Kelly Smith has been one of women's football's finest talents for the best part of a decade. In truth, had England's inspirational No10 been born in Germany, the USA or Brazil, chances are she would have rivalled the likes of Marta for awards such as this long before now.

As it was, England's failure to qualify for the 1999 and 2003 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup meant that it was only at China 2007, at the age of 29, that Smith's talent finally received the global recognition it had long deserved. Yet despite her frustration at spending over a decade out of the spotlight, Smith did a fine job of making up for lost time, lighting up China 2007 with a series of sparkling displays to earn a richly deserved place on FIFA's All-Star team.

This, the world now understood, was why the Netherlands coach Vera Pauw had described this largely unheralded Englishwoman as "the best player in the world" just a year earlier. England and Arsenal captain Faye White, a colleague with both club and country, describes the 30-year-old has as having "magic in her feet", and Smith's special brand of sorcery continues to bewitch and beguile.

Like many top female players, Smith cut her teeth playing for boys' teams in her hometown of Watford, before being signed up to the women's programme at London giants Arsenal. In 1996, while still just a teenager, she scored two goals and set up the other in a 3-0 win over Liverpool that secured the Premier League title, but within a year she had made an historic transatlantic move to become the first and, to date, only English woman to play professionally in the USA.

I always try to play with a smile on my face. But yes, there is a mean streak to me too - I want to win every game and score goals too.

England's Kelly Smith.

"That helped me a lot," she has since reflected. "When I went over there I was taken aback with the level of intensity that they showed in training, their enthusiasm and appetite for the game - it rubbed off on me."

Smith's first port of call had been Seton Hall University, New Jersey, where she smashed all manner of records and became the college's first athlete in any sport other than basketball to have her shirt number 'retired'. After her graduation in 2000, Smith was drafted by the Philadelphia Charge of the WUSA and although knee injuries curtailed her progress, she made a significant enough impression for the USA coach at the time, April Heinrichs, to declare that she would be an automatic pick for the then world champions.

After the WUSA collapsed in 2003, Smith moved on again, this time to the W-League's New Jersey Wildcats, but after another serious injury - this time a leg-break - the time had come to return home. And her timing was good. In 2004, Arsenal were setting about building a team capable of conquering Europe, and Smith was to be the jewel in their crown.

It took a couple of seasons, but when the Gunners won an unprecedented quadruple of domestic and European trophies in season 2006/07, becoming the first English club to win the UEFA Women's Cup, Smith confirmed her talismanic status with a haul of 30 goals. The year before, she had finished fifth in the running for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year award, and with England having secured a long-awaited return to the FIFA Women's World Cup, Smith was finally to be given a chance to strut her stuff in front of a global audience.

She did not disappoint. With confidence high after winning the player of the tournament award at the 2007 China Cup against USA, Germany and the hosts, the Arsenal star went on to score four goals in as many appearances at the main event as England qualified for the quarter-finals.

In doing so, she also became an identifiable and long-needed idol for aspiring female footballers in England, and was recognised for her efforts to develop the game when she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's 2008 honours list. "I just enjoy taking part in the game," she has said. "I always try to play with a smile on my face. But yes, there is a mean streak to me too - I want to win every game and score goals too."

The 74-times-capped playmaker will certainly be a key figure when England do battle in the UEFA Women's EURO later this year, while at Arsenal she continues to combines her playing responsibilities with a coaching and developmental role as the club's Ladies Assistant Academy Director. She might have taken a while to announce her arrival to the world, but we can all expect Smith to be a towering figure in women's football for some time to come.