Read the write-up of Fran Kirby net worth, age, partner, husband, children, height, family, parents, salary, contract as well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Fran Kirby is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Chelsea and the England national team. She began her career with her local team Reading before moving to Chelsea in July 2015. In August 2014, Kirby won her first senior cap for England. She represented her country at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, and at the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 in the Netherlands.
Kirby was awarded the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year in April 2018 and the Football Writers’ Women’s Footballer of the Year. She was named to the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or in 2021, ranking 10th. She was also named to the Top 10 of The Guardian’s The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World in 2021, ranking 7th. As of December 2020, she is Chelsea’s leading all-time scorer.
Early life
| Name | Fran Kirby |
| Net Worth | $5 million |
| Occupation | Football player |
| Age | 29 years |
| Height | 1.57m |
Francesca “Fran” Kirby was born on June 29, 1993 (age 29 years) in reading, United Kingdom. She is the daughter of Denise Kirby and Steve Kirby. His brother is Jamie Kirby. Kirby began playing football as a young girl after watching her brother play. She would play any chance she got: at school, in the street, in the front garden. At a young age, her mother, Denise, wrote in a birthday card that Fran would play in a World Cup one day: she was her biggest supporter. When Fran was 14, her mother died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage. Two years later, she experienced a deep depression.
Kirby attended Caversham Park Primary School and Chiltern Edge, Sonning Common where she played against boys. At age 7, she joined Reading’s academy and made her senior debut at 16. My mum used to tell a story about taking me to the doctors for a couple of tests. The doctor threw a tennis ball to see how I would react. I think I was supposed to just catch it, but I kicked it straight back to him. I was three years old. My mum just went, “O.K., … I thinks she wants to be a footballer.” – Fran Kirby.
While growing up, Kirby was very close to her mother Denise. At the age of 14, her mother passed away due to a brain haemorrhage. “I just could not comprehend what had happened. And it stayed like that for many years.” Away with England U17, she broke down because she “missed her mum”. She returned home and dropped out of football. After her mother’s death, she fell into a depression. “I’d have days where I wouldn’t get out of bed. Or I wouldn’t go to college. I could get as far as the bus stop, then I’d just break down crying.” One day, one of her friends invited her to play with her amateur team, where she found her love for football again.
Kirby says that her mother is still very important in her life. “Towards the end of the season where everything was great, … I remember sitting on the coach back from the last game of the season and I just cried. … I remember sitting next to the girls and I just said ‘there’s only one person who I wanna pick up the phone to and call, and I can’t do that’.” “I think about her every day, but especially when things are going well, because I want to celebrate with her.”
In October 2019, Kirby received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from the University of Winchester for her “achievements both on and off the field, in particular her work supporting mental health and wellbeing.”
Club career
Fran Kirby joined her hometown club Reading at the age of seven and worked her way through the youth teams. She made her debut for the first team at the age of sixteen but quit football the following year after onset of depression, brought about by the death of her mother. Kirby returned to the club in 2012 and went on to become the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division’s top scorer for the 2012–13 season, with 32 goals in 21 appearances.
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Kirby helped Reading achieve third place with 24 goals in sixteen appearances with the team promoted to the newly formed Women’s Super League 2 for 2014. She ended the season as the league’s top goalscorer; netting four against London Bees, as well as hat-tricks against Durham, Watford and Doncaster Rovers Belles. Shortly after, she became the first female player to receive a professional contract from the club. At the 2014 FA Women’s Awards, Kirby was named the inaugural WSL2 Players’ Player of the Year.
She continued her goalscoring form into the 2015 WSL2 season, taking 11 goals in five league appearances for Reading, including all four goals in a 4–2 away win against Yeovil Town and five goals in a 7–0 win against London Bees. Following the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Reading accepted an undisclosed transfer fee from Chelsea and she completed a move in July 2015. It was reported that the fee of between £40,000 and £60,000 constituted a British record, although Chelsea denied this was the case and Kirby was not aware of the figure.
At the 2015 FA Women’s Cup Final, staged at Wembley Stadium for the first time, Fran Kirby was a cup-tied spectator for Chelsea’s 1–0 win over Notts County. It was Chelsea’s first major trophy. In October 2015, she scored twice in Chelsea’s 4–0 win over Sunderland which secured the club’s first FA WSL title; a league and cup double. The same month, Kirby scored Chelsea’s first ever UEFA Women’s Champions League goal in a 1–0 win over Glasgow City.
Fran Kirby’s form extended into the 2016 FA WSL season. In April, she secured Chelsea’s return to Wembley Stadium by scoring a late, extra-time winner against Manchester City in the FA Women’s Cup semi-final. Four days later, she scored both goals in Chelsea’s 2–0 WSL win at Arsenal. On 22 April 2018, Kirby was awarded the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year and the Football Writers’ Women’s Footballer of the Year for the 2017–18 season.
In February 2020, Chelsea announced that Kirby was diagnosed with pericarditis, which had ruled her out of the team since November 2019. She overcame her infection, despite being told by cardiologists that she may never play again, and played 70 minutes in Chelsea’s FA Community Shield win against Manchester City on 29 August 2020. On 9 December 2020, Kirby’s 2 goals in a 5–0 win against Benfica in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, saw her overtake Eniola Aluko as Chelsea’s all-time goal scorer, with her 69th and 70th goals for the club, five years after signing.
Also in February 2020, Chelsea revealed Kirby had successfully recovered from pericarditis, a potential career-ending illness. Kirby had fallen ill in November 2019 and came close to retiring from the game as a result. During a match against her former club, Reading on 10 January 2021, Fran Kirby scored four goals lifting Chelsea to a 5–0 win. In the 2021 FA Women’s League Cup final match against Bristol City W.F.C., Kirby scored two goals and created four assists as defending champions Chelsea won 6–0 at Vicarage Road.
Fran Kirby was singled out by observers as the top performer for Chelsea during their double-winning 2020–21 campaign. She later won FWA’s 2021 Women’s Footballer of the Year award. On 5 December, Kirby scored the opening goal in the delayed 2020–21 FA Cup final against Arsenal, helping her team lift the trophy and secure the domestic quadruple of the 2020–21 season, the first English women’s club to achieve the feat.
International career
Fran Kirby was a member of the England under-23 squad early in her career. She became the first WSL 2 player to be called up to the senior squad, in June 2014 for the World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Ukraine. She was named on the substitutes’ bench against Belarus but did not make an appearance.
Kirby made her senior international debut against Sweden in August 2014, getting the second goal in a 4–0 friendly win at Victoria Park, Hartlepool. In May 2015, England manager Mark Sampson named Kirby in his final squad for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, hosted in Canada. She scored in England’s 2–1 win over Mexico and was hailed “mini Messi” by Sampson. Although Kirby was disappointed to be ruled out by injury from the quarter-finals onwards, England’s eventual third-place finish left her with a positive overall impression of the tournament: “a fantastic experience and one I won’t forget in a hurry.”
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Sampson kept Kirby in the national team for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 qualifying campaign. In Estonia on 21 September 2015, she scored twice in England’s 8–0 win. After “12 months of hell” caused by knee and ankle injuries, Kirby returned to England’s line-up for UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 in the Netherlands. In England’s opening fixture against rivals Scotland, second striker Kirby’s clever dummy sent Jodie Taylor through to score England’s opening goal in a 6–0 rout. In the next match, Kirby and Taylor scored in a 2–0 win over Spain, which secured England’s place in the quarter-final. When England was thrashed 3–0 by the hosts in the semi-final, Kirby was rueful: “We had chances and could have had a few penalties. We are bitterly disappointed”.
On 6 October 2018, Fran Kirby scored in England’s 1–0 friendly win over Brazil at Meadow Lane. In post-match interviews England coach Phil Neville breathlessly proclaimed Kirby’s superiority to six-time World Player of the Year Marta: “I’d take my No 10 over Brazil’s No 10, that’s for sure”. Kirby was included in the England squad for UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in June 2022. Fran Kirby was hailed as a “stand out player” in Great Britain’s gold medal-winning team at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia. She went on to represent Great Britain at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Husband
Fran Kirby is currently single and not married. She was in a relationship with fellow Chelsea team-mate Maren Mjelde. The two later separated. However, in April 2020, Kirby was named in Diva magazine’s ‘”Visible Lesbian 100″ list during Lesbian Visibility Week. In April 2022, Kirby revealed on Twitter that she had continued to succumb to an “on-going issue” throughout her career and wanted to “put her health first”. Emma Hayes, the manager of Chelsea Women, clarified during a press conference that Kirby had been “suffering a lot with fatigue”, yet the cause for this is currently unknown. As of mid-2022, Fran Kirby is not married and has no partner or husband.
Fran Kirby net worth
How much is Fran Kirby worth? Fran Kirby net worth is estimated at around $5 million. Her main source of income is from her career as a football player. Kirby’s salary per month and other career earnings is over $1 million annually. Her successful career has earned her some luxurious lifestyles and fancy car trips. She is one of the richest and influential female football players in the United Kingdom. Fran Kirby stands at an appealing height of 1.57m and has a good body weight which suits her personality.