Amid all the noise that surrounded London City Lionesses’ debut WSL campaign last season – and the incredible summer transfer window that followed – it’s perhaps surprising that Freya Godfrey is one of the most talked about players emerging from Michele Kang’s project.
The 21-year-old winger won London City’s Players’ Player of the Season award in 2025-26. She was the club’s top scorer in the WSL with six goals, and also notched four assists.
In a team that included £1 million signing Grace Geyoro – who only managed one goal in 20 league games from midfield – Godfrey was the most consistent performer, outplaying some of London City’s senior, starry recruits.
For Godfrey, being given consistent minutes was the defining factor of her 2025-26 campaign.
“I think I grew in confidence,” she told The Cutback. “I think the main thing for me, especially as a young player, is just needing game time, which I obviously came here to have, I got that.
“The more you get into the flow, the more things start going well, it’s a snowball effect. I want to try and be more consistent. I think that’s my main aim for this year.”
Godfrey initially joined London City on loan from Arsenal during the second half of the London City's 2024-25 promotion season, searching for game time due to her struggle to break into Arsenal’s senior team. It’s a conundrum faced by many young players in the WSL.
Last summer, she made the move to South London permanent and accumulated just under 1,200 minutes of WSL football in 2025-26, the youngest player in London City’s squad to hit that milestone.
Since then, she’s been rewarded with a new three-year contract, the highlight of a summer that saw her attend the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Wimbledon tennis grand slam.
The “consistency” that Godfrey is looking for this season is all about “creating chances”. She’s ambitious and recognises that she benefitted from “popping up in the moment” whereas this coming season she wants to have a meaningful impact on every game.
Godfrey may not be guaranteed as many minutes as last campaign given London City’s busy transfer window with French forward Kadidiatou Diani arriving from Lyon, and midfielder Alexia Putellas from Barcelona, just two of the big name arrivals. She started on the bench in London City’s opening day 2-1 victory over Manchester United. In terms of direct competition, Godfrey has shared her wide role with Geyoro and French winger Delphine Cascarino, two huge names with Champions League experience, and Diani can also play in a right-winger role.
The youngster is unfazed by those big names.
“If you asked me last season I would have said the competition’s still so high. I think I did well to establish my place in the team and keep my place in the team, and they’ve brought in more players for me to compete with, it’s a privilege to be in this position.
“I’m young and I’m competing with some of the best wingers in the world who, even if I don’t play, I’m going to learn from them. If I do play, then I’m going to be in a good place.”
London City’s summer additions have caused a stir with many fans and pundits expecting them to challenge the WSL’s ‘big four’ of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United for European spots this season. Godfrey believes they can go one step further and push for the WSL title.
“Yeah, 100% I think we can challenge for the title to be honest. That’s the ambition of the club and that’s where we want to get to.
“I think the Champions League is the minimum of what we want to be fighting for. I think we want to be in and around the title race. I think we have the calibre of players to be there. I think it’s good that we were able to get everything done in the summer, so now we have the pre-season for everyone to build together, which I think we struggled with last year because of the Euros.”
Godfrey’s impressive performances last season also caught the eye of England head coach Sarina Wiegman, who called her up to her Lionesses squads across all of 2025-26. She is yet to take the field for the senior national team but Wiegman praised Godfrey’s ability to offer England “something different”.
The winger is now looking ahead to try and lock down a place in England’s squad for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, albeit the Lionesses still need to qualify via the play-offs later this year.
“Everyone in the league is going to be hoping to go to the World Cup, so the competition is going to be high among the players, within the teams, and everything like that.
“I think for me personally, I just want to keep doing what I’m doing. I was obviously doing something right last season to get the call up, so I want to keep building on that and enjoy myself here, enjoy my football here, and play good football here, and then hope that I can get rewarded for that. And then be able to take my opportunity when and if it comes.”
Her London City side completed the first test of the Putellas-era with their opening win over United. But its going to take more than that to build a serious title challenge.