Marissa Callaghan (born 2 September 1985) is a Northern Irish women's association football player from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, Northern Ireland. She currently plays as a player-coach 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

Cliftonville Ladies Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

and is the captain of the

Northern Ireland women's national football team The Northern Ireland women's national football team represents Northern Ireland in international women's football. Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, FIFA statutes permit Northern Ireland as a member of the United ...

Football

Callaghan started playing football when she was thirteen for Newington Girls (now known as Cliftonville Ladies). After this, she went to university in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on a football scholarship. She returned to Northern Ireland in 2005 and started playing for Cliftonville again. She graduated with an advanced certificate in sports coaching from the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

in 2017. As a result, she also volunteered as a coach for Cliftonville Ladies. Later she became their academy director.

International career

Callaghan made her international debut for the Northern Ireland women's national under-19 football team in 2002. She made her debut for Northern Ireland in 2010. In 2016, Callaghan was awarded the

Northern Ireland Women's Football Association The Northern Ireland Women's Football Association (NIWFA) is the governing body of women's association football in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1977. History Prior to 1977, there was no organizing body for women's football in Northern Ire ...

Women's Personality of the Year award. A year later she was the tournament ambassador for the

2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (20th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football champ ...

being held in Northern Ireland. She captained the Northern Ireland team at Euro 2022.

International goals

Career

After leaving university, Callaghan started working full-time in 2010 as a women's football community coach. In 2016, Callaghan was selected as a women's football ambassador for the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

. Following this, she worked with

Northern Ireland national football team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland natio ...

captain

Steven Davis Steven Davis (born 1 January 1985) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Rangers and captains the Northern Ireland national team. Davis made his full international debut in 2005 a ...

to promote participation in women's youth football.

Private life

Callaghan is married with her girlfriend Paula and they have together one son.L-Mag.de: Das sind die 59 lesbischen Stars der Fussball-EM 2022 (German)
July 2022

References

1985 births Living people Northern Ireland women's international footballers Cliftonville F.C. players Football managers from Northern Ireland Alumni of Ulster University Association footballers from Belfast Women's association football midfielders Women's association footballers from Northern Ireland UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players British LGBT sportspeople LGBT association football players Lesbian sportswomen 21st-century LGBT people {{NorthernIreland-women-footy-bio-stub