The Solihull-born star has officially lifted the Glitterball trophy with partner Carlos Gu – and couldn’t believe it
Karen Carney and Carlos Gu have won Strictly Come Dancing(Image: BBC)
Birmingham’s Karen Carney has won Strictly Come Dancing 2025 after a tense and historic final.
Karen fought hard against Amber Davies and George Clarke to lift the Glitterball trophy on Saturday night on a show that will go down in history as the last ever live show for hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman and the first time a footballer has ever won.
The finalists kicked off the show with a huge group number with Strictly’s professional dancers before each performing three dances for the judges: An old routine, a show dance and their favourite routine from the series.
After all their performances, the judges combined scores were almost even with Amber slightly out in the lead with 118 points, and Karen and George both on 117.
Strictly Come Dancing’s 2025 finalists(Image: BBC)
But while the judges scored each dance as usual, the winner was completely chosen by the public vote.
And it was Birmingham’s own Karen Carney who was named the best dancer of the series on Saturday night.
The former Birmingham City and England footballer had performed a showdance to Inner Smile by Texas, her tribute to Birmingam in her Peaky Blinders-style Argentine Tango to Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as the judge’s pick and the Jive to One Way Or Another by Blondie which sealed her place in the competition at the very start alongside partner Carlos Gu.
After being crowned winner, Karen said: “Cannot believe it. I just want to say thankyou to everybody that’s supported our journey.
“Thank you to this wonderful gentleman [Carlos]. We are a team and I couldn’t have done this without you.
“I can’t believe it. It’s been the biggest privilege and honour. I literally am lost for words so I’m so sorry.”
And the public had their say on the Strictly Come Dancing winner for 2025, with even fans of the other two couples saying Karen had deserved her win.
One fan wrote on X: “Karen and Carlos winning is so iconic! Putting the “footballer on strictly” tag to shame and kicking it out the park (pun intended).”
A second wrote: “Am I a massive George Clarke fan? Yes! Did he want him to win? Yes did Karen and Carlos still deserve it tho yes they did.”
“Really thought George had it delighted for Karen and Carlos,” a third echoed.
“The way I screamed YES at the TV when Karen won! So happy for her,” another fan added.
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman began their final show as Strictly Come Dancing hosts(Image: BBC)
While the show is over for another year, it will never be the same again without hosts Claudia and Tess.
There were many tears during the final as the judges and dancers all acknowledged how much they loved and would miss the pair.
In October the presenters announced that they would be leaving the BBC dancing competition after more than a decade co-hosting the main show together.
Their very last appearance as a presenting pair on Strictly will be in the pre-recorded festive special airing on Christmas day.
Daly, 56, presented the series alongside the late Sir Bruce Forsyth when it launched in 2004 while Winkleman, 53, fronted its weekday companion show, It Takes Two.
Winkleman eventually moved on to host the Sunday night results show alongside Daly and joined the main show every Saturday from 2014, after Sir Bruce stepped down.