Megan Burns (née Sneddon; born 9 September 1985) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish 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 plays for

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football League ...

. Sneddon made her senior

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

debut aged 16 and amassed 130 appearances for the national team.

Club career

Sneddon spent five years with

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, winning a treble in 2002 aged just 16. In July 2006, she joined Glasgow City. On 18 April 2010, she made her 100th appearance for the club in a 4–2 victory against

Spartans Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referred t ...

. In February 2011, Sneddon was called into Scotland's

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in th ...

squad, listed as a

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

player. She had decided to leave Glasgow City after growing dissatisfied with the club. Sneddon made her debut for the

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 ...

club in a friendly win over Hibernian. However, on the eve of the English season Sneddon signed for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. She cited personal reasons and the advice of Scotland coach

Anna Signeul Anna Signeul (born 20 May 1961) is a Swedish former football player. She was the national coach of the Scotland women's team from March 2005 until 2017, and the national coach of the Finland women's team from 2017 to 2022. Playing career Signe ...

for the decision. Sneddon signed for Rangers in January 2013. On 19 August 2015, Sneddon followed in the footsteps of several of her former Scotland teammates by signing for ambitious

. She said of her signing: "I am delighted that Motherwell have given me the chance to kick start my career. I'm looking forward to getting back on the pitch as I've hardly kicked a ball since November. It will also be great to play alongside some familiar faces as well." She signed for Motherwell again in 2018.All shaping up Well for Eddie Wolecki Black
Alan Campbell, The Herald, 6 May 2018

International career

Sneddon made her senior debut for Scotland the day before her 17th birthday, in an 8–2 defeat to 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 ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. Sneddon was picked for the Scotland U23 women's squad to play at the Nordic Tournament in August 2008. She captained the team at the tournament. In December 2011, Sneddon was one of four

players to be approached about playing for

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...

at the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She ended her international career after Scotland failed to qualify for the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

, publicly criticising the tactics of Anna Signeul and also speaking of the difficulties faced by players with various footballing commitments for club and country on top of a job outside the game.

Honours

Individual

* East Kilbride Female Sports Personality of the Year: 2008 * South Lanarkshire Senior Performer of the Year: 2009 * Scottish FA International Player of the Year: 2011 * SWPL Players' Player of the Year: 2013

References

External links