Named on England's bench for the first time in February, the 20-year-old has been the Blues' super-sub this year – and now her role is set to increase
Aggie Beever-Jones has ticked a lot of things off her footballing bucket list this season. She's scored her first Chelsea goal; she's found the back of the net at Stamford Bridge; she's made her Champions League debut and she's even mixed it with England's senior team. But the London Football Awards this month, at which she was named Women’s Young Player of the Year, highlighted just how quick her rise has been.
The 20-year-old might look relatively unfazed when she is running at some of England and Europe’s best full-backs, but getting up on stage in a room full of people to accept an accolade like that? “She found it quite intimidating,” Chelsea boss Emma Hayes revealed. “She'd never been to an awards like that before – but I doubt it will be the last award she gets in her career.”
Enjoying a breakthrough season that included her scoring in five successive Women's Super League games, all but one of those appearances coming as a substitute, Beever-Jones’ role with the English champions is about to become much more important. However, despite her age and relative inexperience, she appears absolutely ready for it – even if an acceptance speech might prompt a few butterflies in the stomach.
GettyPlenty of potential
For those who have watched Beever-Jones at England youth level, it has always felt more a case of when, rather than if, she would make her mark in the WSL. She is an electric forward, one with all the confidence to drive at players, and the versatility to play out wide or as the No.9.
She’s racked up 13 goals in 30 appearances with the Lionesses' under-age sides, one of the highlights coming around two years ago when her second-half hat-trick secured England’s place at the UEFA Under-19 Women’s Championship, via a 3-0 win over Belgium.
“She's a great character who has a huge influence on the group just because of the sort of bubbly nature that she has,” Gemma Davies, England’s U19s coach at the time, said after that Belgium win. “She's very funny but down to earth and hard-working – and probably hard-working is key. You saw that, I think, in her performance. She's super diligent and hard-working and that sort of led to her staying in the game, because I think at this age, players can have a tendency to kind of drop off, switch off, lose focus in moments, but she, throughout 90 minutes, just stayed in the game. You saw that in the three goals that she scored and also her performance.”
AdvertisementGettyBrilliant in Bristol
But if it rarely felt in doubt that Beever-Jones would become a WSL regular, there was always uncertainty over whether it would be with Chelsea, just because of the sheer depth and competition that exists in the squad of the English champions. Loan spells were vital, then, and the 20-year-old has had two great ones.
At the start of the 2021-22 season, aged 18, she joined Bristol City in the Championship for a season that would help to kickstart her senior career. "They welcomed me like I was one of their own and helped me in many ways both on and off the pitch, with living away from home and getting the support I needed,” Beever-Jones told . "Then on the pitch, they trusted me to play, which as a younger player is something you really need. You need that game time to experiment, try new things and make mistakes. I was able to do that at Bristol City."
“We were part of the process and that’s what we hope to be – part of the process for these players that go on and play at the top level,” Robins boss Lauren Smith said. “I hope she [carries] on smashing it because I’m so pleased that she’s managed to get herself into that squad and get onto the pitch. For Emma to rely on her week in, week out is so pleasing to see because she is a phenomenal talent.”
GettySharpening her game
After an impressive season in the second-tier, it was only natural that Beever-Jones made the step-up to the WSL with her next loan spell, and it was Everton who got the chance to utilise her talents. Having helped Bristol to a third-placed finish the year before, the youngster had been able to showcase her attacking abilities, but a temporary switch to Merseyside helped develop another side of her game entirely.
Though a good footballing team, Everton are not one of the WSL’s big fish, and so there were games that Beever-Jones played in where it was backs to the wall stuff and there was more emphasis on her to track back and help out on the other side of the ball.
“At Chelsea, we’re ball dominant and at Everton, we had to defend a lot more,” she told . "For me at the time, that’s what I needed to work on, so it was a perfect fit for me to go to Everton and work on that part of my game. After the chats I’ve had with Emma and Denise [Reddy, assistant to Hayes], they can see the progression I’ve made, and that was ultimately what the loan was for."
GettyBacking herself
Beever-Jones had the opportunity to return to Everton on loan ahead of this season, and that’s certainly what Toffees boss Brian Sorensen hoped would happen, but the departure of Pernille Harder to Bayern Munich opened up a bit of space in the pecking order in Chelsea’s attack, and their 20-year-old academy product chose to stick around. That decision is paying dividends, too. She’s made 20 appearances for the Blues so far this year, scored seven goals and provided two assists. "She went on loan as an academy player and came back as a first-team player,” Hayes said.
It’s being reflected with her national team, too. Now part of the U23s side, one which has fed a number of promising players into the senior team recently, Beever-Jones was called up to train with the Lionesses during a joint-camp in February, and was even part of the matchday squad for the friendly against Austria, for the first time in her career.
“She's so coachable, that's one thing I will say about her,” Hayes said of the 20-year-old this month. “She will take on any bit of information to get to the next place. I think she had a really good experience with England, she got moved up to the seniors, I think that was really nice for her to meet Sarina [Wiegman] and get some exposure to that. There is only one direction as far as I'm concerned, there's only one place she's going to go, and I think that will be a more regular feature with the England team going forward.”