When England play France in the Women’s European Championship qualifying this weekend, Aggie Beever-Jones may have the opportunity to make a first senior international appearance. The 20-year-old has been one of the surprise packages of the Women’s Super League (WSL) season, finishing an impressive breakout year with a first senior call-up.
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Beever-Jones is the first Chelsea academy graduate to play significant minutes for their women’s first team since full-back Hannah Blundell more than a decade ago, and the club will point to her as evidence their loan strategy is working.
In the past couple of years, Chelsea have offered a clear pathway for those academy players who are given professional contracts. They are first loaned to a club in the second-tier Championship and then, if they perform well at that level, they will progress to a similar spell at a WSL team. Beever-Jones spent time at Bristol City and then Everton before she returned to the Chelsea squad at the start of this season, despite having the option to stay for another year on Merseyside.
It is a journey that Chelsea’s now former manager Emma Hayes credited for Beever-Jones’ success during the 2023-24 season, saying: “She went on loan deals as an academy player and came back as a first-team player.”
Beever-Jones is the first of the latest academy crop to fully reach the first team.
She has progressed each year but that kind of pathway is not guaranteed.
For example, Charlotte Wardlaw had an arguably even more successful Championship loan with Liverpool in the same 2021-22 season Beever-Jones spent at Bristol City. Having been a regular for the team and helping them get promoted, Chelsea cancelled a further loan with them halfway through 2022-23 after she had played just 132 minutes. She ended up playing for Glasgow City, again on loan, in the Scottish top flight this season.
Beever-Jones is clear about how important it was for her to get experience through those two loan spells.
“Bristol City trusted me to play which, as a younger player, is something you really need,” she said. “You need that game time to experiment, try new things and make mistakes.
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“At Everton, we had to defend a lot more. At the time that’s what I needed to work on, so it was a perfect fit for me.”
Anyone who watched Beever-Jones at Everton would have seen that, although talented, she was very raw as a player. She scored twice in seven starts among 16 WSL appearances, and it was another loanee, Manchester City’s Jess Park, who really caught the eye.
Park has excelled for City this season, but Beever-Jones’ explosion at Chelsea has been even more of a surprise.
Early in the season, she scored in five consecutive matches, including her first start for the club in a 5-1 win against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in November. It seemed likely she would predominantly be used as a substitute but as injuries took their toll on team-mates and Hayes focused on trying to win the Champions League in her final season with the club, she ended up playing more and more.
She started five of Chelsea’s last six league matches, scoring six goals in them. Even though she did not start on the final day against Manchester United, it is no exaggeration to say Chelsea would not have been in the position to challenge for the title they eventually won without Beever-Jones.
Speaking after her first senior England call-up, for the meeting with France tonight (Friday) at Newcastle’s St James’ Park and the reverse fixture in Saint-Etienne on Tuesday, she spoke about how Hayes had helped her develop.
“We had some tough chats about what I needed to work on, and I think it showed on the pitch with how I was able to express myself,” Beever-Jones said. “We came away with the title and it’s just been a very good season for myself personally and the team.
“I always knew what I was capable of, and so it was just about being able to show it in high-pressure situations and I think that’s where I owe a lot of my success to Emma. What she’s done for the women’s game speaks for itself, and I remember once she said that for some people the weight of the (Chelsea) badge is too heavy. I remember listening to that and I thought, ‘I want to be able to show what I can do in high-pressure situations’.”
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Beever-Jones’ call-up by Sarina Wiegman also highlights the pathway between the England youth ranks and the senior team.
The Lionesses’ manager has worked hard to integrate the under-23 side and used the February internationals to have the seniors and under-23s train in the same place. Beever-Jones was selected from the younger group to be on the bench for the friendly against Austria during that window.
“Aggie has had a very great improvement,” Wiegman says. “She has developed so well. She’s an open person and really wants to develop every single day on the pitch.
“She came into a training session in our February camp with some other under-23 players and did well there. I’m just hoping she comes in and goes out on the pitch with the players. She can play on the side, she can play in the centre. I’m just looking forward to it.”
Wiegman’s reference to where Beever-Jones can play indicates the forward is still very early in her development.
This season she has played on both wings for Chelsea, as well as up front. Wiegman is not short of wingers, and given first-choice England striker Alessia Russo only scored one more WSL goal than Beever-Jones did this season (12 to 11), that may well be where Wiegman sees her competing, though the manager is well known for making her own assessments of players’ capabilities.
Regardless of whether Beever-Jones gets her first senior minutes in these upcoming two games against France, her improvement over the course of the season has put her on a trajectory to become an important player for Chelsea and England.
Her success in both club and international environments will be a boost to those of a similar age because it proves the opportunities are there.
When the chances have arisen, she has grabbed them with both hands — and will hope to do the same if they come along when she’s wearing an England shirt.
(Top photo: Harriet Lander — Chelsea FC via Getty Images)