Lauren James: Chelsea’s Player of the Season and Goal of the Year

Lauren James has spent the season turning setbacks into statements. Now she has another trophy to prove it.

The Chelsea forward, who began the campaign recovering from an early-season injury picked up while helping England retain the European Championship, has been the club’s driving force in 2025/26. Once fit, she didn’t just return. She took over games. She scored goals that shifted moods, matches and, ultimately, the club’s honours list.

Supporters recognised it first. At 24, James was voted Chelsea’s women’s Player of the Season, joining an elite group. Only Fran Kirby, Sam Kerr and Erin Cuthbert had previously won the award twice. James now sits alongside them, a sign not just of talent but of sustained influence in a squad full of stars.

And still, that wasn’t the end of it.

The latest decoration for her mantelpiece comes from one moment of pure, ruthless technique: Goal of the Season.

It arrived on a tense European night, the first leg of Chelsea’s UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal. The Blues were behind, the tie threatening to tilt away from them. The atmosphere tightened. Chelsea needed something special.

James supplied it.

A corner was only half cleared, the ball dropping into that dangerous, uncertain space 25 yards from goal. James stepped onto it, nudged it into position and shifted the ball onto her left – the foot defenders might have thought was the safer option. One touch to set, one heartbeat to assess, then a vicious, whipping strike that tore into the top corner.

From 25 yards out, on her so-called weaker side, she produced a finish that silenced doubt and stunned the contest. It was the kind of goal that doesn’t just change a match; it lingers in the memory, replayed and re-lived long after the final whistle.

Supporters responded accordingly. In the vote for Goal of the Season, James claimed a third of all ballots cast, a commanding share in a field hardly short on quality.

• Sam Kerr’s farewell volley against Manchester United – her final goal for the club, and a strike heavy with emotion as well as technique – finished as runner-up.
• Ellie Carpenter’s driving solo effort against Barcelona, a goal that showcased her power and composure on the biggest stage, completed the top three.

In that company, James still stood alone.

A season that began with rehabilitation has ended with her name etched once more into Chelsea’s recent history: Player of the Season again, and now owner of the club’s standout goal of the campaign. The question is no longer whether Lauren James belongs among Chelsea’s greats.

It’s how far she can push the standard from here.