Katie McCabe will wear the No.11 for Arsenal next season, assuming the number and legacy worn by Vivianne Miedema for the last seven years.
It means two things: Miedema’s story at Arsenal is, officially, over, and it’s not. Miedema, 27, announced before the end of the season she would be departing the club, her contract dwindling to its end and the Gunners not willing to extend. A decision beneficial to all parties, it was decided, albeit fans at Arsenal’s final game of the Women’s Super League season would vehemently disagree, Meadow Park festooned with placards – some angry, most aching – beseeching the Dutch striker to stay and manager Jonas Eidevall instead to catch the next train out.
Who would take on Miedema’s No.11 shirt was hardly a priority topic of discussion. McCabe, for what it's worth, wears No.11 for the Republic of Ireland, meaning a decision could be made on the simple grounds of familiarity. It's not that big, move on.
But the responsibility and aura the No.11 shirt begets now at Arsenal is undeniable. Before Miedema, Arsenal legend Rachel Yankey donned the shirt. Yet, Miedema's exploits – scoring the winner against Manchester City in the 2018 League Cup final, carving the 2018-19 season into her image but doing it with the air of someone who couldn’t be less fussed about having a season-size statue, redefining the word clinical, then demolishing the word altogether and leaving a hole where the word used to be – means whomever wore it next would not only inherit those memories, but the weight of their legacy.
Fittingly, then, it’s McCabe, a player who has come to carve out her own legacy at the club since joining in 2015, who bleeds Arsenal to the point of affronting rival fans, popping up with comic book goals in comic book moments.
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More importantly, there’s McCabe’s appreciation of Miedema. The speed at which the Republic of Ireland international suddenly felt compelled to speak about Miedema in May during an interview with the Mirror was dizzying.
As if the 28-year-old midfielder might run out of time to fill the space with everything she wanted to say: how her former teammate is first and foremost a legend; how the stats speak for themselves but they don’t speak for Miedema, which is saying something when you consider the breadth and depth of those stats; how that one time in the under-19s World Cup semi-final, teenage Miedema shifted into Flying Miedema Mode and McCabe learned how devastating that can be when you’re on the opposing team; how Miedema refused to accept any success as good enough.
Katie McCabe believes Vivianne Miedema will always be an "Arsenal legend" (2024 The Arsenal Football Club Plc)“Even the 2018-19 season... I don’t even have the word for her, she’s just an incredible, incredible player,” McCabe told the Mirror. “I played against her as a 19-year-old for Ireland, and she always stood out to me from there so a few years later when I became teammates with her.
“The way she trained every day and what she can do, her football IQ. It’s just a natural talent that she has. What she has gifted the club in terms of the goals she scored, it’s just been incredible to watch her journey from the young player to the experienced player she is today.
“She’s outspoken, she wants to drive standards, she’s always been there and she’s a massive part of what she’s brought to Arsenal. She’ll always be an Arsenal legend.”
Arsenal Women's Katie McCabe and Vivianne Miedema during the UEFA Women's Champions League (2022 CameraSport via Getty Images)Like Miedema, McCabe is something of an anti-star, both players opting against the sterile, cookie-cutter mould of universal stardom, instead preferring to be unabashedly themselves, speaking their mind, even if that version might grind some corners of the footballing world and leave corners of fandom at odds.
But that time of character strikes a chord and that’s the reputation of the No 11 shirt now: standard raising, exacting, fearlessly forthright, unbothered by the spotlight not in a puritanical way but because it's simply not what’s important. Rather, it’s about the team and the result, delivering when it matters. The responsibility to meet the heady expectations laid by Miedema could be daunting in the shadow of her exit. True to character, McCabe is taking on the onus -- not for herself, but for the team.
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