Arsenal and England star Beth Mead reveals how Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe helped shape her game

Mead starred at the European Championships this summer, helping England lift their first major trophy since the men’s World Cup in 1966. Mead won the Golden Boot at the tournament and was named the 2021/22 England Women’s Player of the Year.

It has been a remarkable few years for Mead whose rise to prominence started with a five-year spell at Sunderland. Mead played for the Black Cats between 2011 and 2016 and, in a recent interview with FourFourTwo, has revealed how Jermain Defoe helped develop her game whilst the pair were on Wearside.

Mead told FourFourTwo: “Jermain Defoe was amazing with me. We were lucky to share breakfast and lunch in the same canteen as the men’s team, which was very nice – it’s something Sunderland got right from day one.

“He literally waited for me every morning. He heard about me being this great striker, so he wanted to know everything about me because he wasn’t the only great striker at Sunderland at the time. We got on really well, talking about football every morning while he had a green tea."

After arriving from the MLS in a swap deal with Jozy Altidore, Defoe enjoyed a fantastic first spell at Sunderland, netting 34 times in two and a half Premier League seasons. Relegation in 2017 saw Defoe move to Bournemouth before a three year spell at Rangers.

None more so than at Sunderland, Defoe scored goals pretty much everywhere he went, however, as Mead has revealed, he wasn’t afraid to ask others for advice on how to improve his own game, including the future Lioness.

Mead said: “He had watched a few of my goals and said, ‘I’ve never scored one like that before – what were you thinking when you did that?’ I would always explain, but he understood that strikers have to be quite instinctive in things you do.

“We’re quite similar characters in a sense – we’re quite outgoing and extroverted. We bounced off each other. We stay in touch to this day, and he’s always supported me and shared his experience to help me with what I’m doing in my career.”