AUSSIE RULES? Can Ellie Carpenter Bring Blues More Success?

Ellie Carpenter’s latest move, to serial winners Chelsea, could be her most challenging yet. After playing in three other leagues across three continents, we’ll soon see if this Aussie rules the WSL. Not to mention helping them win their main target, the Champions League.

She speaks exclusively to Helen M Jerome about this big decision, as well as her ambitions, fully-focused mindset and passion for women’s sport. Plus her rivalry with Aussie ‘frenemies’ in the WSL – and crucially, with Lucy Bronze for Chelsea’s right-back spot.

Still only 25, Ellie Carpenter is rightly lauded as one of the best defenders around, having gained experience for Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne City and Canberra United as a teen in her native Australia. With both parents teaching PE, maybe it was inevitable that she would go down a sporty route, further accelerated by attending a sports high school. And when she left her studies aged 17, she already had club football and Matildas caps (below right, with Charli Grant) under her belt.

She’s also played for Portland Thorns in the NWSL, and of course Lyon in France, sporting that trademark light blue hairband, and winning literally everything available across five years.

As well as talking to Carpenter herself, I wanted to understand specifically why Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor (above left, with Carpenter) was so determined to bring her to the club. We all know how fast and confident she is, and how she plays with her head up. But I wondered if the club also coveted her character and personality.

Bompastor confirmed that she wanted Carpenter to join “because I think in that right back or right wing back position, she’s one of the best in the world, so that’s the main reason.”

“But also I knew Ellie from my time in Lyon, and I know what she can bring to the team in terms of quality on the pitch, but also as you just mentioned, she’s a great character.”

“I think she brings happiness to everyone. She’s always winning and has a lot of positive energy on the pitch, but also she’s full of energy outside the pitch.”

“She settled in well with the team in London,” added Bompastor, “She’s really happy right now and brings that happiness, so that’s also important for me.”

Of course, like everyone else, I wanted to know what will happen when Lucy Bronze is fit again because they’re both vying for the exact same right back position. Could they even play together?

“Yeah, I think so,” was Bompastor’s immediate response. “It’s an option. I think all the best players will play. I will have to pick a starting 11, but I always think: what is the best team or the best starting 11 going into every game?”

“If Ellie and Lucy are both performing at the same time at a really good level, they will both play. I think both of them can play in the two positions, right full back or right wing back. So I think we can expect to see them both on the pitch in the same time.”

Speaking at length to Ellie Carpenter pitchside at Kingsmeadow, after a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a tenacious Leicester City in blazing September sunshine, I wondered how the Matilda views her potential battle for the right back spot with Lucy Bronze (opponents when the Matildas played the Lionesses at Brentford in 2023, above left).

When Lucy returns, do you think you’ll be fighting for the same spot or could you both play?

We’ll have to see what the coach does, but I think we’re both quite versatile. I can play a bit higher, a bit lower. She can also play higher, lower. So I guess we will see how the coach utilises us both.

We have amazing players not even fit at the moment. So obviously when they come back, it’s going to make the squad more competitive.

Being so competitive is great within the squad because then you push each other. You lift yourself, your own game. And the best thing you can have for a squad is that depth.

Have you played right wing before?

Yeah, wing back in a back five, so wing back on the right. I’ve played that multiple times in other formations and for the national team, Lyon, etc.

So yeah, I’m quite familiar with the right wing back, right back also.

It’s a very fluid role now, isn’t it?

Football’s changing all the time and there’s so many different formations you can play.

I feel like as a footballer now you have to be a complete footballer who can do everything, defend, attack and obviously keep the ball as well.

You’ve hit the ground running since you arrived, haven’t you?

Yeah, it was a long pre-season and I was just waiting for the season to start and I feel really good here at Chelsea, and I’m really happy for our first three wins.

Describing yourself, what would say is your USP as a player? What sets you apart?

I think I’m quite experienced for my age. I feel I can bring a lot to the team, defensively and attackingly as well. And yeah I think my experiences obviously at international level and domestic, playing at the highest level for many years. I can bring that here… and yeah, I guess also my speed.

I thought you’d forgotten how fast you are!

Yes [laughs], my speed and my attacking threat, but also defending. I think I can bring that to the team and you can see I’ve done that in first three games, and hope we can build off it.

Have you ever been tested to see what your speed is?

Yeah, we wear GPS, so they always track us, our kilometres per hour. But I’m not actually sure what it is!

It’s a big decision to come to Chelsea from Lyon, where you’d been for some time. What was the final thing that made you decide? Was it people like Sam Kerr (below right, for Chelsea against Carpenter’s Lyon in the Champions League) talking to you, or maybe that you played with Sonia at Lyon, or something else?

I think it was a bit of everything. Obviously I had a great five years there and it was just about something different, like a change. And the English League at the moment is the best in the world and it’s very competitive, because there’s no easy games, it’s always tough.

I wanted to test myself against the best – and also players in our team as well. We have such a big squad with so many amazing players, a lot of depth, so I guess fighting for my spot here as well.

Do you set yourself targets of assists and goals?

Yeah, I do. I like to have my goals that I want to achieve per season and hopefully I can achieve those and that will help the team win games. So I definitely set myself goals to assist and to score.

You gave Emily [Van Egmond, below left] a nice big hug at the end there, and you’re going to be playing against Australian players almost every game, aren’t you now?

It’s actually really nice to see familiar faces.

When you play Arsenal, it’s like the whole of Australia will be there!

Yeah, almost! I think it’s great, obviously, for the national team as well.

We’re all in this league, we’re all battling it out and then we can come together and yeah hopefully play well for Australia.

Why do you think there are so many, not just Australian but Japanese players in the WSL?

I think everyone wants to come here because it’s the best league in the world, it’s so competitive so I think it’s great that a lot of players from other countries are now coming here, because it probably wasn’t like that five, ten years ago, and that only builds the league stronger as well.

What about when the Asian Cup happens? The WSL is going to be empty, tumbleweed.

I know. That’s going to be interesting. I guess we’ll have to see what happens. I’m not entirely sure on the exact dates. [Asian Cup runs from Sunday 1 March to Saturday 21 Mar 2026]

You already played against Arsenal’s Aussies for Lyon last season, in the Champions League, coming up against Caitlin Foord (above, centre) directly…

Oh, yeah, I think Arsenal are a great team, obviously. They’ve shown that they’re world-class and they won the Champions League. They’ve had so much success in that competition. I think they’re a great squad.

Can you put all that out of your mind when you’re playing against fellow Aussies – like Emily just now for Leicester – and up against your other half, Danielle van der Donk when you play London City Lionesses? What’s it like playing those ‘frenemies’?

Well, there’s no friends on the pitch as soon as I cross that line. It’s game mode and it doesn’t matter if you’re my friend or anything. It’s just fearsome and you want to win the game!

I wonder if there are other women’s sports that you watch or play?

Oh yeah, I’ve enjoyed watching the athletics lately, the World Championships in Tokyo. I love watching that, it’s really exciting.

I love watching and supporting women’s sports.

Were you good at any other sports – I imagine you’d be good at sprinting?

Yeah, I did athletics, 100m, 200m, but yeah, every sport, I just played them all when I was younger.

Was it ever a possibility to play a different sport?

I think so. Just football was the one that showed me down that path. I could have done another sport, but that was the best opportunity for me at that stage, and I chose to stick at it.

You’ve talked about goals for the season. Do you still have big ambitions for you personally, but also for Australia and for Chelsea?

Yeah, I think just keep continuing to be the best version of myself, and for the team here, and national team.

We have some big competition for the Champions League, the cups as well – that’s new for me – and hopefully transferring that into the national team as well.

And obviously, I’m one of the leaders of the national team, so again, continuing to grow into that role too.

The aim for Chelsea is winning the Champions League, and you bring lots of Champions League experience, so is that one of the reasons Sonia wanted you to come, did she express exactly why?

Yeah, that’s the missing trophy here at Chelsea – it’s Champions League. And I’ve won it twice with Lyon and obviously under Sonia as a coach too. So I know what it takes to win those big trophies and that’s definitely their goal here at Chelsea, so hopefully I can help them achieve that goal.

If you had all the power in the world and could make one big change in women’s football, women’s sport, it could even be the way it’s covered, what would that be?

Yeah, I would have free-to-air for every sport, for every competition. As long as it’s on the screens, people watch and you can see that. It’s great.

Yes, you saw that with the Euros and Rugby World Cup. Will the Asian Cup be shown on Australian TV?

Yeah, I think so. I think free-to-air, so that’s great for the code, also great for women’s sport.

Last thing. If there was a little kid coming through who wanted to be like Ellie Carpenter, what would your advice be?

Continue to be yourself, never give up and… remember why you play football. Remember why you started. Because if you have fun you’ll play well, as well as enjoying it.