Emma Anne Byrne (born 14 June 1979) 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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played 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 ...

on a record 134 occasions and served as

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 ...

of the team. She spent almost 17 years with

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 ...

before joining

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

in January 2017.

Club career

Byrne started playing as a schoolgirl for Leixlip United before moving to as a goalkeeper to

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

in the

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 ...

and then agreed to join professional Danish

Elitedivisionen The Danish Women's League ( da, Danmarksturneringens Kvindeliga, Kvinde-DM Liga or Kvindeligaen) is a semi-professional top-flight league for women's football in Denmark. It is organised by the Danish Football Association (DBU) as part of the ...

club

Fortuna Hjørring Fortuna Hjørring is a women's association football team from Hjørring, Denmark. The club was formed in 1966 and play in green and white. Their biggest achievement in European football was reaching the 2002–03 UEFA Women's Cup final where they ...

after completing her schooling. After spending one year in Denmark, Bryne returned to Ireland because she was homesick and took a job as a secretary with the Health Board. When

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 ...

' goalkeeper Lesley Higgs was injured, the club's Irish midfielder Ciara Grant alerted 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 ...

to her friend Bryne's availability. Byrne joined Arsenal in January 2000 and quickly became their first choice goalkeeper. She won a domestic treble in her first full season with Arsenal, saving a penalty in the 2001 FA Women's Cup final win over

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 ...

, and was voted club Players' Player of the Year in 2003 and 2005. She became a European champion with Arsenal in April 2007, when they beat

Umeå IK Umeå IK () is a professional association football club based in the city of Umeå, in northern Sweden, and currently playing Damallsvenskan, the first tier of women's football in Sweden. They were one of the most successful football clubs in ...

in the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup Final 1–0 on aggregate, a tie in which she made numerous vital saves in the home and away games. In 2008 she rejected an offer to join American

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

franchise

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

, who failed to match her salary expectations. Byrne was given a free transfer by Arsenal in December 2016 on the expiry of her contract, after being supplanted in the team by

Sari van Veenendaal Sari van Veenendaal (; born 3 April 1990) is a Dutch former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for PSV and captained the Netherlands national team. She was part of the Netherlands squad that won UEFA Women's Euro 2017. C ...

. She agreed to join

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 ...

club Brighton & Hove Albion Women for the

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 ...

. On 4 August 2017, 38-year-old Byrne announced her retirement from football on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. In August 2019 it was announced that Byrne had come out of retirement to join Spanish club Terrassa FC.

International career

Byrne made her first appearance for the

on 31 March 1996 against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. She won her 100th cap against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

on 26 September 2013. Following the retirement of Ciara Grant,

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Sue 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 h ...

named Byrne the team

in March 2013. In April 2017 a player revolt led by Byrne secured substantially improved working conditions for Ireland's female national team players.

Personal life

Bryne grew up in

Leixlip Leixlip ( or ; , IPA: �lʲeːmʲənˠˈwɾˠad̪ˠaːnʲ is a town in north-east County Kildare, Ireland. Its location on the confluence of the River Liffey and the Rye Water has marked it as a frontier town historically: on the border between ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

, and attended secondary school at Coláiste Chiaráin. She previously worked in the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) ticket office and was later employed as a coach in Arsenal's academy. She married former professional footballer

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, ...

in June 2013. Emma and Marcus Bignot have since divorced.

Honours

Club

;Arsenal *

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

: (1)

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

FA WSL 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 t ...

: (2)

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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 gather ...

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 ...

: (9) 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 *

FA Women's 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 reas ...

: (9) 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16 *

FA WSL 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. Pr ...

: (3)

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 fact ...

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 ...

: (5) 1999–00, 2000–01, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2007–08

Individual

*Arsenal Ladies Player of the Year: 2003 & 2005 *Eircom International Player of the Year: 2008 * FAI Senior Women's International Player of the Year: 2012 * PFA Ireland Merit Award: 2017

References

External links

Player profile - 1. Emma Byrne
Arsenal FC (Archived)

UEFA

FIFA {{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Emma 1979 births Living people People from Leixlip Association footballers from County Kildare 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 Denmark Expatriate women's footballers in England Women's Super League players Fortuna Hjørring players Dublin Women's Soccer League players FIFA Century Club Women's association football goalkeepers Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Brighton & Hove Albion W.F.C. players