Interview
[Arsenal Media](/author/arsenal-media-1) 25 Feb 2026
Anita Asante’s playing career was rich and varied. Anita had spells with four different clubs in the US, two clubs in Sweden, as well as two spells at Chelsea and one at Aston Villa in the WSL.
However, Asante came through the ranks at Arsenal and became a key member of the 2006/07 quadruple-winning team.
“My affinity with Arsenal has so much depth,” she says now. “It is the club that made me."
Many readers will recognise Anita, known as Neetz to her friends and followers on social media, for her TV work covering the WSL for various broadcasters.
Her love affair with football started as a child growing up in Edgware.
“I started playing locally on my estate with other kids of all ages, mostly boys on the green behind the flat I lived in. That was the beginning of my love for the game, having the freedom to express myself and not be treated any differently because I was a girl.
"The kids in my community accepted me. I felt like I belonged and I felt like this was a sport for me.”
Things started to get a little more serious for Anita at the age of 13 via some very 1990s technology: “A fax came through to the head of PE at my school about local trials.
"I went after school with some friends and the session was being held by Clare Wheatley and Rachel Yankey. They were the first two Arsenal players I met.
“They invited me back to the Centre of Excellence to go to some training sessions.” Anita and her family felt an instant connection and sense of opportunity.
“I told my dad that Rachel Yankey was one of the coaches and he said, ‘Is she Ghanian?’ My parents are very familiar with common Ghanaian last names. I didn’t know, but we found out that Rachel was mixed heritage and partly Ghanian, and that was when I realised this was a real opportunity to play for this team.”
Anita trained with Arsenal twice a week, alternating between the Hackney Leisure Centre and the JVC Centre behind the Clock End at Highbury. A gifted midfielder, Asante worked her way into a star-studded team as a teenager.
> "We had those connections and relationships that gave us that safety to take risks and make mistakes."
But she really got her opportunity in 2006/07 when captain and centre half Faye White ruptured her ACL. Asante started both legs of the 2007 UEFA Cup final against Umea. She turned 22 a couple of days after the second leg.
Anita says her youth helped her for what proved to be the biggest games of her career: “I hadn’t built enough scar tissue of failure and major heartbreaks. I had them afterwards, but not at this stage. There was an element of fearlessness and confidence because I was younger. I also knew I had to always prove I deserved to be in the team.”
That Arsenal team featured a core of experienced legends such as Jayne Ludlow, Kelly Smith (suspended for both legs of the final), Ciara Grant and Emma Byrne. But Anita formed part of a young core in that squad, too.
“We had a few of us who had come through the age groups at Arsenal, like me, Alex Scott, Lianne Sanderson; we’d played with Kaz Carney in the England age groups. We had those connections and relationships that gave us that safety to take risks and make mistakes.”
Arsenal were underdogs in that final against a star-studded Umea, which Asante says gave Arsenal an extra determination.
“Even on an individual level I relished the challenge of going up against Marta. I knew she was the best player in the world and this was how I was going to measure myself. It’s not to say I wasn’t nervous – I was – but I tried to harness it by focusing on that battle and what I wanted to achieve.”
Asante, whose image is prominently featured on the side of Emirates Stadium as part of the Invincible wrap honouring that squad, admits she only came to realise the scale of the achievement in hindsight.
“It’s hard to be in the moment when you are so highly focused on the game plan and supporting your team-mates on the pitch. I wasn’t thinking about the legacy and didn’t reflect on it till much later in my career.”
Asante would go on to play in the US and Sweden, as well as for Emma Hayes’ Chelsea. She also played in five tournaments for England, as well as the 2012 Olympic Games for Team GB. But Anita says being a member of that all-conquering Gunners squad was the pinnacle of her career.
“It was probably the best football I ever played and that we ever played collectively. There was so much freedom and we’d built so much momentum that we had this good feeling. There was a real confidence and sense of belief.
“We knew on paper we were underdogs against Umea. It was a two-legged game and we had to do that twice – and we did, against one of the best teams in Europe, when we weren’t even fully professional. That speaks to the mindset we had. We enjoyed playing together and that feeling gave us another level of confidence.”
Anita was in Lisbon to see Arsenal repeat the achievement against Barcelona last May.
“I felt really proud. To experience the numbers of fans who showed up and the atmosphere from both clubs, it highlighted why this was a monumental occasion. I found it emotional. So many of us fought for those moments and to get that recognition.
“It was so nice to see the continuation of that legacy at Arsenal. To do it against Barcelona just showed the belief I think we had against Umea – maybe it’s something deeply embedded into the DNA of the club.
"My affinity with Arsenal has so much depth. It’s the club that made me and gave me my first opportunity; it was where I formed some of my deepest connections and friendships.
“All of that played into my emotions. Seeing Kelly Smith be a part of it, seeing Renée, who I know from when she was in the Academy and from my time in Sweden, there was a sense of happiness at seeing people I respect and who I have spent time with have success like that.”
After a short spell at Chelsea in 2008, Asante, like many elite players from the era, went to the US to become fully professional. She spent three years there, where the trade system saw her represent four different clubs, and found her time in the US challenging but formative.
“It helped me to develop a lot playing with leaders like Heather O’Reilly and Christie Rampone. The level and constant competitiveness in the league was great. I got to experience being a professional athlete in the same way I would for England at a World Cup or Euros.
"That was what the intensity was like all the time. Every team was stacked with top talent and it showed me what professional life was like. It was business.”
But in 2011 funding for the Women’s Professional Soccer League in the US was withdrawn suddenly, leaving players out of work. Asante pondered her next move.
"One of my team-mates was Therese Sjogran, who is now Director of Football at Manchester City Women. We lived together. I had an offer to go to Germany but Therese told me I would love Sweden and I would be suited to the culture.
“It was a bit of a gut instinct. I wasn’t ready to come home – I was still in my early twenties and I wanted to live in the world and build my independence. I felt there was more out there to explore.”
Asante signed for the Goteborg Kopparbergs (now BK Hacken). “My time in the US was very taxing – I was constantly ‘on.’ Goteborg felt like a place I could find a calm sense of self again. I knew they were signing Christen Press and it felt like a cool project. It was an amazing two years.”
> "It was a bit of a gut instinct. I wasn't ready to come home - I was still in my early twenties and I wanted to live in the world."
Anita then signed for fellow Swedish side Rosengard, where she was signed and coached by former Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall.
”I took the train there and met with Jonas. We had a great conversation and I felt really positive about it being the next progression in my career and it turned out to be exactly that.”
In 2018 she returned to the WSL to play for Emma Hayes’ Chelsea side after nine years abroad: “I had a lot of conversations with Emma prior to coming over about the facilities and what the club had to offer.
"It was completely different to the time that I was in England before. We were training at Cobham and the league was becoming more international. I noticed it most when I got injured.
"I remembered the first time I ruptured my ACL and how isolating that was, how challenging it was to see physios and get treatment, even in the US.
"At Chelsea, everything was integrated. I was seeing the same doctors and physios they had for the men’s team. I was having regular check-ups and consistently being informed about my progress. It was completely night and day.”
After two seasons with Aston Villa, Asante retired in 2022. She is married to Welsh former hockey player and now ITV Sports reporter Beth Fisher and they have a two-year old daughter, Gigi. Growing up with two professional athletes as parents has its benefits…
“Gigi has no choice! Beth and I are both competitive and we understand that being fit and healthy make us feel good, mentally and socially.
"There are so many benefits we have experienced and enjoyed and we want Gigi to be able to experience that. We want her to know she can try anything, whether that’s in sport or something else.
“We take her swimming, she has started athletics, we have taken her to rugby and we have sport on the TV – we have the Winter Olympics on now and she is swirling around trying to emulate the skiing.”
As well as her media work, Asante has enjoyed coaching stints with Bristol City and with England’s Under-23s. “I was very fortunate that at the end of my career people asked me to do things and I never said no to anything,” she says with a laugh.
With the breadth of her experience as a player and in the media, Neetz wants to continue to influence the sport: “I want to learn how to support the game, whether as a coach developing players or in TV to bring the culture, history and quality of this sport to life.
"But I see my path as being something much broader. I’d like to impact the game in a way that is far-reaching, to globally impact women and girls in football.”
Few are better positioned to do so.
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