Katie Ann Holtham (born 9 April 1986) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 le ...

who last played as a

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 ...

for Australian W-League club

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

. Holtham's manager at former club

Leeds Carnegie Leeds Carnegie was a brand name used by several sports teams associated with the Carnegie School of Physical Education, now part of Leeds Beckett University. These include: Current * Leeds Carnegie Handball Club Changed name * Leeds Carnegie (ba ...

, Rick Passmoor, described her as: "strong, athletic and a good box to box midfield player."

Club career

Holtham attended

West Bridgford School The West Bridgford School is a co-educational comprehensive school with academy status in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. History Grammar school The school used to be a grammar school and was then known as West Bridgford County Sec ...

and was said to have shone in

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 ...

from an early age. She started playing her club football with West Bridgford Colts (Nottingham) alongside

cricketer and

Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

winner

Jenny Gunn Jennifer Louise Gunn (born 9 May 1986) is an English former cricketer who plays as a right-arm medium bowler and right-handed batter. She appeared in 11 Test matches, 144 One Day Internationals and 104 Twenty20 Internationals for England bet ...

. She also played for

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

's Centre of Excellence, but due to age restrictions had to stop playing in 'mixed teams'. To overcome this problem her dad set up West Bridgford Colts Girls. Holtham advanced to playing for Lincoln City in the

FA Women's Premier League Northern Division The FA Women's National League Northern Premier Division is a league at the third-level in the women's football league pyramid in England, along with the Southern division. These two divisions are part of the FA Women's National League and bel ...

, then signed for

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

in 2004. After becoming captain of the 'Gas Girls' Holtham signed for

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 ...

in 2006. In her first season Charlton were beaten 4–1 by quadruple-winning

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 ...

in the final of the

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 ...

. This was despite Holtham opening the scoring after two minutes, before a record crowd of 24,529 at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when E ...

in her home town of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

Holtham joined

that summer when

Charlton Athletic FC 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 ...

scrapped their women's team after being relegated from the

FA Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. In her first season at

she returned to

for the

final, but again lost out 4–1 to

. She scored in a 3–1 Premier League Cup final win over Everton on 11 February 2010, to help

win their first major silverware. With

's future uncertain, Holtham departed to play the 2010 summer season with professional W-League club

Buffalo Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

. She scored three goals in seven matches as the Flash stayed unbeaten and won the league. In November 2010 Holtham signed for Doncaster Rovers Belles ahead of their inaugural

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 ...

campaign. She was awarded the club

captaincy A captaincy ( es, capitanía , pt, capitania , hr, kapetanija) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule ...

and finished the WSL season playing as a central defender. In October 2011 Holtham moved to Australian W-League outfit

. She captured the club Players' Player of the Year award after making nine appearances for Perth, in central defence and then in midfield. Holtham returned to captain The Belles in the

2012 FA WSL The 2012 FA WSL is the second season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's football league of England. The season began on 8 April 2012 and was scheduled to end in October 2012. The league is to break between 8 July and 19 August to allow prepar ...

, but rejected a contract extension at the end of the season. A transfer to

Chelsea Ladies Chelsea Football Club Women, formerly known as Chelsea Ladies Football Club, are an English women's football club based in Norbiton that competes in the Women's Super League, the top flight of women's football in England. Since 2004, the clu ...

was announced in January 2013. A year later Holtham moved again, returning to Nottingham to sign for Notts County, who were managed by her former Leeds boss Rick Passmoor. Holtham joined Adelaide United in September 2014 for the 2014 season.

International career

Holtham represented England at U17, U19, U21 and U23 level. She captained the U19s to the European Championship finals in Hungary in 2005. She has also been named in the senior squad on multiple occasions, without playing in any games.

Personal life

Holtham attended the National Player Development Centre at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

, studying sports science. In 2014, she was employed as a physiotherapist in the Nottingham Forest F.C. Under-21s Squad and Academy.

References

External links

Leeds Carnegie profileBuffalo Flash profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holtham, Katie 1986 births Living people Alumni of Loughborough University English women's footballers Charlton Athletic W.F.C. players Notts County L.F.C. players Chelsea F.C. Women players Bristol Academy W.F.C. players Leeds United Women F.C. players Doncaster Rovers Belles L.F.C. players FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players People educated at West Bridgford School England women's under-23 international footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia USL W-League (1995–2015) players Perth Glory FC (A-League Women) players Adelaide United FC (A-League Women) players A-League Women players Nottingham Forest F.C. non-playing staff Women's association football central defenders Women's association football midfielders Universiade bronze medalists for Great Britain Universiade medalists in football Footballers from Nottingham Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade