Georgia Stanway

Georgia Marie Stanway (born 3 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Frauen-Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the England national team. Stanway started her senior career at Blackburn Rovers before joining Manchester City and winning the WSL in 2016, as well as three times the FA Cup and League Cup. In her first season with Bayern, they won the Frauen-Bundesliga. Stanway has also represented England at various youth levels, including captaining the U17 team, prior to scoring on her senior debut in 2018.

Stanway was nominated for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2016 and the PFA Women's Young Player of the Year in 2017. In June 2018, she was named in the UEFA Women's Champions League squad of the season, and in 2019, she was awarded PFA Women's Young Player of the Year. With England, Stanway is a 2022 Euro winner, scoring against Norway and Spain in the competition, twice Arnold Clark Cup winner, as well as a 2023 World Cup runner-up.

Early years
Georgia Marie Stanway was born on 3 January 1999 in Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, one of four siblings with three brothers, including Wyll Stanway. She began playing football at a young age, as it was what her brothers did, and at the age of three was training with them in an under-7 team, saying that at that age she "didn't know what I was doing, I was just kicking the ball, but I loved it." She continued playing for boys' teams until she was thirteen; in 2022, as part of the "Where Greatness Is Made" campaign, a plaque honouring Stanway was installed at Furness Rovers. As well as football, Stanway played cricket alongside her brothers, and represented Cumbria in county cricket at under-13 and under-17 level.

She also represented Cumbria in football, playing for Cumbria Schoolgirls in English Schools' Football Association competitions at regional level in 2013 and 2014; though the county team lost all their matches, Stanway was selected for the newly-created England Schoolgirls under-15 international squad that won the Bob Docherty Cup in 2014. She was the only player to score in all of their matches. Stanway then left Cumbria for Manchester aged sixteen to pursue a professional football career, joining Manchester City. Having attended the Dowdales School in Cumbria, she attended St Bede's College in Manchester, as teammate Keira Walsh had before her.

Youth
Stanway started her career at Blackburn Rovers, playing through the youth system.

In the 2013–14 season she played for the under-15 team, making fifteen appearances and scoring ten of their twenty-two goals. At the end of the season in May 2014 she received the Under-15 Manager's Player award. She was with the under-17 team in the 2014–15 season, playing in fewer matches (fourteen) but managing to score thirty-one goals: among them were three hat-tricks, a super hat-trick, a match of five goals, and a double hat-trick. She scored once in the third round FA Girls' Youth Cup tie that they lost 2–3.

Senior, 2015
She made it into the senior squad as a teenager, eligible to play from the end of January 2015. She came on as a substitute in their Women's FA Cup third round tie in February, scoring towards the end of the match that they eventually lost 4–5 to Portsmouth. The same weekend, she played for the under-17 Blackburn side in their FA Youth Cup second round tie, scoring twice in a solid team victory.

She also featured in the FA Women's Premier League in 2015, debuting in the league in early March and nearly scoring. She opened her account with a brace in a 6–0 win in April; her next two goals came as the team's sole tally in losses before she managed another brace and an assist to help the team to a 4–4 draw in the last game of the season. With the first team she scored a total seven goals in six matches.

Manchester City
On 18 July 2015, Stanway completed a move to Manchester City. On 29 July, Stanway made her senior debut for Manchester City as a substitute in a 5–0 win over Durham in the Continental Cup. On 27 August, she scored her first goal in a 2–0 victory against Everton. She ended her maiden campaign with the club's Rising Star award. In 2016, she won the Nissan Goal of the Season award. In January 2017, she signed a new contract with the club.

Her performances in the 2017–18 season led her to be named in the UEFA Women's Champions League Team of the Season. The following season, she was awarded the PFA Women's Young Player of the Year award, and nominated for the Northwest Football Women's Rising Star Award.

On 17 November 2019, Stanway scored two goals before being sent off, after receiving two yellow cards, in a 5–0 league win against West Ham United. She began the 2020–21 season by scoring a brace in a 2–0 away league win against Aston Villa.

In the first Manchester derby of the 2021–22 season, Stanway received a straight red card for a high challenge on Leah Galton in the 35th minute, with the score at 0–0. Despite this, Manchester City claimed a 2–2 draw. Stanway went on to win the FA WSL Goal of the Month award for December 2021. On 29 January 2022, Stanway became Manchester City's highest women's goalscorer after scoring a hat trick in an 8–0 win against Nottingham Forest in the fourth round of the 2021–22 Women's FA Cup. Injuries in the team for the first half of this season saw Stanway cycle through positions – nominally a forward at the start, she spent time as the first available right-back, in defensive midfield, and at one point was the second-choice goalkeeper. While coach Gareth Taylor praised her versatility, and Stanway said she would do whatever the team needed, she was frustrated with the situation. After teammates returned in the new year, she was able to play a string of games as a central midfielder and felt she was showing her best form, saying in March 2022 that in future she did not want to be a versatile player.

Bayern Munich
On 17 May 2022, it was announced that Stanway had signed a three-year deal with Frauen-Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. This was extended on 27 September 2023 for another year, bringing her contract up to 2026.

She made her debut on 16 August 2022 in a 2–1 friendly win over Barcelona. She received her first Bundesliga yellow card in her first league match for Bayern Munich; by the end of October 2022, Deutsche Welle noted that Stanway's time in the club had been "characterized more by yellow cards than goals". On 27 October, Stanway scored a brace to be her first goals for Bayern Munich in a 3–2 away win against Benfica in the Champions League.

Stanway won the Frauen-Bundesliga in both of her first two years abroad at Bayern and firmly established herself as a key player in their starting team. Her consistent form saw her win the 2022-23 Fans' Player of the Season award and also earned her a 2023 Ballon d'Or nomination, where she placed 23rd in the final ranking.

She scored six goals in each of her first two campaigns, and in May 2024, the midfielder became the first player to score in four consecutive appearances in the 2023-24 Frauen-Bundesliga.

Youth
Stanway was first called up to train with the under-15 team in June 2012, being regularly invited to camps in 2013 and 2014. In March 2014 she was named as a forward to a squad for the following month and in May she scored a brace in a 3–0 defeat of the Netherlands. She then joined the under-17 squad for the Nordic Cup camp in July 2014. In October and November 2014 she played for the under-17s in 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification matches, netting seven goals (including a hat-trick against Russia) as England's top-scorer to see them through to the final tournament. She was not in the 2015 U-17 Euro squad as the team went out in the group stages, instead playing in the Nordic Cup.

In 2016, Stanway captained the under-17 team to a bronze medal at the 2016 Euros, qualifying for the World Cup. In 2018, Stanway played a pivotal role in England's 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup campaign in France. Stanway scored six times (same as Golden Boot winner Patricia Guijarro but beaten only on assists) as England went on to finish third.

Senior
Stanway scored her first England goal, on her debut, in a 3–0 friendly victory against Austria on 8 November 2018. Stanway scored her second international goal in a 2–1 defeat to Norway in September 2019. On 27 May 2021 it was announced that Stanway had been selected as one of five strikers in the Great Britain women's Olympic football team for the delayed 2020 Olympics.

When Sarina Wiegman took over the Lionesses, Stanway initially struggled for minutes, attributed to constantly playing out of position for City and not giving the new coach much to go on; she was in better form in her preferred position by the Arnold Clark Cup in February 2022 and made the start list for the squad.

In June 2022 Stanway was included in the England squad which won the UEFA Women's Euro 2022, scoring the winner with a "22-yard rocket of a shot" in England's 2–1 win over Spain in the quarter-final. Stanway played 89 minutes in the final win over Germany.

Stanway was the 209th player to represent the England women's team, and was given this as her legacy number by the FA to honour the 50th anniversary of the team.

On 31 May 2023, Stanway was named to the squad for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in July 2023. Stanway scored the only goal of the match via a penalty in the opening World Cup game against Haiti and helped the Lionesses reach the final of the tournament.

Personal life
As of 2022, Stanway is in a relationship with Toulouse Olympique rugby league footballer Olly Ashall-Bott. In Olympique's first match following England's victory in Euro 2022, Stanway was involved in the pitch side punditry for Sky Sports.

She grew up idolising Alan Shearer and supports Newcastle United.

Stanway developed a big interest in tattooing whilst living in Munich and she tattooed a person for the first time on BBC Sport's Out of Office series in 2024.

Club
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International
Statistics accurate as of match played 16 July 2024.

. England score listed first, score column indicates score after each Stanway goal.

Honours
Manchester City
 * FA Women's Super League: 2016
 * Women's FA Cup: 2016–17, 2018–19, 2019–20
 * FA Women's League Cup: 2016, 2018–19, 2021–22

Bayern Munich
 * Frauen-Bundesliga: 2022–23, 2023–24

England Schoolgirls U15
 * Bob Docherty Cup: 2014

England U17
 * UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship third place: 2016

England U20
 * FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup third place: 2018

England


 * FIFA Women's World Cup runner-up: 2023
 * UEFA Women's Championship: 2022
 * Women's Finalissima: 2023
 * SheBelieves Cup: 2019
 * Arnold Clark Cup: 2022, 2023

Individual
 * UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament: 2016
 * FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Silver Boot: 2018
 * PFA Women's Young Player of the Year: 2018–19
 * FA Women's Super League Goal of the Month: December 2021
 * Freedom of the City of London (announced 1 August 2022)
 * Women's Football Awards International Player of the Year: 2024