Elaine O'Connor (born 20 February 1982) is an Irish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 ...

. O'Connor played for clubs including

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and Long Island Lady Riders and represented 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 ...

at senior international level.

Club career

O'Connor took up football aged seven and played for five years at Killinarden Community School. She came to prominence at

Dublin Women's Soccer League The Dublin Women's Soccer League was a women's association football league featuring teams from the Republic of Ireland. While the majority of the participating clubs were based in the Greater Dublin Area, the DWSL had regularly included teams f ...

club Lourdes Celtic, winning the Dublin Cup at Under-14, 16 and 18 level. Spells at other Dublin clubs Shelbourne and St Catherine's followed for O'Connor. In 1999 an American soccer coach named JoAnne Wagner spotted O'Connor and signed her to

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

. O'Connor remained for five seasons,

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ing in 2002, and majoring in Physical Education. She also featured in the W-League for Long Island Lady Riders. In 2004 O'Connor signed for

Arsenal Ladies Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is an English professional women's football club based in Islington, London, England. The club plays in the Women's Super League, the top tier of English women's football. Arse ...

, making her debut in an

FA Women's Community Shield The Women's FA Community Shield is an association football match in England. It is a national super cup, and the equivalent of the FA Community Shield in male football. It is the first competitive match of the football season. The match is comp ...

defeat by

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 ...

. By 2005 O'Connor was back in America playing for Long Island Lady Riders. The following season she switched to

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 the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). T ...

(WPSL) outfit

Long Island Fury Long Island Fury is an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2005. The team is a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays in the Mid-Atlantic Division of ...

. After her playing career O'Connor remained in the United States and worked as a

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International career

O'Connor represented

at youth level, then played for the senior team in the qualifying campaigns for the 2003 and 2007 FIFA Women's World Cups. She also played in the Euro 2009 qualifiers. O'Connor was named Women's Senior International Player of the Year at the 2004

FAI International Football Awards The FAI International Football Awards is an awards evening held to honour the best Republic of Ireland international footballers of the year. Senior International awards Senior International Player of the Year Senior Women's International P ...

. She won 54

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for Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Elaine 1982 births Living people Association footballers from County Dublin Republic of Ireland women's association footballers Arsenal W.F.C. players Republic of Ireland women's international footballers FA Women's National League players Expatriate women's footballers in England Shelbourne F.C. (women) players St Catherine's L.F.C. players Dublin Women's Soccer League players Hofstra Pride women's soccer players Women's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland women's youth international footballers Long Island Rough Riders (USL W League) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Irish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Women's Premier Soccer League players People from Tallaght Sportspeople from South Dublin (county)