Claire Emslie (born 8 March 1994) is a Scottish

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 ...

who plays as a forward for

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in Los Angeles, California, and was announced on July 21, 2020. The team has many high-profile owners, including Becky G, Natal ...

in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States of America, and the Scotland national team. She previously played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United K ...

for the

Florida Atlantic Owls The Florida Atlantic Owls are the athletics teams of Florida Atlantic University. The Owls participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I as members of Conference USA. On October 21, 2021, Florida Atlantic accep ...

and professionally for Hibernian,

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

, Manchester City,

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride is a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida. The team joined the National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the 2016 season. It became the tenth team to be added to th ...

, Melbourne City, and Everton. She made her full international debut in 2013 and was selected for the Scotland squad at 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 ...

. Emslie scored their first goal in the competition, becoming the first woman to score in a World Cup finals for Scotland.

Club career

Hibernian

Emslie began her senior career in 2011 with

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football Leag ...

team Hibernian, making her debut in a league game against Falkirk on 24 April. In total, Emslie made thirty-five appearances and scored eighteen times in three seasons with Hibernian, winning the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

in her debut year.

Florida Atlantic Owls

Between 2012 and 2015, Emslie attended

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-ca ...

, majoring in exercise physiology. During her time in the United States, she played for the

. She ended her college career with 29 goals and 10 assists in four seasons.

Bristol City

On 16 June 2016, Emslie returned to the UK and joined

FA WSL 2 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 ...

side

. She went on to score ten goals in twelve matches for Bristol, leading her team to promotion into the FA WSL. She signed a new contract with Bristol in February 2017.

Manchester City

On 1 July 2017, following the end of the shortened

FA WSL Spring Series The FA WSL Spring Series was an interim edition of the FA WSL between the sixth and seventh full seasons. The Spring Series ran from February to May 2017 to bridge the gap from the 2016 FA WSL season which ran from March to September as a summer t ...

, Emslie joined Manchester City. She scored her first goal for the team in an FA WSL Cup group stage win over

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

on 2 November 2017. She won a domestic cup double with City during the 2018–19 season, lifting both the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

Orlando Pride

On 30 May 2019, Emslie agreed a move to

of the NWSL, officially joining the team upon conclusion of Scotland's run at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup which ended on 19 June with a dramatic 3–3 draw against Argentina in the Group Stage. She was the only one of the Prides' nine players at the World Cup to not progress to the knockout round. She made her debut for the team on 20 July 2019, coming on as a substitute for

Rachel Hill Rachel Morgan Hill (born April 17, 1995) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for San Diego Wave FC in the NWSL. Early life Hill has two brothers, Zach and Jake, and played indoor soccer with them on a team coached ...

in a 1–0 win over

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

. In March 2020, the impending NWSL season was postponed due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. An eventual restart was made through a smaller schedule 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup tournament. However, on 22 June, Orlando withdrew from the tournament following positive COVID-19 tests among both players and staff. Having signed permanently with English

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features ...

club Everton in December 2020, Orlando lost Emslie's NWSL playing rights to

during the

2022 NWSL Expansion Draft The 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft (formerly named the 2021 NWSL Expansion Draft) was an expansion draft held by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) on December 16, 2021, for two expansion teams, Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC, to select pla ...

Loan to Melbourne City

Emslie was loaned to Australian club Melbourne City in November 2019. Emslie scored four regular season goals as Melbourne successfully defended their Premiership title and subsequently went on to win the Championship, beating Sydney FC in the final.

Everton

In August 2020, having been unable play since the W-League Championship game in February due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Orlando loaned Emslie to FA WSL club Everton ahead of the 2020–21 season. The move was made permanent on 31 December 2020 and Emslie signed an 18-month contract with Everton.

Angel City FC

Angel City FC acquired the rights to sign Claire Emslie in the

of December 2021, and then officially signed her on 7 July 2022. On July 9, 2022, she scored the winning goal in her first appearance for Angel City Fc vs San Diego Wave

International career

Emslie has represented

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

internationally. At youth level, she won caps with the U17s and U19s. She scored goals in consecutive

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is a competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belong to the ...

tournaments in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

respectively. In June 2013, Emslie made her senior debut against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in an international friendly. After it became clear that she would be based in the United States for a long period, Emslie was not considered for international selection until her studies in Florida concluded and she moved to England. Her second cap came in a friendly against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

in January 2017. She was recalled to the national team in August 2017 when new manager

Shelley Kerr Michelle Kerr (born 15 October 1969) is a Scottish football manager and former player who is currently the English Football Association's technical lead for women's national teams. As a player Kerr was a powerful centre back, who captained ...

called her up for a friendly against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. Emslie subsequently scored her first senior international goal against Hungary in a 3–0 win at the Telki Training Centre in Pest County. Kerr selected Emslie for the

in France, the first time the nation had ever qualified for the tournament. Emslie scored Scotland's first-ever World Cup goal on 9 June 2019 in a

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

defeat to

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 ...

Personal life

Emslie was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

to parents Neil and Anna before being raised in

Penicuik Penicuik ( ; sco, Penicuik; gd, Peighinn na Cuthaig) is a town and former Police burgh, burgh in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the west bank of the River Esk, Lothian, River North Esk. It lies on the A701 road, A701 midway between Edinburgh a ...

. She counts former Hibernian teammate

Caroline Weir Caroline Elspeth Lillias Weir (born 20 June 1995) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or forward for Spanish Primera División club Real Madrid CF and the Scotland women's national team. Club career E ...

and Bristol teammate Chloe Arthur among her close friends, both of whom also play for Scotland.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''As of 4 March 2020. Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Hibernian * Scottish Women's Premier League Cup: 2011 Manchester City *

FA Women's League 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. Pri ...

: 2018–19 *

Women's FA 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 rea ...

: 2018–19 Melbourne City * W-League Premiership: 2019–20 * W-League Championship: 2019–20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Emslie, Claire 1994 births Living people People from Penicuik Footballers from Edinburgh Florida Atlantic University alumni Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers Women's association football forwards Scottish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish Women's Premier League players Women's Super League players Hibernian W.F.C. players Florida Atlantic Owls women's soccer players Bristol City W.F.C. players Manchester City W.F.C. players Orlando Pride players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players National Women's Soccer League players Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Melbourne City FC (A-League Women) players Sportspeople from Midlothian Everton F.C. (women) players Angel City FC players