Ciara Watling née Sherwood (born 18 August 1992) is a Northern Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the

FA Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

Club career

Watling joined

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

at the age of 15 after a successful trial following recommendation from

Keith Boanas Keith Robert Boanas (born 22 April 1959) is an English football manager. Playing career Boanas has played and coached on the semi-professional circuit, Boanas made three substitute appearances for Tooting & Mitcham United after being appointe ...

, where she was awarded Player of the Season for the academy in her first season. After a season with Charlton's first team, Watling went on loan to Millwall Lionesses before moving permanently. During the 2013–14 season, Watling captained the Millwall Lionesses Development Squad. Watling made her debut for the first team as a substitute against

London Bees London Bees is an English women's football club affiliated with Barnet F.C. They play in the FA Women's National League South. The club has been in existence under several names since 1975, originally being called District Line Ladies F.C.. Th ...

in the

FA WSL Cup The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pr ...

in May 2014. She made her first start two months later against

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. During the

2016 FA WSL The 2016 FA WSL was the sixth edition of the FA WSL since it was formed in 2010. The WSL 1 was expanded to nine teams. The WSL 2 included one team promoted from the FA Women's Premier League for the first time. The season started on 23 March and ...

mid-season transfer window, Watling left Millwall Lionesses by mutual agreement before signing for Crystal Palace for the 2016–17 season. Watling moved back to Charlton on January 15, 2020. After her first full season with Charlton, Watling signed for

in the

FA Women's National League The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...

that summer. Following their successful promotion push in the 2021-22 season, she will play the 2022-23 season in the

International career

Watling made her debut for the

Northern Ireland national team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Foo ...

on 24 October 2015

against Against may refer to: * ''Against'' (album), 1998 album by Brazilian metal band Sepultura ** "Against" (song) the title track song from the Sepultura album *Against (American band), 2006 American thrash band *Against (Australian band) Again ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Personal life

Watling is married to

Harry Watling Harry Watling (born 28 November 1989) is an English football coach who is currently first team coach at Scottish Premiership side Rangers. Coaching career Watling earned his UEFA B licence at age 18 and his UEFA A licence at 26, which at the t ...

, assistant manager of

Glasgow Rangers Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

. She is a cousin of ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' actress

Jacqueline Jossa Jacqueline Mary Osborne (''née'' Jossa) (born 29 October 1992) is an English actress and television presenter. She is known for portraying Lauren Branning in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 2010 to 2022, and winning the nineteenth serie ...

References

External links

FAWNL statsCharlton Athletic bio
* 1992 births Living people FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players Charlton Athletic W.F.C. players Millwall Lionesses L.F.C. players Northern Ireland women's international footballers Women's association football midfielders Women's association footballers from Northern Ireland Crystal Palace F.C. (Women) players Southampton F.C. Women players {{NorthernIreland-women-footy-bio-stub