Natasha Marie Harding (born 2 March 1989) is a Welsh

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 the Welsh national women's team and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 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. A wide or central

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, Harding began her career with

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and has also played in the FA WSL for Bristol Academy and

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. Her secondary school was Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni.

Club career

Harding began her career at

and made her first team debut in January 2007, during a 4–0

Welsh Women's Cup The FA of Wales Women's Challenge Cup, better known as the Welsh Women's Cup is the national women's football cup competition for Wales. It is run by the Football Association of Wales. As Wales had no national league for women until the estab ...

quarter final win over Newport Strikers. Harding came on as a second-half substitute for

Gwennan Harries Gwennan Mary Harries (born 5 January 1988) is a former Welsh football striker who had two spells with FA WSL club Bristol Academy, split by three seasons away playing for Everton. She was born in Bridgend and won 56 caps for the Wales women's ...

. She subsequently represented the club in the

2007–08 UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Cup 2007–08 was the seventh edition of the UEFA Women's Cup football (soccer), football club tournament (since rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League). 45 teams from 44 football associations took part this season. The ...

. She went on to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Cardiff City, then joined Bristol Academy ahead of the 2012

campaign. Bristol manager

Mark Sampson Mark Geraint Sampson (born 18 October 1982) is a Welsh football coach who was most recently a first team coach at Stevenage. He has also been a manager of the England women's team. Playing career Born and raised in Creigiau, a suburb of Cardi ...

said of Harding: "Tash will really bring another dimension to our forward play, a striker who can play off the shoulder and with great speed was something we were missing last season so it will give us far more variation to our play going forward." At the end of the 2014 season Harding signed for the Washington Spirit, but her move fell through over visa issues and she signed instead for

. In January 2016, Harding was sold by Manchester City, who had signed Swedish forward Kosovare Asllani. Later that week she signed for

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 ...

. Harding left Liverpool Ladies in December 2017. Reading Women snapped up the Welsh international on a free transfer in January 2018 Since joining the Royals in 2018, Harding has been named captain. On 3 May 2022, Reading announced that Harding would leave the club at the end of the season.

International career

Harding played five times for the

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Under-19 team in season 2007–08. She made her senior international debut, aged 19, as a late substitute in a 2–0 defeat to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in Oberdorf on 8 May 2008. Harding scored her first goals for Wales on 20 June 2012 in a UEFA Qualifying match against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

at the

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground ( cy, Y Cae Ras) is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C. It is the world's oldest international football stadium that still hosts international matches, having hosted Wales' first home i ...

in Wrexham. She scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 5–0 win to cap a fine evening both personally and for her country. As a student at

UWIC , image_name = Shield of Cardiff Metropolitan University.svg , image_size = 150px , motto = cy, Gorau Meddiant Gwybodaeth , mottoeng = The most valuable possession is knowledge , established = 2011 – Car ...

, Harding was called–up to represent Great Britain at the 2011 World University Games in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. On 12 April 2022, she played her 100th match for Wales in a 3–0 win over

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process determines 30 of the 32 teams which will play in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the co-hosts Australia and New Zealand qualifying automatically. It is the ninth FIFA Women's World Cup, ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Individual *

Welsh Footballer of the Year The Welsh Footballer of the Year is an annual award chosen by the FAW, to determine the best player in Wales. Winners Men Women See also * List of sports awards honoring women This list of sports awards honoring women is an index to arti ...

: 2016

References

External links

Harding
at

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

Harding
at FAW
Harding
at Bristol Academy {{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Natasha 1989 births Living people Footballers from Caerphilly Cardiff City Ladies F.C. players Bristol Academy W.F.C. players Manchester City W.F.C. players Liverpool F.C. Women players Reading F.C. Women players Women's Super League players Wales women's international footballers FA Women's National League players People educated at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni Welsh women's footballers Women's association football forwards FIFA Women's Century Club Aston Villa W.F.C. players