Emma Louise Beckett (born 29 May 1987) is an Irish

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 ...

who plays for

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 the Ireland national team.

Club career

With her hometown club

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

, Beckett was part of a treble-winning team in 2004–05. Beckett later became a journeywoman, playing for several FA Women's Premier League teams in Greater London. In 2015, after accepting an offer to join

Amazon Grimstad Amazon Grimstad FK is a Professional Norwegian women's football club from Grimstad. It is named after the Amazons of Greek mythology. It was founded in 1999 when the women's football section split from FK Jerv. The senior team currently plays ...

of the Norwegian

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in 1 ...

, Beckett quipped that she had "more clubs than

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

". She left

London Bees London Bees is an English women's football club affiliated with Barnet F.C. They play in the FA Women's National League South. The club has been in existence under several names since 1975, originally being called District Line Ladies F.C.. The ...

, where she had been the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, to join

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

in January 2019. Later that year Spurs took on seven new players and eleven players were not included. These players including Beckett, Sarah Wiltshire and top scorer

Bianca Baptiste Bianca Lorenz-Baptiste (born 15 January 1992) is an English footballer who plays as a forward for Watford FC. She was the top scorer for Tottenham Hotspur in 2017. Club career Baptiste was born in England in 1992. She played in the youth syst ...

had to find new roles.

International career

Although born and raised in England, Beckett was eligible to play for Ireland or Northern Ireland as her parents came from

Roscommon Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads. The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who built ...

and

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

. On 5 May 2014,

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 = Oliv ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Susan Ronan Susan "Sue" Ronan (born 21 February 1964) is an Irish football coach and former player, who managed the Republic of Ireland women's national football team from 2010 until 2016. Ronan represented Welsox and Shelbourne at club level, and made he ...

named Beckett in an experimental squad for a friendly against the Basque Country. Beckett started the game in Ireland's 2–0 defeat in

Azpeitia , population_note = , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST = CEST , ...

, which was not classified as a full international fixture. Beckett retained her place in the national team for a January 2015 training camp in

La Manga La Manga (), or La Manga del Mar Menor (meaning "The Sandbar of the Minor Sea") is a seaside spit of Mar Menor in the Region of Murcia, Spain. The strip is 21 km long and 100 metres wide (average), separating the Mediterranean Sea from the ...

, Spain. She was a half-time substitute for

Louise Quinn Louise Quinn (born 17 June 1990) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for the Women's Championship club Birmingham City and the Ireland national soccer team. At club level Quinn began her senior career with Peamount ...

in a 3–1 training match defeat by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

La Manga Stadium La Manga Club Football Stadium is a stadium in La Manga Club, south of La Manga, Spain. It was a resort stadium and was used to friendly matches and as a resting and training place for the Spain national football team The Spain national foo ...

. She also played against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

at the 2015 Istria Cup, after a groin injury kept her out of Ireland's opening match against

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

. In August 2016 Ronan recalled Beckett to a young and predominantly home-based senior squad for a training camp in Wales. She played in two challenge matches against the Welsh hosts, winning mild praise from Ronan: "Emma Beckett who was recalled to the squad did herself no harm".

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckett, Emma 1987 births Living people Women's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland women's international footballers Republic of Ireland women's association footballers London Bees players Watford F.C. Women players Fulham L.F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Women players Millwall Lionesses L.F.C. players Charlton Athletic W.F.C. players FA Women's National League players Footballers from Northampton Amazon Grimstad players Toppserien players Irish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Norway English people of Irish descent