Claire Josephine Scanlan (born 21 February 1972) is an Irish

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

coach and former

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 the

Republic of Ireland women's national football team ) , Association = Women's Football Association of Ireland , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , Coach = Vera Pauw , Captain = Katie McCabe , Most caps = Emma Byrne (134) , Top scorer = Olivia ...

. She played for clubs in the American W-League, the Japanese

L. League The , commonly known as the , is a semi-professional women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women o ...

and the English

FA Women's Premier 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 ...

Club career

Scanlan began playing with Rush Athletic as an 11-year-old. While attending St. Joseph's Secondary School Scanlan also played

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

. She became the first female to play

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and he ...

with the school team, and marked the occasion with a goal. After six seasons with Rush Athletic, Scanlan moved to Dublin rivals Swords Celtic. She returned to Rush Athletic and won Leinster Senior League Division Two honours with the club in 1990–91. In 1992 Scanlan took up a soccer scholarship to

Mercyhurst College (Seize the day) , former_names = Mercyhurst College (1926–2012) , established = , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Sisters of Mercy) , endowment = $31.8 million , faculty = 136 full-time , administrat ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. She was selected to the All-American team in 1994 and 1995 and was named both Division II Player of the Year and Conference Player of the Year. After graduating Scanlan signed a full-time professional contract to play for OKI F.C. Winds, a club in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She returned to Ireland for a brief spell with Shelbourne, before heading back to America in August 1999. She won a W-League title with Springfield Sirens in 2000, before turning out for

Memphis Mercury Memphis Mercury was an American women's soccer team, founded in 2005. The team was a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is ...

(2001 and 2002) and

Boston Renegades Boston Renegades was an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2003. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays in the Northeast Divisi ...

(2003). Meanwhile, Scanlan had joined

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

and was playing for the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

club in the

FA Women's Premier League National Division The FA Women's Premier League National Division (originally WFA National League Premier Division) was a football division in England. From 1991 until 2010, the National Division functioned as the top league in English women's football. Durin ...

during the winter season. After three seasons at Leeds, Scanlan joined

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

as player-assistant manager to Gary Green.

International career

Scanlan made her debut for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

in an Under–18 fixture against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in 1989. She scored both goals in the Republic's 2–0 win at

Tolka Park Tolka Park ( ga, Páirc na Tulchann) is an Irish football ground located in the north Dublin suburb of Drumcondra, on the northern banks of the River Tolka. It is currently the home ground of League of Ireland club Shelbourne. The stadium fo ...

. In February 2000 Scanlan was named the 1999 FAI Women's Senior International Player of the Year. She won a total of 57 senior caps and scored seven goals before retiring in 2009. In February of that year a half-time presentation during the Irish men's national team

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

against

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 ...

at Croke Park recognised Scanlan's contribution to Irish football.

Coaching career

While playing for Bristol Academy, Scanlan was employed as the head coach of the Female Football Development Centre at

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, also known as SGS College, is a college of further education and higher education based in South Gloucestershire and Stroud, England. It was established in February 2012 following the merger of Filton Co ...

. She left to take up a post as assistant coach at

Troy University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. Troy University is accredi ...

, where she had previously worked as a graduate coach between 1999 and 2001 while completing a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Education. Scanlan is also on the coaching staff of the FAI and was an assistant coach of the Irish team who reached the quarter-finals of the

2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Women's association football, women's football tournament is the second such tournament, and was held in Trinidad and Tobago from 5 to 25 September 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all six c ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scanlan, Claire 1972 births Living people Republic of Ireland women's association footballers Leeds United Women F.C. players Bristol Academy W.F.C. players Republic of Ireland women's international footballers FA Women's National League players Irish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in Japan USL W-League (1995–2015) players Republic of Ireland expatriate women's association footballers OKI FC Winds players Nadeshiko League players Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Shelbourne F.C. (women) players Dublin Women's Soccer League players Mercyhurst Lakers women's soccer players Women's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland women's youth international footballers Boston Renegades players Association footballers from County Dublin