Maria Farrugia (born 9 January 2001) is a Maltese

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 plays 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

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

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 ...

and for the Malta women's national team.

Club career

Growing up on the island of

Gozo Gozo (, ), Maltese: ''Għawdex'' () and in antiquity known as Gaulos ( xpu, 𐤂𐤅𐤋, ; grc, Γαῦλος, Gaúlos), is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After t ...

, Farrugia began playing football at the age of four. She would play on boys' teams until the U15 level. At the age of 11, she was selected to join the

Malta Football Association The Malta Football Association (MFA; mt, Assoċjazzjoni tal-Futbol ta' Malta) is the governing body of football in Malta. The Association organises the Maltese Football League and several other competitions, including a knockout competition ...

Academy in Valletta, having to take the ferry to commute from Gozo to the main island. After graduating from the National Sport School, Malta, she moved to the UK, where she began training with Sunderland AFC's

Foundation of Light The Foundation of Light (Previously called the ''SAFC Foundation'') is a Registered Charity in the United Kingdom, and is the independent charitable foundation of professional football club Sunderland A.F.C. It is the biggest football charity in ...

. In 2019, she signed with Sunderland AFC Ladies, making her debut with the club in mid-February 2019, in a Northern Premier Division loss to Blackburn. In July 2021, she signed a one-year extension with Sunderland. She was named the FA Women's Championship Player of the Week for the first week of the 2021–22 season. After departing Sunderland, Farrugia joined

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

. At the end of June 2023 Lewes FC Women announced that she would be joining their team.

International career

Farrugia has been capped for the Malta national team, appearing for the team during the

UEFA Women's Euro 2021 qualifying The UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying competition was a women's football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts England in the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 final tournament. Apart from England, 47 of the rem ...

cycle.

International goals

References

External links

* * 2001 births Living people Maltese women's footballers Maltese expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England Malta women's international footballers Women's association football midfielders Sunderland A.F.C. Women players Durham W.F.C. players Malta women's youth international footballers {{Malta-women-footy-bio-stub