Arsenal Women's Alessia Russo has won the Golden Player award and been named in the FIFPRO World 11. The Golden Player is voted on by experts and journalists to pick out Europe's best female player of 2026. The World 11 is the bigger honour because 6,511 players from 64 countries voted for it, and her place in the team named on 9 November is her third after 2023 and 2025. A vote from the players she plays against is a judgement no press box can give, so it says more about where Russo stands than the Golden Player does.
Olivia Smith has an award of her own, the club's Emirates Goal of the Month for October. It came at home to Birmingham City on 17 October, when she hit a 22-yard shot into the top corner past their goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley to pull Arsenal level in a 1-1 draw. A goal that rescues a point is worth more than one that pads a win, so this award rewards something Arsenal needed on the day.
Arsenal Women go to Barcelona in the Champions League on Thursday, and that's the night for Russo to show the players' vote was right.
Over to the men's team, the club says Arsenal have made their joint-best start in 140 years, and nine wins from ten league games leave them top of the Premier League on 27 points.
The standout player of October in that run was Declan Rice, who took 45% of the vote to win Arsenal's own Player of the Month ahead of Ezri Konsa.
David Raya's honour reaches further than Rice's, a place in the FIFPRO World 11 for a goalkeeper who has won three Premier League Golden Gloves in a row.
Ben White says he has no issue with the parts of Wembley that booed him against Uruguay in March, his first game since he left the 2022 World Cup; "people don't know the full story," he said.
Keeping tabs on a forward is a long way short of bidding for one.
In the academy, William Saliba got 45 minutes on his return to action as the U21s beat Aston Villa 5-2 at home for their first league win of the season.
Leave a Reply