Leigh Caitlyn Nicol (born 26 September 1995) is a Scottish footballer who plays for

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

in the English

FA Women's Championship 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 career

Raised in

Newarthill Newarthill is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, situated roughly three miles north-east of the town of Motherwell. It has a population of around 6,200. Most local amenities are shared with the adjacent villages of Carfin, Holytown and Ne ...

, Nicol started her footballing career at Motherwell Girls where she was captain of her age group from 2006 to 2008. She then moved onto Celtic's Academy where she captained the club's under-15, under-17 and reserve sides. With Celtic Nicol also won the SWF Scottish U17 Cup title in 2011. She then moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 2012 to secure a place at

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 ...

's prestigious academy where she could continue her education whilst training and playing for the club's reserve side. An opportunity to play first team football opened up when former Arsenal Ladies player

Jayne Ludlow Jayne Louise Ludlow (born 7 January 1979) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is currently the technical director of Manchester City Girls' Academy. In 2018, she was inducted on to the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame Roll of Honour alo ...

became manager of

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 Reading Women. This move led to Nicol and a number of other Arsenal reserve players joining Reading in 2014. Nicol had some success playing first team football for Reading but after one season she left at the beginning of 2015 to join

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.. Th ...

to get more first team opportunities. In February 2016 Nicol announced that she had signed for Millwall Lionesses. She went on to win the club's Player of the Year award in 2017.

International career

Nicol represented Scotland at under-16 level in a Challenge Match against Wales in November 2009. She also went on to play seven times for the under-17s and got on the scoresheet in a 5–0 win over Wales in April 2012. Her international career continued and she also went on to make a number of appearances at under-19 level; notable matches she was involved in at this level were a 7–3 win over Italy and a 14–1 victory against Georgia.

Personal life

Her grandfather

Jimmy Welsh James Daniel Welsh (October 9, 1902 – October 20, 1970), was a Major League Baseball player who played outfielder from -. Welsh played for the Boston Braves (baseball), Boston Braves and New York Giants (NL), New York Giants. Welsh was traded, ...

was a footballer who played for

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

in the 1950s. In 2021, Nicol spoke of her struggle to maintain her mental health following an incident of

phone hacking Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and central processing unit levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling ...

two years earlier in which personal videos were circulated online.Leigh Nicol: Crystal Palace midfielder hopes to raise awareness by speaking about hack ordeal
BBC Sport, 4 February 2021

Honours

Club

*SWF Scottish Youth Cup: 2011

Individual

* Celtic Reserves Players Player of The Year: 2012 *

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

Player of the Year: 2017

References

External links

Scotland player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicol, Leigh 1995 births Scottish women's footballers Celtic F.C. Women players FA Women's National League players Arsenal W.F.C. players Living people Millwall Lionesses L.F.C. players Women's association football midfielders Charlton Athletic W.F.C. players Reading F.C. Women players London Bees players Footballers from North Lanarkshire People from Newarthill Crystal Palace F.C. (Women) players