Ellen Louise Maggs (born 16 February 1983) is an English former international

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 ...

er. As well as the England women's national football team, Maggs played

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 ...

football for clubs including

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

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 ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Often described as diminutive, Maggs operated as a quick, skilful and creative forward.

Club career

Maggs joined

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 ...

as a nine-year-old, after being spotted at an after school football course. On seeing Maggs for the first time, Arsenal manager

Vic Akers Victor David Akers, OBE (born 24 August 1946) is a football manager and former player who was most recently the assistant manager at Boreham Wood. Akers played as a left back. He was also manager of Arsenal Ladies winning numerous trophies wit ...

informed her father that she would one day play for England. Having grown up in nearby

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, Maggs was already an Arsenal supporter. Aged 17, she came on as a substitute in Arsenal's 4–1

FA Women's Premier League Cup The Women's National League Cup is an annual English football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). It was renamed the FA Women's Premier League Cup from 1994 to 2018. The first edition of the Cup includ ...

final win over

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

in April 2000. When

Marieanne Spacey Marieanne Spacey-Cale (née Spacey), (born 13 February 1966) is an English former international women's footballer. Having played 91 times for England, Spacey is considered one of the greatest English footballers of all time. She is currently He ...

left Arsenal for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

in 2002, Maggs was elevated into regular first team contention. Two goals against Fulham in the televised

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 ...

underscored Maggs' potential, but minor injuries disrupted her 2002–03 campaign. After a further season at Arsenal, in which Maggs scored the League–clinching goal,

Marcus Bignot Marcus Bignot (born 22 August 1974) is an English football manager and former professional player. He is currently assistant coach of the England U19s and first-team coach at Cheltenhham Town. Bignot's playing career spanned nearly 20 years, ...

signed her for his ambitious

team in August 2004. Maggs joined American W-League club New York Magic in June 2006, along with Birmingham teammate

Laura Bassett Laura Bassett (born 2 August 1983) is an English former football defender who represented England internationally. She played for FA WSL club Notts County, Birmingham City (two separate spells), Arsenal, Leeds Carnegie, Chelsea, and Australian ...

. In September 2006 Maggs signed for FA Women's Premier League Southern Division club

, managed by her former Arsenal teammate

Sian Williams Sian Mary Williams (; born 28 November 1964) is a Welsh journalist, current affairs presenter best known for her work with the BBC, and psychologist. From 2001 until 2012, Williams regularly presented weekday editions of ''BBC Breakfast'' as ...

. She was paired in attack with

Helen Lander Helen Jane Ward (née Lander; born 26 April 1986) is an international Association football, football Forward (association football), striker who is currently playing club football for Watford F.C. Women, Watford. Ward previously spent three seas ...

, who later stated: In 2008–09 Maggs turned out for Welwyn Garden City and Haringey Borough.

International career

Maggs 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 ...

at the

2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship The 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship was held from 17 August to 1 September. It was the first sanctioned youth tournament for women put together by FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada. FIFA granted the tournament to Canada in March ...

in Canada. A FIFA.com article said of Maggs: She was called into the senior England squad for the first time in November 2002, when Arsenal teammate

Kirsty Pealling Kirsty Pealling (born 14 April 1975) is a former footballer who spent her entire club career with Arsenal Ladies. She also represented England at full international level. Club career Pealling attended Haggerston School and was spotted by Arsen ...

pulled out of the World Cup qualifying play–off second leg against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. On 19 May 2003 Maggs made her senior debut, as a 66th-minute substitute for

Amanda Barr Amanda Jayne Maslin-Barr (born 2 May 1982) is an English football striker She scored ten goals in 37 appearances for the England women's national football team after making her international debut in 2001. Barr spearheaded the England attack a ...

in a 4–0 defeat to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

during a tour of North America. A second appearance came in October 2003, during a 2–2 draw in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. A 2–0

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

win over

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 = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

in February 2004 was Maggs' first start for England. In September 2004 she featured as a substitute in another friendly, a 1–0 win over the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Tuitjenhorn Tuitjenhorn ( West Frisian: ''Tutinghorn'') is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Schagen. Tuitjenhorn was the main village of the former Harenkarspel municipality. Tuitjenhorn lies about 9 ...

. In January 2005 Maggs was recalled to a 30–player training squad for the annual trip to La Manga Club. She missed out on selection for

UEFA Women's Euro 2005 The 2005 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2005, was a football tournament for women held from 5 June to 19 June 2005 in Lancashire, England and Cheshire, England. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tournament ...

but was called into the national

Under 21 Under may refer to: * "Under" (Alex Hepburn song), 2013 * "Under" (Pleasure P song), 2009 *Bülent Ünder (born 1949), Turkish footballer *Cengiz Ünder (born 1997), Turkish footballer *Marie Under (1883–1980), Estonian poet * Under (restaurant) ...

squad for the Nordic Cup in July 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maggs, Ellen 1983 births Living people English women's footballers Arsenal W.F.C. players Birmingham City W.F.C. players Watford F.C. Women players FA Women's National League players England women's international footballers England women's under-23 international footballers Women's association football forwards