It is ten years this May since Danielle Carter’s rasping drive from range clinched the FA Cup Final for Arsenal against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.
It was our record-extending 14th Women’s FA Cup triumph and our first (and to date only) victory since the final was moved to Wembley in 2015.
Danielle speaks as she is busy preparing for the first birthday of her daughter Tia, which falls the day after our chat. She is also gearing up to announce the end of her playing career on the Emirates Stadium pitch ahead of last Saturday’s Manchester United game, and she says motherhood has changed her perspective on life: “It’s incredible. It’s by far the hardest role I’ve ever had but the most rewarding.
"Everything has changed – my outlook, my perspective and what matters most to me – and this past year has been a learning curve for so many different reasons. It’s exciting to dedicate my life and my time to my daughter.”
As a child growing up in Walthamstow, Carter dedicated her time and her life to football: “I played at school in the playground with all the boys, scuffing up my shoes that my mum would have spent good money on. We played with a tennis ball. My grandad would come and pick me up from school and he would just find me playing football with the boys.”
Soon, Dan’s talents spread beyond school and the Low Hall Farm playing fields in Waltham Forest, near where she lived.
“I started playing in Leyton Orient’s Sunday League team under a coach called Mike Morris. It just so happened there was also a Centre of Excellence that took place every Saturday. I don’t even remember how I was spotted. I played with three of my cousins on that Sunday team and at some point I moved across to the Centre of Excellence.
“Those days were the best days that I remember. The teams we had through the year groups pretty much stayed together and I think those are my fondest memories.”
During her school years, Carter didn’t really give much thought as to whether her favourite pastime might one day become a professional career.
“Then, at the Centre of Excellence, an American team came over. I remember them getting really excited about playing us and at that stage I probably started to think, “OK, I must be alright at this!”
"The teams we had through the year groups pretty much stayed together and I think those are my fondest memories.”
Carter’s burgeoning suspicions were shared by women’s football’s supreme talent spotter of the time, Vic Akers.
“We would play against the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea,” she recalls. “Vic wanted me to come to Arsenal when I was 14 to play for the Under-16s, but in terms of location and logistics it just didn’t work out for my mum to bring me across from East London.
"But as soon as I left the Under-16s at Orient I joined Arsenal Reserves because I could travel after sixth form on my own and go to the training ground that way.” Carter would form part of a new generation of players here.
As legendary members of the 2006/07 quadruple-winning team like Faye White, Jayne Ludlow and Katie Chapman were heading towards the autumn of their careers, Carter formed part of a core of incoming talent alongside Jordan Nobbs, Jennifer Beattie, Steph Houghton and Kim Little. She admits playing alongside many legends of the game proved daunting but made her better.
“It was intimidating in the beginning. I was training with the greats who are now team-mates. Yanks [Rachel Yankey] was my idol, so training with her was really surreal. But it made you step up and become better because you knew you were joining that elite group. There was no room for error. You had to show your worth and that you deserved to be among them.”
Carter played in victorious FA Cup finals in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and had won four League Cups, but there is no doubting the crowning moment of her club career. In 2016 Arsenal played Chelsea in the FA Cup final – the first to be held at the national stadium. “I can’t believe it’s ten years ago. That’s crazy just to start with!” she laughs.
Despite having 13 Women’s FA Cups behind them, Chelsea were at the beginning of their era of success under Emma Hayes and Arsenal were underdogs. “I remember not feeling much pressure; I was still young. We’d played in a lot of finals before but this one felt more relaxed, strangely.
"The fact that it was Chelsea at Wembley meant it was big business and we knew we had to win. No matter what the season looked like it was there for us to win. But we felt relaxed.”
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Manager Pedro Losa slightly altered his tactics for the game. Carter usually played on the right of the front three, but at Wembley, Losa switched her to the left. Asisat Oshoala played on the right with Kelly Smith connecting play through the middle.
Losa urged his team to use the size of the Wembley pitch and whip the ball into Oshoala and Carter for the wide forwards to cut inside and shoot.
Dan remembers sending an early message as Arsenal made a fast start. “I remember vividly that very early on I decided to shoot from a long way out – I don’t know why. That set the tone. It gave me the confidence to take that shot on later on.”
Although that effort sailed just over and onto the roof of the net, on 18 minutes centre half Casey Stoney lashed another cross-field ball to Carter on the left wing.
Carter took on Chelsea right back Hannah Blundell, feinting inside and then out and then inside again before unleashing a rocket from a slender angle over Carly Telford’s despairing dive and into the top corner. It proved to be the winning goal.
“I am Arsenal through and through. The fact that I was able to represent the club at Wembley, score, win and have most of my family and friends there… it was silly the amount of people that came to support me that day. All in all, that day sits in very high regard in my playing career.”
While Dan had a sizeable entourage supporting her at Wembley that day, she admits that her grandmother had to stay and watch at home on television on the basis that she would have been too excitable in the stadium!
“My Grandad didn’t really come to games much but he came to that one,” Dan recalls. “He has since passed but having him there was incredibly special. I will never forget the feelings that it came with.”
"We felt it was time to get back to winning ways in the league and be the team we deserved to be."
Carter was also a pivotal part of the side that won the 2018 League Cup under new Australian coach Joe Montemurro.
“Under Joe, we felt good. We were all on board with the style of play and the way he came in and we were all happy. It was something new and something fresh and we felt it was time to get back to winning ways in the league and be the team we deserved to be.”
The team would build on that League Cup victory by winning their first league title in seven years a season later.
For Carter, however, she faced the sternest test of her career on the final day of the 2017/18 season against Bristol City. “I won a penalty. I came off and was assessed by the physio and everything seemed fine with my knee. I came back on for a few minutes and I think I turned and that kind of snapped my knee back and I felt better.” Fuelled by adrenaline, Carter had no idea what she had done.
“We scored again to make it 3-0 in the first half and at that point, I thought my knee didn’t feel completely right so, do you know what? Game is won, I should probably come off now. It took a little longer to realise what had happened.”
Subsequent scans revealed she had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament. She returned towards the end of 2018/19 as we wrapped up the title. Even though she missed much of that season, Dan remembers it fondly. “In rehab, you’re still around the players day in and day out and I could see something special was happening. So when I returned it was that much sweeter.
“It was a really special season because we won the league and, for me personally, I had overcome a big setback, and that was the best possible way to celebrate it.”
Yet further misfortune was not far away. In a pre-season friendly against Bayern Munich in July 2019, just four months after her return, Carter twisted her other knee.
“The second time I knew straight away. Everything came back to me and there were a lot more emotions because I knew what it meant. Immediately you kind of think whether you want to go through the comeback again and there were just so many emotions the second time.”
Suffering two unrelated ACL injuries in 14 months felt like the cruellest of blows for Carter, who studied physiotherapy at university. “The two injuries weren’t related in any way whatsoever – it was sheer bad luck. Both came from contact, which is rare for ACL injuries.”
Carter’s Arsenal contract expired during the summer of 2020 and the WSL season was cancelled in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. She never got to pull on her beloved Arsenal colours again.
“The contract was probably swirling around in my head when I initially went down. But once you’re doing rehab and you come to terms with it all, you’re focused on that. I was at Arsenal for a long time; I had two big injuries and I didn’t want it to end that way. It cut deep but that’s part of the game, unfortunately.”
Dan signed for Reading before enjoying spells at Brighton & Hove Albion and London City Lionesses, for whom she scored in her final game, a 3-2 win over Lewes in WSL2 on April 28, 2024.
Her achievements in professional football extend beyond the pitch, too. Carter has variously been a member of the FA Council, PFA Players’ Board and Premier League Black Players’ Advisory Group.
“I wanted to be prepared for the next step,” she says. “You don’t want to think too much about it while you are playing, but it was in the back of my mind. As a player you have some time and I wanted to use it to think about what I wanted to do when I stopped playing and to best prepare myself for that. But even though I was considering that, I didn’t really think about the day that I might stop, if that makes sense? I was trying to stay ahead and better myself.”
Carter, who turns 33 in May, still hopes there is a route back into football: “I like the business side of things – I don’t think coaching would be my forte. I would like to be involved on the decision-making side of the game.”
She remains a regular at games and has witnessed the explosion of the Arsenal fan base with pride: “It’s long overdue, but I’m so happy to see the growth. I still attend the games because I know some of the girls, but I’m a fan of the club too. Seeing the love and support they are all getting and that they deserve is incredible to witness.”
It feels a little overdue to see Arsenal Women get that love and support at Wembley Stadium too…
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