Olivia Smith: Shortlisted for PFA Young Player of the Year Award
Olivia Smith’s rise shows no sign of slowing.
The Arsenal forward has been shortlisted for the 2026 PFA Young Player of the Year award, a year after taking the prize in Liverpool colours. Now she stands on the brink of winning it in back-to-back seasons, and for two different clubs.
It is a list built on respect from the dressing room. The six-player shortlist is made up of those who attracted the most votes from their fellow professionals, a measure of how deeply Smith’s impact has registered across the league.
Arsenal moved quickly to bring her in from Liverpool last summer. She wasted no time justifying the decision. On her debut at Emirates Stadium, against London City Lionesses, Smith announced herself with a stunning long-range strike, the kind of goal that instantly rewrites expectations around a new signing.
The big moments kept coming. In February, with the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup on the line, she struck again in a 3-2 win over Corinthians, helping Arsenal get their hands on the new trophy and stamping her name across the club’s emerging era.
Across the 2025/26 campaign, Smith delivered numbers to match the highlight reels: 10 goals in 38 appearances in all competitions. At 20-something, those are the returns of a player not just breaking through, but already carrying responsibility in a squad with serious ambitions.
Her progress has not gone unnoticed on the international stage either. In this calendar year, she has added three more caps for Canada, edging her way into a national team picture that grows more competitive by the month.
Now comes another personal milestone within reach. Smith is aiming to retain the PFA Young Player of the Year crown she first lifted in 2025, after her final season at Liverpool. Few players even make consecutive shortlists. Fewer still threaten to dominate the category.
The field around her underlines the level. Alyssa Thompson and Veerle Buurman represent Chelsea. Freya Godfrey flies the flag for London City Lionesses. Laura Blindkilde Brown carries Manchester City’s interest. Toko Koga stands for Tottenham Hotspur. It is a cross-section of the league’s next generation, all already central figures at their clubs.
Arsenal’s presence in the nominations does not end there. Alessia Russo is also in the frame, shortlisted for the prestigious PFA Players’ Player of the Year award, a reminder of the individual quality driving the club’s recent push for silverware.
All eyes now turn to August 25, when the winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony. For Olivia Smith, it could be the night her peers confirm what her season has already suggested: that last year’s breakthrough was not a one-off, but the start of something far bigger.
