A few months ago, Michelle Agyemang’s hopes of featuring at Euro 2025 appeared slim. She had never received a call-up to England’s senior squad but in April, a last-minute nod to replace injured striker Alessia Russo for the Nations League fixture against Belgium opened the door just a crack, and she ripped it off its hinges.
With England 3-1 down and floundering, the 19-year-old was brought on with 10 minutes left. She needed only 41 seconds and two touches to bury a brilliant volley into the top-left corner — a spark to fire up an England side who had looked flat before her introduction.
Sound familiar?
That goal could not save England, who lost 3-2. But when thrown on with 20 minutes left of their quarter-final against Sweden on Thursday with her team 2-0 down, her energy and skill again transformed the mood. And with nine minutes left, it was her goal that drew the Lionesses level, taking the game to extra time and making their penalty shootout victory possible.
GO DEEPER
The Briefing: Sweden 2 England 2 (2-3 on pens) – Lionesses outlast Sweden in dramatic penalty shootout
Agyemang spent last season on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion from Arsenal, a season that took her from being a fringe prospect to the youngest England player in their squad at the Euros.
“I’ve got goosebumps talking about (that goal against Belgium),” says former Scotland defender Jen Beattie, who trained with Agyemang at Arsenal as the then-schoolgirl took her first steps in senior football. “She put her name on the map of English football in that moment.
“We say all the time — football players coming off the bench for 15-20 minutes, how can you impact a game? She did that in 41 seconds and not only impacted it but scored a wonder goal.”
Agyemang celebrates her goal against Belgium (Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)
In England’s Euro 2025 opener against France, Agyemang came on in the 86th minute and gave fans a taste of her capabilities. She had five touches in the opposition box, as many as Lauren Hemp and only behind French winger Sandy Baltimore, who had scored and played for 62 minutes.
Asked what head coach Sarina Wiegman had told her before she made her tournament debut, Agyemang said: “Just go and change the game.”
Her cameo and Keira Walsh’s late goal were too little, too late in their 2-1 defeat by France, but Agyemang had shown what she could do.
“It’s easy to look at the time and think there’s not enough left. That’s the beauty of the game. It only takes 10 seconds to make an impact,” Agyemang said. “We couldn’t turn that around and get the result but we saw we can build momentum out of nothing.”
Ageymang has never hung around. She joined Arsenal’s academy aged six, made her senior debut and scored her first senior goal at 16, and signed a professional contract when she turned 18. Beattie recalls seeing her team-mate studying for her GCSEs and A-levels in quieter moments around Arsenal’s training ground.
Buried 10 pages down in Agyemang’s school newsletter in the summer of 2023, just below notices about a translation competition and a Dr Seuss poem saying goodbye to school leavers, an item reads: “Massive congratulations to Michelle Agyemang in Year 12 who made her first appearance in the Champions League against Wolfsburg on Monday night.”
Now, as a senior international, Agyemang is a business management student at King’s College London as part of their sport and wellness performance programme.
“Michelle always stood out for her personality,” says Beattie, whose second spell at Arsenal from 2019-2024 overlapped with Agyemang’s emergence into the setup. “She was 17 going on 25. She just had this incredible focus that blew me away from a young kid.”
Beattie was Arsenal’s academy ambassador at the time and helped youth players settle into first-team training. She describes how, after scoring her first goal for Arsenal in a 9-0 win in the FA Cup against Leeds United, the then-16-year-old Agyemang was discussing where she could improve.
“She had a humility and appreciation that her game isn’t the finished product, because no one is at that age,” says Beattie.
“She came across as so smart, so focused and so mature. From a character standpoint, I was like, ‘Right, you’ve got everything it takes to be a successful pro’. From a player perspective…”
Beattie breaks off momentarily and summons a chuckle. “I’m laughing because she was just a goalscorer, you could tell. I’m laughing because in a matter of seconds, she showed that playing for England.”
As shown so dramatically against Sweden, Agyemang has a clear eye for goal.
Her shot map from last season shows her willingness to shoot from range as well as sniff out chances closer to goal.
Beattie is cautious of putting too much pressure on the forward, but still compares her to former Arsenal team-mate Vivianne Miedema — the all-time leading goalscorer for the London club and the Netherlands.
“Viv Miedema is the best goalscorer I played with, hands down: give her a metre in the box and it’ll be a finish,” says Beattie. “Michelle is really similar to that. Her goal instinct stood out.”
She highlights Agyemang’s physical strength in the box, something the teenager’s England and Arsenal colleague Leah Williamson alluded to in June at an England media day. “I remember the first time she played because she came and flattened me in training,” said the defender. “Her finishing means you’re playing against someone who you can’t give a second to.”
Agyemang holds off Liverpool’s Alejandra Bernabe while playing for Brighton last season (Luke Walker/Getty Images)
Agyemang’s physicality has made an impression in camp. Chelsea and England right-back Lucy Bronze, a veteran of 135 caps, said last Friday: “She’s so sweet and unassuming but then on the pitch, she’s probably one of my favourite ones to play against because I can just run into her dead hard. She likes to give it back and she’s been told that she needs to go a little bit easier but I said, ‘No, just keep it up’.”
It is a dynamic Agyemang is enjoying. “I know Lucy is physical, so we like going at it in training and it’s fun to have that type of opponent, then you can reflect it in the game. I like it, she likes it too.”
Agyemang scored three goals in 17 Women’s Super League appearances for Brighton last season, and the loan spell has been crucial in developing other aspects of her game.
“The main thing I learned (from the loan) is versatility,” Agyemang told reporters in June. “I consider myself a striker, but playing across the front three at Brighton was a challenge and it’s helped me improve in terms of attacking and defensively.”
Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic frequently deployed Agyemang on the left wing, where she had to combine attacking intent with the less flashy side of the game. She stands out statistically when defending from the front, ranking ninth in the WSL for ‘true’ tackles per 1,000 opposition touches, a metric that indicates how often players look to engage in a challenge. She made a high number of defensive actions in the attacking third, playing an important role in breaking down opposition moves early.
Agyemang also took on more responsibilities in build-up play at Brighton. She proved to be a good target for long balls, adept at trapping them and intelligent when escaping her marker. On the ball, she was direct and willing to take on defenders from either flank, illustrated in her carry map below.
“She’s a confident, versatile player, and we saw that continue to develop throughout her loan with us,” Vidosic tells The Athletic. “She stepped up in big moments — in the highs and the lows — and made a real impact. Her speed and strength are key attributes, but we saw her real willingness to understand and buy into our playing philosophy.”
Rounding out as a player will help Agyemang maximise her opportunities in the national team. In the short term she will not displace Russo as England’s starting striker, or Beth Mead or Lauren Hemp as first-choice wingers, but her ability to slot into different roles makes her a valuable weapon from the bench.
“If games are tight or if England need something special off the bench to change a game in a matter of minutes, that’s why she’s been taken,” Beattie said before the Sweden game.
“She doesn’t need a lot to make an impact, so if England are playing up against a low block and things are tight in the box, she’s the perfect player to bring on.”
(Top photo: Getty Images)
