Karen Carney OBE

Leadership, Teamwork, Mental Health, Diversity, Resilience, Peak Performance, Sustained Success

Karen is the lead female analyst and pundit for men’s and women’s football on Sky Sports and ITV. When it comes to tournament football, Karen also leads the coverage for both the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups and UEFA Euro competitions on ITV, most recently the Euros 2024.

Karen is now a global ambassador for Pepsi, alongside some of the biggest names in football. In between brand work and leading TV coverage, this Summer was the second year Karen was asked to play in Soccer Aid for UNICEF, at Chelsea’s home ground, Stamford Bridge.

In the Autumn of 2022, Karen was announced as the newly appointed Chair of the Future of Women’s Football Review for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, looking into ways the Government can nurture and expand the game in the UK. The report received widespread praise when it was released last Summer, along with a TV series for ITV called ‘Leaders of the Pack’, which saw Karen, take on the role of host and in conversation with key players who were playing in the 2022 FIFA Women’s World Cup, in Australia.

Karen is a newly appointed board member at UEFA, where as a governing body, UEFA look to secure the sustainability and future of both men’s and women’s football.

With 144 caps Karen Carney is England’s third-most capped player having made her international debut in 2005 at 17. Domestically, she played for Arsenal, Birmingham City, Chicago Red Stars and retired in 2019 as captain of Chelsea, under Emma Hayes. Karen was part of the historic Arsenal side that in 2007, won the unprecedented quadruple and represented Team GB in the 2012, London Olympics.

She was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for her services to football which was followed in 2021 with an induction into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame, where judges voted unanimously to include her “in recognition of her outstanding football career, her involvement in advancing women’s football and her overall contribution to the game on and off the field”. In 2024 she was also awarded an OBE after continuing her amazing work.