 2025 took on a particular significance. Carney was crowned the winner of the twenty-third series of the show, becoming the first footballer in the competition’s history to lift the Glitterball Trophy after having been paired with professional dancer Carlos Gu. She had also been appointed as the Chair of the Future of Women’s Football Review for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the August of 2022, publishing a report the following July.
Carney the Footballer
Karen Julia Carney was born in Birmingham on the first of August 1987. She was just 11 years old when she joined the youth ranks of Birmingham City, playing for the club at various levels before eventually making her first team debut against Fulham Ladies when she was 14. Such was her level of ability that she was named the FA National Young Player of the Year in both 2005 and 2006, which caught the attention of Arsenal Ladies, who signed her on the 13th of July 2006. She went on to become a key part of a team that dominated during her first campaign at the club.
The Gunners won the FA Women’s Premier League, the FA Women’s Cup, the FA Women’s Premier League Cup and the UEFA Women’s Cup in the 2006-2007 season, with Carney making 21 appearances in the top-flight, scoring ten goals. She played 36 times in all competitions, scoring three additional goals in those extra games. In the following season, she made 34 appearances in all competitions and scored 17 times. After three seasons with the Gunners, Carney decided to make the move to the Chicago Red Stars for the new professional league in the USA.
In the inaugural season of the new competition in the United States of America, Carney played 17 times and scored two goals, getting one assist. The following year, she found the net on her birthday as the Red Stars beat Sky Blue FC 2-1. When the Red Stars folded prior to the 2011 season, Carney returned to Birmingham City and helped the club finish second at the end of the 2011 Women’s Super League campaign. That included scoring a winning goal against her former club, Arsenal. Having scored three goals, she did the same thing a year later.
She was named the Player of the Match in the 2012 FA Women’s Cup final, which Birmingham City won thanks to her winning goal. The 2014 season saw her caught up in controversy when she told Natalia Pablos to ‘fuck off back to Spain’ during a match, which led to her being given a one-match suspension and a fine. The first woman to be inducted into the Blues’ Hall of Fame in 2015, she left the club in the December in order to sign for Chelsea and work with Emma Hayes, who had been assistant coach at Arsenal when she was there and Head Coach of Chicago Red Stars.
Carney ended up extending her contract with the West London club to take her through to 2020, helping the club finish first at the end of the regular season in 2017. The following campaign saw her named in the Women’s Champions League Squad of the Season, but in the wake of a match against Fiorentina she received death threats and sexist abuse from a social media user who ended up being banned from the platform. Her final season with Chelsea ended up being the 2018-2019 campaign, in which she scored one goal in 14 games for the club.
Carney also played for both England and the Great Britain team that took part in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. For the Lionesses, Carney played more than 100 games, becoming the eighth player to hit that landmark as well as the youngest to achieve it. Her 100th game ended up being a 3-0 loss to Germany, but it was no less special for Carney because of that, who was captain in the game that was played at Wembley Stadium in front of 45,619 people. She also helped England to a third-place finish in the 2019 World Cup, being given number 150 as part of England’s Legacy Numbers scheme.