Michelle Agyemang: The rise of Arsenal's latest academy star set to become the Lionesses No.9 of the future

Football was perhaps an inevitable path for Agyemang, who grew up in Essex in a house engrossed in the sport. Her father was a coach at grassroots level and her brother played, too, with his younger sister always following him around, kicking a ball. “I had a coach called Lynn and she just gave me a pair of football boots and I joined in with the boys’ Under-7s team,” Agyemang told GOAL, laughing as she recalls being put in at centre-back initially. “I was the only girl in the team, but I really enjoyed it.”

Loyalties were split at home. Her father is a Manchester United fan; her brother, who Agyemang, with a healthy giggle, declared herself “definitely better than” now, supports Chelsea; and her sister follows West Ham, the team they would go and watch most often as kids. Likely in a bid to keep the peace, her mother “supports anyone”.

Agyemang, though, was always drawn to Arsenal. “I was a really big fan of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott as well,” she recalled. When her father got her a trial with the Gunners then, aged six, it was as if the stars had aligned.

It was from there that Agyemang would start to be introduced to the women’s game and the female footballers who would become her role models. She and her team-mates had season tickets to watch the Gunners’ all-conquering side, who had been the dominant force in the English women’s game throughout the noughties and won the first two Women’s Super League titles, in 2011 and 2012.

“We got our shirts signed by Jordan Nobbs. We had Leah as well. There was one game specifically that I do remember with Kelly Smith, and then she ended up being my forwards coach last year. Even Anita now, my [England] U23s coach," Agyemang recalled.

“It's interesting because back in the day, they were like the main faces of women's football, so to see them still part of it now is great. Then also to learn from them, to know how good they were, especially someone like Kelly in a similar position to me, it's always great to learn from her and put that in my game as well.

“She's very chill. She knows everything about you, which is good. She knows how to push you, she knows where you need to improve and she's not too demanding, but she knows where to step in, I think, which is really helpful, especially as a young player. You can get overwhelmed sometimes, but she knows how to deal with that.”

Agyemang has had that experience with Smith in the first team thanks to the manner in which she has flown through the Arsenal system. The teenager remembers that “really, really cold” trial at Rowley Lane some 13 years ago rather well, perhaps because it doesn’t blend into any other auditions during her time with the Gunners. The forward was pushed up two age groups in order to suit the needs of her exciting development, never had to go through the retrial system and made her senior Arsenal debut at the age of 16.

That, of course, makes it all sound much simpler than it has all been. It’s not easy to stay at a club like Arsenal, especially because of the challenges the academy throws at its players in order to aid development. Indeed, after initially enjoying the thrill of winning every week, Agyemang remembers when her U12s team were put in the boys’ league instead.

“That was a big shift,” she said. “We were losing every week, we were getting dominated physically, even mentally, it was a struggle. But I think that kind of shaped the way I am as a player and a person, in terms of that perseverance, leadership and also [moving] up as well, being younger in an older age group, just being confident in myself and in my ability as well, which has really helped me today.”

Such exposure helped Agyemang build a physical profile that, when matched with her wonderful talent, has aided her acclimatisation to the senior game. That experience outside of the youth categories started at Arsenal, with the teenager racking up five appearances in all competitions for the Gunners in a 2022-23 campaign that ended with her committing to a professional contract.

The following year, she was at Watford in the Women’s Championship, scoring four goals in seven starts despite injury limiting her game time. Now, she’s made the step up to the WSL and joined Brighton, a club she describes as being “a really good fit”, on loan.

Surrounded by top-class facilities, in a team that plays attractive football and learning from seasoned England stars like Fran Kirby and Nikita Parris, it is ticking a lot of boxes for a teenager eager to learn and improve. Her attitude, talent and work ethic are all being rewarded with regular game time under Dario Vidosic, too, whose unique style also presents a significant learning curve.

There are other lessons, too. Having come to the fore as a centre-forward, Agyemang has spent more time in a wide role this season, as part of a 3-4-3 set-up that is attack-minded and caused Chelsea a plethora of issues recently in an entertaining 2-2 draw.

“I quite enjoyed it when [the club] spoke to me about that, because I like facing up players and taking them on,” the 19-year-old said. “I think playing as a winger, you still also need to be able to get in as a No.9 sometimes anyway, so there are a lot of overlaps, and I think this has helped me to improve in my creativity, taking on players, being confident one-v-one, so I can use that and adapt my game whenever I play as a No.9 anyway.”

Fortunately, in Kirby and Parris, she also has two extremely experienced forwards around her who are experts in adapting to different roles. Parris is a particularly good example, having excelled as a centre-forward and a winger in different moments of a career that boasts winners’ medals from the Euros and the Champions League.

“We work a lot together in a lot of finishing drills and stuff like that, so just looking at her movement and sometimes she'll comment on some of the things that I've done and then say how I can improve, which is really helpful that we have a good relationship where we can kind of talk and build on each other's movements and what we're doing to improve both of our games,” Agyemang said of the 30-year-old, while also noting what she is learning about “demands and quality” from both Lionesses.

“Keets and Fran are very vocal players and they really want the best out of everyone which is really good. If I'm passing to your front foot when you want it to your back foot, they're going to tell you, which is good, because we need that to just develop as players, especially as a young player.”

Development continues to be the name of the game for Agyemang at this point. She’s getting some of that off the pitch this season, living away from home properly for the first time while down on the south coast, though she is quick to squash any suggestion that making her own meals has been one of her many learnings. “I can cook!” she responds in a flash. “I can cook good!”

Meanwhile, Arsenal are across all the on-pitch improvements the striker is making. James Honeyman, Arsenal’s head of player development, speaks with those out on loan regularly, having watched their games and prepared feedback. It means that there is no feeling of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

“There are things that [Arsenal] are wanting me to do, whether it be more direct, pressing harder, working harder, just little things to do to improve so that when I go back, I have the best chance to start to come in and score goals,” Agyemang explained.

It’s easy for the youngster to have confidence in her chances of making an impact at the club after this loan spell too, given the players that have gone before her. While she might not be aiming to follow Williamson and Wubben-Moy in the sense of becoming a top level centre-back, she will be looking to join them as academy graduates in the Arsenal first-team - just like other England stars, past and present, such as Lianne Sanderson, Alex Scott, Ellen White, Lauren James and Chloe Kelly. As Agyemang said, “knowing there’s an actual pathway” is huge.

Similar can be said of her England ambitions. Involved with the Young Lionesses since U14 level, Agyemang was bumped up into the U23s before her 19th birthday and then won her first senior call-up this week, after Alessia Russo withdrew from the England squad due to injury. Senior head coach Sarina Wiegman has plucked a lot of young talent from the U23s in recent times, such as Laura Blindkilde Brown, Ruby Mace and Aggie Beever-Jones – the latter of whom said, on one of her final U23 camps before her first senior call-up, that she would always “play as if Sarina is watching”, such was the connected pathway.

Even before her chance to shine with the Lionesses came in Belgium, Agyemang agreed with that. “It's quite clear that there is a pathway so when we play games, we know that we're obviously playing to win, but there's also higher stakes,” she explained. “We can get [senior] chances, so it's really important that we put that performance in, because we know that there's an opportunity for us.”

When that chance came this week, Agyemang took it emphatically. Her strike against Belgium was an encapsulation of the wonderful technical skill she possesses, that the stand-out moment in a 10-minute cameo that also featured some good hold-up play and determined pressing. It was a timely performance, too. There are just three months until England head to the European Championships as defending champions and it's hard not to feel like the teenager has thrown herself into the mix to be selected off the back of this.

She won't get ahead of herself, though. When she talks about improving, she picks up on minor tactical and technical details, the importance of versatility and collecting experience, with it evident her focus is on making the most of her time at Brighton. After that, it’ll be on the next step, whether that is the U19 Euros in June, the senior Euros in July, or a bit of both. “I’m just trying to progress,” Agyemang said. It’s working so far.