Laila Harbert: Arsenal's Lionesses prospect who has been taking tips from USWNT stars Olivia Moultrie & Sam Coffey

Harbert has been part of the Arsenal set-up since she was nine years old, and it wasn't long after that that she became the first girl to train with the club's boys' teams, something that has since become a much more regular occurrence.

"It’s an experience that has hugely shaped me as a player, particularly when it comes to competitiveness," she explained previously. "Stepping into a set-up that doesn’t ordinarily include girls means you have to let the football do the talking."

Harbert would spend around three years occupying her time with training sessions with both sides of the Arsenal academy, and those experiences would certainly help when she turned 15 and started to encounter more scenarios that took her well out of her comfort zone. 

First up? Training with the seniors. A year later? Inclusion in the matchday squad for both legs of the Gunners' memorable Champions League semi-final clash with Wolfsburg. Then came loan spells, with Watford and, after an Arsenal debut in a post-season friendly in Australia, Southampton, both in the English second-tier.

At the same time, there were plenty of big experiences coming her way with England, too. After helping the Young Lionesses reach the semi-finals of the 2023 Under-17 Euros, she wore the armband in the 2024 edition as her team went one further and made the final. A few months later, she kept hold of that captaincy for the U17 World Cup, as England again impressed on their way to the last four.

"Taking all these different experiences from different environments has really helped me develop," she noted at the end of last year.

Harbert has been well-known as a talented prospect to avid and attentive fans of Arsenal and England for some time, then, but in 2025 she completed a loan move that really grabbed the attention of many outside of those circles. Having spent the previous two seasons on loan in the second division of English football, the young midfielder made quite a different temporary switch back in August when she joined the Portland Thorns in the U.S.

Three-time NWSL champions and routinely one of the best teams in one of the most competitive leagues in the women's game, Portland's squad features fives names capped by the U.S. - including Coffey, Moultrie and Sophia Wilson - as well as several members of the U.S. youth national teams who look destined to join that quintet, plus international stars such as Jessie Fleming, the former Chelsea midfielder who has an Olympic gold medal on her resumé.

Arsenal saw the loan spell as a great opportunity for Harbert to really experience something new. The big crowds that the Thorns draw, the huge games that they play and the distance it placed between the teenager and her home comforts were all new elements that provide developmental opportunities for her, as did the different styles of play the NWSL has when compared to England.

"It was a decision that wasn't easy, but one that I felt would make me a better player," Harbert explained. "I want to make it to the top and I felt like that was the next step in doing so."

And as the Thorns made it to the NWSL play-off semi-finals, the 19-year-old also had the chance to rub shoulders with those big names and learn plenty from such a star-studded roster.

"Olivia Moultrie is someone that I've been quite close to," she said back in October. "Obviously she's a young player but with loads of senior experience already, for club and country. Just learning from her in terms of her confidence and the way she plays and no matter what age she is, she plays like she's a senior player already. She's one that I would say that I've been learning off - and obviously Sam Coffey, [who plays the] same position [as me] and [is] captain of the team. I think in terms of her leadership, she's been someone that I've really been learning off in terms of the way she just dictates the game and even off the pitch, she keeps the team close together and keeps the expectations and standards, which I really admire."

Last year was not just a big one for Harbert at club level, either, as she also made significant strides within the England set-up. After shining for the U17s in 2023 and 2024, she debuted for the U19s back in March and then jumped into the U23s squad, where Sarina Wiegman has regularly looked for new blood for the senior side, in October.

"I think that England has a clear playing style and clear expectations from the players, so I think moving from age group to age group, it hasn't been culturally shocking," she noted of that rapid progression last year, speaking to reporters duing her first U23s camp. "It's been quite a smooth transition from the U19s in the summer to here. But I think as it gets to the higher age groups, obviously the standard steps up, the quality does, the intensity, so it's just about staying on top of my game throughout the age groups and bringing what I can bring.

"It's good to know that Sarina is trusting the young players to make that step up and there is a clear pathway from the U23s to the seniors. It's an exciting time to be a young player for England, for sure."

Harbert oozes Arsenal in her style. Technically superb and excellent under pressure, the teenager loves having the ball at her feet and can dictate games with her excellent passing range, vision and awareness. It's also beneficial that, while out on loan, she has accrued experiences playing in situations where her team hasn't always dominated possession and she has had to figure out how to be effective both with limited opportunities on the ball and when she doesn't have it.

It's also worth pointing out the excellent personality traits Harbert has, the kind of which can help her enjoy a long and successful career at the highest level. She's got a fantastic attitude, a wise head on young shoulders and takes to new situations very well, all of which not only marks her out as a great leader but should also help her continue to make real progress moving forward.

As a holding midfielder who is going to be pressed aggressively and be involved in plenty of individual duels, there is still some physical development that needs to come from Harbert, which is no great surprise at 19 years old. However, it is clear that she is making strides in that department with each chapter of her career that comes, improving in strength and stature through all of her loans to this point. She just needs to continue down that path and then her off-ball elements will also improve, when she is able to throw herself into those physical battles more commandingly.

There is more attacking and goal-scoring threat that can be unlocked in the teenager's game, too, with her able to show the traits of a more box-to-box midfielder but not always deployed in a role that asks her to do so. It's not so much something she herself can improve on, as she is often asked to play in a more reserved manner as a defensive midfielder, but it is something we could see come to the fore in her game over time, if and when Harbert is playing in a different system or different role.

Harbert's more prominent position right now, though, is as a holding midfielder, and it is a former Arsenal star of that role that she has many similarities with, in Lia Walti.

Walti has wonderful passing range, is excellent with both feet and boasts a fantastic understanding of her positioning off the ball, in order to intervene and disrupt the opposition when necessary. Harbert certainly shares the former two traits and is showing good development in the latter.

There are elements of Kim Little, the classy veteran who has been running Arsenal's midfield for the last nine years, in Harbert's game, particularly because of the quick feet both have and how that helps them get out of tight situations in midfield. For the teenager to be back at Arsenal and training alongside Little will be very beneficial for her, just as learning from someone like Coffey in Portland will have been.

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens next for Harbert. Back in north London since the Portland Thorns' 2025 season came to an end in November, Arsenal could find another loan move for the 19-year-old for the second half of their season, or they could choose to keep her around the first team as their fight across four fronts heats up.

That is what the Gunners did with Reid last season and also this term, after she had also spent time at Watford. As it transpired, an opportunity presented itself for the talented centre-back to become an important member of the starting line-up and she took it with both hands. Could Harbert find herself in a similar situation in 2026? That's for Arsenal to decide - something the player herself is fine with and has total trust in.

"There’s no point in shying away from the fact that the average age in the WSL is about 25-26," Harbert told the Guardian recently. "At 18 you are sitting there thinking, ‘When is that going to be possible for me?’ The main thing at my age is just to be getting senior minutes in and that senior exposure under my belt.

"If it’s not going to be at my parent club then they have a plan in place for me that isn’t just limited to these loans. It’s a longer-term plan that I’ve bought into and they’ve bought into. That’s been the most important thing for me throughout, understanding that there is a bigger picture and all of these loans are done with the aim of me eventually coming back to Arsenal and then hopefully competing to start."

Whether Harbert enjoys her Arsenal breakthrough in the coming months or whether she gains experience through another loan move, it's clear in her performances to date, for clubs and her country, that the 19-year-old absolutely has the potential to be yet another success story for the Gunners' fruitful academy.