Claire Lauren Rafferty (born 11 January 1989) is an English pundit and retired professional

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 ...

. She made over 100 appearances as a left back or

left winger 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

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the FA WSL and also spent time at Millwall Lionesses and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. Rafferty also represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

internationally and played at the 2012 Olympics for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Club career

Rafferty became a first team regular with Millwall Lionesses as a 14-year-old. After recovering from an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

(ACL) injury, she signed for Chelsea Ladies in 2007 and became a regular on the left of midfield. In August 2011 Rafferty suffered another ACL injury. She returned to the Chelsea team as a substitute in their televised 2012 FA WSL opening game against

Doncaster Rovers Belles Doncaster Rovers Belles Ladies Football Club, previously Doncaster Belles, is an England, English women's association football, women's football club that currently plays in the , the fourth tier of women's football in England. The club's admin ...

. Earlier in April 2012 Rafferty had been appointed as one of eight digital media ambassadors, one from each team, who wear their

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account name on their sleeves to raise the profile of the WSL. In 2014 Rafferty helped Chelsea to second place in the FAWSL. There was a dramatic final day of the season which saw Chelsea narrowly missing out on the title by one goal difference. Rafferty left Chelsea Ladies at the end of the 2017–18 season. In June 2018, she joined West Ham United Ladies. She retired at the end of the 2018–19 season.

International career

England

Rafferty was involved with

at U15 development, U17, U19, U20 and U23 level. She had been called into the U19 squad at the age of 15. Her full debut came on 25 March 2010 against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. In June 2011 Rafferty was named in the 21–player squad for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. At the quarter final stage of the competition against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, she was substituted on for regular left back

Rachel Unitt Rachel Elizabeth Unitt (born 5 June 1982) is a former English footballer who last played for FA Women's Championship club London Bees. After beginning her club career with Wolves, Unitt began a long association with Everton in 2000. This was int ...

in the 81st minute, to make her World Cup debut. England coach

Hope Powell Hope Patricia Powell, CBE (born 8 December 1966) is an English former international footballer and former women's first-team manager of Brighton & Hove Albion. She was the coach of the England women's national football team and the Great Britain ...

considered Rafferty better equipped to cope with the pace of

Élodie Thomis Élodie Ginette Thomis (; born 13 August 1986) is a French former football player who played for French club Olympique Lyon of the Division 1 Féminine. She played either a winger or striker and was described as a player who possesses pace co ...

. When the match finished 1–1 after extra-time, Rafferty missed England's fourth penalty in the

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

, sending her spot kick wide of the post. Although England were knocked out when

Faye White Faye Deborah White, (born 2 February 1978) is an English former footballer who captained Arsenal Women in the FA Women's Super League and is the longest-serving female captain of England to date. Her Lionesses career spanned 15 years and five ...

also missed, Hope Powell praised Rafferty for stepping forward when other, more experienced team mates were exhibiting "cowardice." Rafferty's international career has been plagued with injury having ruptured her ACL three times, most recently in 2013. After overcoming this for the third time Rafferty was recalled to the England squad in late 2014 for the friendly against Germany at Wembley Stadium. Rafferty made her first England appearance in two and a half years in March 2015 as England won the Cyprus Cup. Rafferty was selected for the 2015 World Cup and was first choice left-back as England reached the semi-finals and achieved third-place. Rafferty was unfortunate to concede a penalty in the semi-final against Japan for a push which was outside the box.

Great Britain Olympic

In June 2012 Rafferty was named in the 18–player

squad for the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Retirement

Rafferty now makes regular media appearances. In the summer immediately following her retirement, Rafferty made numerous television and radio appearances as a pundit during the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...

. In July 2019, Rafferty returned to Chelsea in a commercial role. Chelsea Commercial Director, Chris Townsend OBE commented on Rafferty's "extensive experience in elite-level sport combined with her business and analytical skills accumulated working at an investment bank" which made her an important asset to the club.

Personal life

She studied economics at Loughborough University, and graduated in 2011. As well as her football commitments she is a part-time Analyst at

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

. During the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Rafferty was named 43rd in the ''

ZOO Magazine ''Zoo Magazine'' is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and was created on 25 September 2003. It focuses on fashion, art, literature and architecture and is published four times a year. The predominantly German based subject matter has recently expan ...

'' "Hot 101" issue.

Honours

Club

Chelsea * FA WSL: 2015, 2017–18 *

FA Women's Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...

: 2014–15, 2017–18

International

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in t ...

: 2015 * FIFA Women's World Cup third place: 2015

References

External links

* *
Profile
at

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafferty, Claire English women's footballers Millwall Lionesses L.F.C. players Chelsea F.C. Women players West Ham United F.C. Women players England women's international footballers FA Women's National League players 1989 births Footballers from Orpington Alumni of Loughborough University Living people Women's Super League players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Great Britain Women's association football fullbacks Women's association football wingers