The Arsenal forward has gone from being a plus one at the Ballon d’Or awards to winning Sports Personality of the Year
From plus one to runaway favourite. If there was any risk of England’s Beth Mead getting carried away with her golden boot-winning and player of the tournament heroics as the Lionesses won a first major trophy at the Euros in the summer, then it was quickly stomped on in October.
The forward was photographed at the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony alongside her partner, her Arsenal teammate Vivianne Miedema, and the caption on the image read: “Vivianne Miedema and a guest”. That “guest”, who laughed off the error, would go on to finish as runner-up to Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas for the international award after a stellar year, but the miscaptioning spoke to just how rapid a rise Mead’s has been on the global stage.
