Rachel Brown-Finnis

Meet Rachel Brown-Finnis

Rachel is a former goalkeeper who has played for England on more than 80 occasions, and at club level played for top WSL sides, Liverpool Women and Everton Women.

In 1995, Rachel signed for Liverpool Women, just after she turned 15. She played there for three years, during which she made her senior England debut, in February 1997.

In 1998, Rachel made the move to America. She attended the University of Pittsburgh where she not only earned a degree in Sports Science, but was named Goalkeeper of the Year every year! She also holds the Pittsburgh Panthers record for the fewest goals conceded in a season.

Whilst playing for England, she went on to qualify for Women’s Euro 2001 and 2005, as well as the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China. In 2009, she became one of the first female players to be given a central contract by the FA, a groundbreaking moment for women’s football in this country.

On her return to England, Rachel qualified as a PE Teacher at Liverpool John Moores University, before signing for Everton Women, in 2003. She played for Everton until 2014; in 2010 she played in her second FA Women’s Cup Final, collecting her first winner’s medal.

Rachel was also in the London 2012 Olympics Team GB squad.

After retiring in 2015, Rachel transitioned into punditry and commentating. She now works regularly on BT Sport Score and the BBC; the Women’s Football Show, Football Focus & Final Score along with BBC 5Live. She covered the Women’s 2019 World Cup in France and Euro 2020 as a BBC pundit. In addition to these she covered the Lionesses success at Euro 2022 and was the lead co-commentator at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia. She continues to be a leading pundit across both the men’s and women’s’ game, for both BBC and TNT Sport.

During the WSL 2019/2020 season, Rachel wrote a weekly column for The Guardian, before leaving to focus solely on punditry and co-comms.