Lianne Sanderson has enjoyed two distinguished footballing careers.
On the pitch, she was a prominent member of the 2006/07 quadruple-winning team, scoring 41 goals for the club during that record-breaking campaign. Now Lianne is a household name due to her successful media career across men’s and women’s football. “Arsenal was the best time of my life,” she will go on to tell us.
Born in south London in 1988, Sanderson’s love of football blossomed very early. “From about the age of five, I was watching full 90-minute games,” she remembers, giving us an insight into her careers as both player and media analyst. “At the time I thought that was normal. Now I know it’s difficult to get a five-year-old to sit still for five minutes, let alone watch a full game!
“I wasn’t forced to, I wanted to. My parents were football mad and my dad is a massive Gooner. I started playing for a team in Catford when I was six and that was where I was scouted for Arsenal when I was nine.”
Sanderson’s talents on the pitch were evident very early on. “I played for a boys’ team and when Arsenal watched me I think I scored six goals in the game. They thought I was a boy and wanted to sign me for the boys’ team! Once they realised I was a girl, they wanted me to go on trial.
"I was scouted by a lot of clubs but, because my dad is a Gooner, Arsenal was going to be the only club for me.”
For Sanderson, joining Arsenal had more than just a sporting attraction. It was also about acceptance.
“Vic Akers phoned my parents and we went and met him at Highbury. I was the youngest player there by about three years. I was nine and they signed me for the under-12s. We trained at the JVC Centre behind the Clock End and it was the first place I saw so many girls playing football.
“In my area, I was like an alien – it was: ‘There’s that girl that plays football!’ But at the JVC Centre there were about 200 other girls playing there.”
While Lianne found it comforting to see so many other girls playing the sport she loved, she was never in her comfort zone. “I was called up to play for the reserves when I was 14 and I trained with the first-team a bit. Once I got a taste of that I wanted to be there all the time.
“I loved our under-16 team – we had a great team – but I just wanted to be with the seniors. I’d stepped up and wanted to stay there.
“I scored in my first game against Fulham. Arsenal really looked after me and so did my parents, but once I got that taste of the first-team I never looked back. I was strong and tall and I felt physically ready for adult football.”
Walking into a dressing room featuring huge players and personalities who had won so much silverware ought to have been intimidating for one so young, but Sanderson says the environment was hugely supportive. “I loved the away trips and being around players like Emma Byrne and Jayne Ludlow. The girls took me under their wing.”
Sanderson says later that people often mistook her confidence and flamboyance for arrogance at points in her career. But she believes that Arsenal team saw her humility and that her confidence was underpinned by ability and not entitlement. “I wasn’t flash. I was humble and wanted to learn. Vic had told them how good I was and they could see it too.
“I’d won everything by the time I was 18. I peaked early in that respect. I won things everywhere I went, but the feeling in that Arsenal team was different – it’s the best I ever played in. It was like a family. There were different groups who liked to do different things, but it was unified and everyone was respected. I was blessed to come into that environment.”
For Lianne, Arsenal’s quality was a symptom of how much the women’s team was backed from on high.
“It sounds small but we had our own branded bus with the Arsenal crest on it and TVs with Sky Sports on. That used to intimidate other teams. We were way ahead of the game. Vic was the catalyst but the backing from David Dein and the club was amazing.”
Sanderson hit a rich and unprecedented vein of goalscoring form, finding the net more than 100 times across the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons. “Vic was playing me in a lot of different positions, on the left, the right, as a nine and as a No. 10, but I was playing every game. Everything I did over those seasons just worked.
“I just wanted the games to keep coming. I wasn’t an out-and-out goalscorer like Julie Fleeting – I was more of a provider – but my movement was good, and I got on the end of things. Our team was just really balanced.”
Sanderson was the top scorer in that historic quadruple-winning season. But the two-legged final against much-fancied Umea represented a different challenge and a change of role for Lianne.
Arsenal were underdogs for the final and star player Kelly Smith was suspended for both games. “The fact that we won it without Kel epitomised our team unity,” Sanderson says. “We were gutted she couldn’t play, but we did it for her.”
Without Smith, Arsenal adopted a 4-3-3 system that, in practice, often turned into a 4-5-1. Sanderson had to play a more defensive role across those finals and was up against two Brazilian attackers who were particularly revered.
“Vic didn’t really put me in midfield leading up to the game and I probably would’ve liked to learn it a little more. I was going into a game against Marta and Elaine! I had a lot more defensive responsibility in that game but, looking back, I’m proud of how I adapted in what was a very different game for us. We defended with our lives.”
[Read more
Highlights: How we won the 2007 UEFA Women’s Cup](https://www.arsenal.com/news/highlights-how-we-won-2007-uefa-womens-cup?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Sanderson wasn’t the only player tasked with a different role. With centre half Faye White coming back from an ACL injury, Arsenal had to reshuffle in defence.
“Vic moved Ciara Grant from midfield to centre-half and she took to it like a fish to water. Her and Anita Asante were amazing in defence. Jayne Ludlow was the best captain I ever played for. Everything she did in those games was perfect and she got us all going.
“I remember the final whistle like it was yesterday. I got married in August, and a lot of my teammates from that day were at my wedding because they are still special to me.”
However, Lianne felt the time was coming for a new challenge and in 2008 she joined Chelsea – a decision that drew criticism from Akers. “Vic was hurt but I communicated to him before I left that I wanted a more stabilised position,” Sanderson says. “I didn’t want to be a jack of all trades; I was playing as a nine for England and I wasn’t playing there for Arsenal. I needed to fight for a position and I needed a fresh challenge. We were winning games easily.”
While grateful to Chelsea, Lianne says the move didn’t work out as expected. “I don’t have many regrets from my career, but leaving Arsenal for Chelsea is one. It wasn’t the Chelsea you see today. The mentality wasn’t the same as Arsenal, the team wasn’t really set yet and I found it frustrating.”
She moved to Philadelphia and the move to the US really did pay off. Sanderson played for six different teams Stateside, has lived there since retiring from playing and still flies back regularly as a pundit for NWSL games.
Much as she did at Arsenal, Sanderson found acceptance in the US and her love affair with the country and the culture continues today.
“I feel more embraced as an individual in the States. After games you could see your family more; in Europe I don’t think it was always as balanced. I felt misunderstood in England, apart from when I was at Arsenal. I think in America they get my personality. I think in England sometimes people didn’t know how to handle me.
“Sometimes I had a mohawk and wore coloured boots and looked a bit more flamboyant, but I didn’t need handling. I always got on with my teammates. I think sometimes I was seen as arrogant – I am confident for sure, but I don’t think I am better than anybody. I think they get me more in America.”
Sanderson returned to Arsenal briefly in 2014/15 but cut her spell short after one season during a transitional time for the club. “It wasn’t the Arsenal I remembered. I could have signed for Manchester City - it felt right to return to Arsenal but it wasn’t the same as before.
“Vic wasn’t there anymore and it wasn’t for me. Now I think it is back where it used to be. I look at players like Katie McCabe, Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord, I see their mentality and can see players like that in the 2007 side.”
After further spells in the US and a season with Juventus in Italy, Sanderson found a post-career calling in football media semi-unwittingly. “I was told from a young age that I had the personality for TV, but all I cared about when I was a kid was playing football. When I left Juventus I was thinking about my next move and I got asked to be a pundit for the 2019 World Cup in France with BeIn Sports.”
There are shades of how she describes taking to life at Arsenal when she explains her swift adaptation to working in the media.
“I didn’t even ever do an official retirement announcement as a player. I just went into TV 100 miles an hour and I never looked back. I thought being a footballer was the best job in the world, but I love this and I have a better balance with my life too now.”
Looking back, Lianne is in no doubt about the highlight of her career. “Arsenal was the best time of my life. I won everything by the age of 18 and I was always chasing that again, to be in an environment like that.”
Lianne says that Arsenal is a place where she still feels welcome, even if Arsenal fans are aware of her Manchester United allegiance in men’s football.
“Arsenal fans are always great with me too, which I am so grateful for. They know on the men’s side that Manchester United is my number one love, but on the women’s side Arsenal is my number one love.”
Sanderson was one of the members of the 2006/07 squad to have lunch with the current squad in the days leading up to this year’s Champions League final. She was on media duty in Lisbon for the final and was very emotional at the final whistle.
“When they won the Champions League in May I felt like I got closure on my own career. I felt so emotional that the girls were able to do it again. I really wanted Arsenal to do it again, I was working on the game and it was so emotional to be part of the occasion and to be part of that week with the team.”
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.