Kelly Smith MBE, the Arsenal and England striker who on Wednesday announced her retirement at the age of 38, is universally acknowledged as the finest female footballer ever produced in this country.

“She’s one of those players who come along only once or twice in a lifetime. In the men’s game you’d think of the likes of Maradona, Messi, players with a unique talent, and that’s what Kelly has.” That was the assessment made by Hope Powell, a player in the England side on the day the multi-talented No10 made her international debut just three days after her 17th birthday and subsequently her national team manager for 15 years to 2013.

By the time Smith won that first cap in November 1995 she was already used to admiration, and controversy too, in what became a playing career of many highs but also massive lows caused by a succession of long-term injuries and battles against depression together with a self-confessed drink problem.

Born and brought up in Watford, Smith was just seven years old when she had her first setback, a forced departure from the Garston Boys Club team after the parents of boys in opposing sides complained about playing against a girl. “It was a problem for [parents] to see a girl like me dominating a game featuring their sons,” Smith once said in an irritated recollection. But she was soon dominating in the women’s game, first for Watford then Pinner Park and Wembley Ladies before joining Arsenal for what was the first of three spells at the club.

The first of those lasted only one season, Smith helping the Gunners win the 1996-97 Women’s Premier League title then heading to the USA to take up a football scholarship at New Jersey’s Seton Hall University. She performed so well that when she left, after hitting 76 goals in 51 matches, they retired her No6 shirt – the ultimate accolade in American sports. Her reputation earned, Smith went on to play for Philadelphia Charge in the first ever, though short-lived, professional women’s football league, the Women’s United Soccer Association, delighting crowds around the USA with close control and dribbling skills that were an entertaining contrast to the athletic, pass-and-move game prevalent in the world’s leading women’s football nation.

The US national coach at the time, April Heinrichs, was equally impressed. “If Kelly was American,” she told me during a conversation at the 2002 Algarve Cup in Portugal, “she would be one of the first names on the team sheet.” Sadly for Smith while she was still in America, a cruciate ligament injury followed by a broken leg led her into a self-described “dark place.” “I couldn’t play through a broken leg, through knee surgery,” she said. “I’d be drinking, I’d be depressed, I’d be having negative thoughts all the time, like: ‘I might not ever play again.’ So my psyche was wrong, all messed up.”

She returned to England and checked herself into the Sporting Chance Clinic, emerging from her therapy to rejoin Arsenal and play a key role as the club not only dominated the domestic women’s game but also in 2007 were the only English team to become European champions in an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.

Her manager at the time, the long-serving Vic Akers, said on hearing of her retirement yesterday: “She was the one standout player, the best player for England women ever. That’s how iconic she is.” As well as amassing 20 major trophies with Arsenal, Smith won 117 England caps and ended her career as the national team’s top scorer with 46 goals.

She played in two World Cups – producing a memorable boot-kissing moment after hitting a crucial goal against Japan at China 2007 – and in four European Championship finals, an audaciously lobbed goal from the halfway line against Russia in the group stage at Finland 2009 helping her team on the way to a silver medal. She was awarded the MBE in 2008, and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, with the highlight a 1-0 win against Brazil at Wembley.

Her club career included a second spell in America, playing for Boston Breakers in the Women’s Professional Soccer league, followed by a final four years with Arsenal and a fitting end to her playing days in last May’s FA Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley. “If I do decide to retire this year,” she told me before producing a superb performance in her side’s 1-0 win, “playing at Wembley in an FA Cup final will be a great way to go out.”

She went out in style, as was always her way. Brilliant on the ball, with uncanny spatial awareness and tremendous passing skills plus the ability to score stunning goals, she was a real crowd-pleaser and a role model of the first order.

“Kelly is truly the definition of my hero,” said the 19-year old Arsenal and England Under-23 player Leah Williamson. “Growing up, I aspired to be like her. I’m really grateful to have had the chance to play with her and watch on in awe. For girls looking up, there was nobody else leading the way like Kelly.”