Fleeting is from a football family. Her father Jim played for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Ayr United, Clyde and Greenock Morton, before going on to manage Stirling Albion, Kilmarnock and the Scotland Women\u2019s National Team. <\/p>\n
Her husband Colin Stewart was a goalkeeper who made more than 200 appearances across several Scottish clubs. His father, also Jim, was capped twice by Scotland. \u201cIt started in the garden,\u201d Julie says. \u201cMy dad was a footballer and I have a younger brother who was interested in football too.<\/p>\n
“We were always playing in the garden or the street. If the weather was bad we were playing in the kitchen or in the hall, I always had a love of playing. We would go and watch my dad as well so we were always in and around the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got to primary school, the school asked me if I wanted to go along to the school team training. That was my first inclusion in competitive football. It was a boys\u2019 team and I was the only girl in the league. I started playing for a club when I was nine, training and then playing at the weekends. I played for them for three or four years before the league said I wasn\u2019t allowed to play with the boys anymore. I joined Prestwick, who became Ayr United, when I was 13 right through until I was 21 when I graduated.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n“We were always playing in the garden or the street. If the weather was bad we were playing in the kitchen or in the hall, I always had a love of playing.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Fleeting\u2019s talents were obvious and it wasn\u2019t long before she was called up for the national team. \u201cWhen I was at Ayr United I was selected for the Scotland Under-16s and I was selected for the full national team when I was 15,\u201d she says. \u201cI got my first four caps before I was 16.\u201d<\/p>\n
It soon became apparent that more developed, professionalised leagues would come calling. \u201cWhen I was graduating from Edinburgh University I was selected to go and play for San Diego Spirit. I think it was through playing for Scotland that San Diego had heard about me and they wanted to see some video of me playing, which we sent over. They signed me off the back of that,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n For players of Fleeting\u2019s generation, the US was one of the only places where you could play women\u2019s football professionally. She says she thrived in this environment. \u201cI absolutely loved it. I loved the football out there. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. I struggled a little with home sickness at first \u2013 I was a homebody and it was a long way from home. I was still very young. I was used to just playing on public parks in front of player\u2019s parents. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge contrast to go out there with fans at every game, hype around every game, not just in terms of media but in that every game felt like a huge occasion. I trained every day in the sunshine and the standard was so high. I was playing with and against players who had won the World Cup and the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time it was very common for elite women\u2019s players to live nomadic existences and to fall foul of structural instability in the women\u2019s game. \u201cThe league in the US folded after my second season and I moved back home. Vic Akers got in touch to to ask if he could come and speak to me about signing for Arsenal. I had a full-time job as a PE teacher,” she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband \u2013 though we weren\u2019t married at that time \u2013 was a footballer in Scotland. We were living at home: I had a job, a relationship, my life was in Scotland. Vic was aware of that situation.\u201d So it came to pass that Fleeting would sign for Arsenal under a pretty extraordinary arrangement. <\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n \u201cVic said he would fly me down to play in the games so long as I had a club to train with and as long as I kept my fitness up. It was January 2004 so we trialled it for the rest of the season. I would fly at 10am on a Sunday to Luton and would go straight to the game for a 2pm kick-off. As soon as the game finished I showered and I was back at the airport to get a 6pm flight back home because I was working on Monday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julie says she signed on a short-term basis initially so that club and player could explore whether the arrangement worked for both parties. \u201cMe and Vic probably didn\u2019t know how it would pan out and whether it would work, but it went extremely well. I was loving my football, scoring goals and I settled in with the team. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were successful, so Vic offered me a longer contract.\u201d In Julie\u2019s debut season, she scored a hat-trick as the Gunners won the FA Cup final 3-1 against Charlton at Loftus Road. The feat was all the more remarkable because Fleeting played for Scotland the day before and picked up an injury. \u201cCan I just say, I didn\u2019t go off injured! I don\u2019t go off injured!\u201d Julie corrects us as we ask her about the knock she picked up.<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n \u201cWe played Germany so it was a tough, competitive game. I clashed with the goalkeeper and got a dead leg. I let Vic know right away and he was already prepared with the medical team at the team hotel when I arrived that evening. I knew I was going to play; I was extremely determined.<\/p>\n
“It was the last game of the season; I knew if I could get through it I would have time to rest afterwards. It was my first FA Cup final, I wasn’t going to sit it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as the game started I was fine \u2013 it wasn\u2019t a pulled muscle where I couldn\u2019t sprint,\u201d she recalls. “It was painful, but the more the adrenaline kicked in and we were winning, I just didn\u2019t want to leave the pitch.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fleeting was eventually substituted and replaced by Alex Scott in the 89th minute. She travelled back to Scotland with the match ball and a winners\u2019 medal. The Scot averaged nearly a goal a game for the club, something she attributes to the talent around her at Arsenal. <\/p>\n
\u201cReally, I was a goalscorer because I was surrounded by incredibly talented players. Early on I was a powerful runner \u2013 quick and I liked to get in behind teams. As my career wore on, and after I had different injuries and operations, I adapted my game and became a target player who would hold the ball up and bring others into play.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite not training with the team, she quickly developed an understanding with her team-mates.<\/p>\n
\n“Really, I was a goalscorer because I was surrounded by incredibly talented players.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
“I always wanted to score, so in my head I was always asking myself, \u2018What is the best position for me to be in to give me the best chance of scoring goals?\u2019 If the ball was with Lianne Sanderson, I knew she liked to play a long, deep ball to the back post so that\u2019s where I would go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Rachel Yankey, I knew she liked to drill a low ball. Kelly Smith would play clever passes in behind the centre backs. The delivery from these players was outstanding. We had a real understanding.” <\/p>\n
Fleeting was a key part of the 2006\/07 quadruple-winning side, scoring nine goals across Arsenal\u2019s victorious Champions League campaign. She didn\u2019t score in two legs of the final against Umea, where Arsenal had to play in a manner to which they weren\u2019t accustomed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when we went to Sweden, we wanted to make sure we were still in the game going back to Boreham Wood for the second leg. The first leg was not the most exciting game, there weren\u2019t a lot of opportunities for either side. The lastminute goal that Alex Scott scored proved to be very important. The second game had absolutely everything. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of the best defensive and goalkeeping performances I have ever seen at Arsenal,\u201d she reflects. \u201cWe fought for our lives, Emma Byrne was outstanding in goal, we defended from the front. Umea had so much quality like Marta and Ramona Bachmann, the fact that we stopped them scoring across two legs was incredible. Luck was on our side too \u2013 we were up against it. But there was a lot of hard work too. It was definitely the greatest moment of my football career.” <\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n Among her many achievements at Arsenal, Fleeting introduced current captain and legend Kim Little to the team in 2008 \u2013 in rather bizarre circumstances. \u201cI had played with Kim for Scotland as she had come through the youth setup. I brought Kim down to Arsenal for her first game. We were playing away at Leeds, so Kim and her mum were in the car with me and my husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hadn\u2019t been down to London yet so she had no tracksuit or kit. When we arrived I hadn\u2019t realised that Vic hadn\u2019t told the players about Kim. I brought Kim into the dressing room and she\u2019s just wearing her normal clothes and the rest of the team thought she was just my friend! Vic starts reading out the team and going through the tactics and I could see the other players looking at her thinking, \u2018Why is she still in here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for her team-mates to twig. \u201cEventually they saw she was on the bench. She was very quiet, as Kim still is. Vic brought her on and she never lost the ball. I don\u2019t think the other players even knew her name properly and they said to me, \u2018Your friend is really good!\u2019 <\/p>\n
I had to tell them she wasn\u2019t just a pal I had brought to see if she could get a game. There was a breakdown in communication, but as soon as the girls saw her on the pitch they were quickly aware of how much she was going to add to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n Fleeting, who now has three children with her husband Colin, looks back on her eight year spell at Arsenal with extreme fondness: \u201cAt the time when you\u2019re engrossed in it you don\u2019t have a chance to think. Now I look back and think about it, it seems exhausting to have travelled down from Scotland for every game, but I loved it. There wasn\u2019t a single time I went to bed on a Saturday night thinking, \u2018I can\u2019t be bothered going down.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely loved it, playing at the highest level with the best players. I loved the success we had and the big games and pressure moments. I was absolutely blessed to be part of the history of the Arsenal Women\u2019s team and to have had the opportunity to play with players who are legends, not just at Arsenal but in women\u2019s football. It was a wonderful time. Every single second I spent at Arsenal was an absolute joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\n\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n
Jayne Ludlow on captaining our legendary 2007 team <\/span>
\n <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\nCopyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eight league titles. Five FA Cups. Three League Cups. One Champions League and 131 goals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}