Play It Again, Super Fran (She Kicks a Beat Special: Fran Kirby)

One of the few unambiguous positives of 2020 was Fran Kirby’s return to the pitch, and this extended She Kicks a Beat takes the long way round to it. The first album she bought was Shaggy’s Hotshot, saved up for alongside a pool table so she could play both in the garage. She still always has headphones in on a matchday, choosing upbeat or relaxed depending on the nerves. In December her two goals against Benfica in the Champions League last 32 made her Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer on seventy. She talks about the 2015 World Cup goal against Mexico that announced her to a wider audience, about Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood in the same week, and about escaping an initiation because Chelsea had briefly dropped them.