Karen Louise Bardsley (born 14 October 1984) is a US-born English former

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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. She played for

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

in the previous top-flight American

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

league,

Linköpings FC Linköpings Fotboll Club is an association football club from Linköping, Sweden. The club was established in 2003 when Kenty DFF women's football club decided to merge with the premier division ice hockey club Linköpings HC under the new name L ...

in the Swedish

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

, Lincoln Ladies plus Manchester City in the FA WSL and

OL Reign OL Reign is an American professional women's soccer team based in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2012 as Seattle Reign FC, it was one of eight inaugural members of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). In 2020, ...

in the NWSL. She played for the England national team and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

internationally.

Early life

Born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

to English parents, Bardsley grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Chino Hills and began playing football at five years old. She attended

Ayala High School Senator Ruben S. Ayala Senior High School, often abbreviated as Ayala High School or AHS, is located in Chino Hills, California. It is one of the four comprehensive high schools in the Chino Valley Unified School District. The school was establ ...

and played for the girls' varsity soccer team for two years. During her junior year, she broke her left leg during college recruitment time resulting in some programs reportedly being concerned about her recovery. As a senior, she earned All-Sierra League honours and helped lead the team to win the league championship and reach the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. She was named the Sierra League Most Valuable Player (MVP) the same year. Bardsley also ran track, threw javelin and was a member of the Olympic Development Program at the regional, state, and national levels.

College career

Bardsley attended

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

as a graphic design major and played for the

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

women's soccer team. Following her first season in 2002, she was named the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

Freshman of the Year after recording 88 saves with an .846 (84.6%) save percentage. The following season, she played just 28 minutes before a broken leg during the Portland Nike Invitational and

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

the 2003 season. Despite missing eight games during the 2004 season due to injury recovery, Bardsley earned All-Big West First Team honours and was named Big West Conference Goalkeeper of the Year for the first of three consecutive seasons. Her 0.71 goals against average ranked third in the league. In 2005, Bardsley was named Big West Conference Goalkeeper of the Year and to the All-Big West First Team for the second consecutive season and set new single-season program records for goals against average (0.64), victories, and shutouts (10). Her goals against average ranked 21st in the country and first in the

. During her senior season, she was named Big West Conference Goalkeeper of the Year for the third consecutive time and was named to the First-Team All-Big West Conference team. She started all 22 matches and recorded a record, including eight shutouts. Bardsley was named Player of the Week by the Big West Conference twice during the season. Her 1.02 goals against average ranked fourth all-time at the school and her 128 saves ranked second in school history.

Club career

Sky Blue FC, 2009–11

After college, Bardsley joined

Ajax America Women Ajax America Women is an American women's soccer team, founded in the mid-1970s by Fred Van Soest. Fred Van Soest went to the Netherlands and spoke with the Amsterdam Football Club Ajax (AFC Ajax) and asked if he could use their name and logo fo ...

for the 2007 WPSL season and played for

Pali Blues Pali Blues was an American women's association football, soccer team, which played from 2008 to 2014. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team pl ...

during the 2008 W-League season. The team went undefeated 14–0 and won the league championship. Sky Blue FC at the White House 2010-07-01 13

Bardsley was selected by

as a third-round pick in the 2009 WPS Draft ahead of the inaugural season of the

(WPS) league. She competed in four games for the club in their 2009 season. Sky Blue finished the regular season in fourth place with a record and advanced to the

2009 Women's Professional Soccer Playoffs The 2009 WPS Playoffs were the postseason to Women's Professional Soccer's 2009 Season, that started on August 15 and culminated on August 22 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Format The top four WPS teams, based on their regular sea ...

where they defeated the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

2–1 and

Saint Louis Athletica Saint Louis Athletica was an American professional soccer club that was based in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. Athletica started the 2009 season playing its home games at Ralph Korte S ...

1–0 during the semi-final. After a 1–0 win against

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Blue Star, LLC and AEG, a subsidia ...

, the team clinched the league championship and were later invited to the White House to be honoured by

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. During the

2010 WPS season The 2010 Women's Professional Soccer season was the second season for the WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. Regular season champion FC Gold Pride won the WPS Championship on September 26 with a 4-0 victor ...

, Bardsley competed in 10 matches recording 900 minutes in goal. During a match against Atlanta in May 2010, she made 13 saves helping the team win 1–0. Sky Blue head coach

Pauliina Miettinen Pauliina Miettinen (born 20 May 1972) is a Finnish football coach and former player. She currently works as the head coach of the Kansallinen Liiga team Tikkurilan Palloseura. During her playing career, Miettinen played as goalkeeper, defend ...

reveled, "As a team, it gives you a huge confidence boost when you know that you will get such a high level of play by your goalkeeper." She was named the WPS Player of the Month the same month. During a training session in July 2010, Bardsley injured her clavicle when she led the league with five shutouts and a .90 goals against average (GAA). The team finished in fifth place with a record narrowly missing the WPS Playoffs. During the 2011 WPS season, Bardsley competed in only three matches for Sky Blue largely due to her 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup commitments with the England national team. Sky Blue finished in fifth place with a record.

Linköpings FC, 2011–12

In August 2011 Bardsley joined Swedish club

. With Linköpings, Bardsley made three

appearances in 2011, but none in 2012 as Sofia Lundgren remained the first choice goalkeeper. During the 2011 season, the team finished in sixth place with a record. During the 2012 season, it finished in third place with a record.

Lincoln, 2013

Bardsley announced a transfer to Lincoln Ladies of the FA WSL in November 2012 ahead of the

2013 FA WSL The 2013 FA WSL was the third season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's Association football, football league of England. The season began on 14 April and ended on 29 September. Arsenal were the defending champions, having won their ninth co ...

season. She was the starting goalkeeper in all 14 matches. The team finished in sixth place with a record.

Manchester City, 2013–2022

Bardsley moved at the end of the 2013 season to Manchester City on a two-year deal. Her two-year City stint started successfully, playing a pivotal role in the club winning the 2014 Continental Cup. In March 2015, Bardsley was given a three-match ban for violent conduct in a 0–0 draw with

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

after a fight with Birmingham City forward Freda Ayisi. Ayisi was expelled from the match immediately by the referee's red card. She later stated, "Passions ran high against Birmingham. Viewing the footage again, I regret the incident with Freda Ayisi. Whilst I was provoked, it was out of character for me to react in that way. I've contacted Birmingham to apologise for my involvement." During the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, despite being first choice in the England national side, Bardsley lost her starting position for Manchester City to English teenager Ellie Roebuck. At the start of the following season, it was announced that Bardsley would miss the

2019 Women's International Champions Cup The 2019 International Champions Cup Women's Tournament was a tournament of friendly women's association football matches. It was the second edition of the Women's International Champions Cup and took place in Cary, North Carolina, United State ...

due to a hamstring injury. She made her 100th appearance in a Continental Cup match against Liverpool in November 2020. Bardsley announced her retirement on 2 May 2022 after suffering a long-term injury that forced her to withdraw from Great Britain's squad during the delayed

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

. The 37 year old earned 82 caps for England, while she won 8 major trophies with Manchester City.

International career

Despite being born 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 territori ...

, as a dual citizen, Bardsley decided to represent England due to family connections in Stockport. She appeared for the England U-19s in the 2003

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is a competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belong to the ...

. She made her senior debut in the

Algarve Cup The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious an ...

in March 2005, where England beat

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

4–0. In August 2009, she was named to coach

Hope Powell Hope Patricia Powell, CBE (born 8 December 1966) is an English former international footballer and former women's first-team manager of Brighton & Hove Albion. She was the coach of the England women's national football team and the Great Britain ...

's squad for

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Germany

By the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany, Bardsley had taken over the national team's first choice goalkeeping position from

Rachel Brown Rachel Brown (born 2 July 1980) is an English former football goalkeeper who played for Liverpool from 1995 to 1998 and Everton from 2003 until 2014. A product of the American college system, Brown spent five years playing varsity soccer for ...

. After England's 1–1 opening group match draw with

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, coach Powell reported that Bardsley was "devastated" following the concession of a long-range equaliser to

Mónica Ocampo Mónica Ocampo Medina (born 4 January 1987) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a forward for CF Pachuca and the Mexico women's national team. Club career From 2006 to 2009, Ocampo played with W-League club FC Indiana. In 201 ...

. In England's quarter final exit to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, Bardsley saved the first penalty in the shootout, but misses from Claire Rafferty and

Faye White Faye Deborah White, (born 2 February 1978) is an English former footballer who captained Arsenal Women in the FA Women's Super League and is the longest-serving female captain of England to date. Her Lionesses career spanned 15 years and five ...

sent England home.

2012 Summer Olympics, Great Britain

In June 2012 Bardsley was named in the 18–player

squad for the

2012 London 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 played in all four games as Great Britain were beaten 2–0 by

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in the last eight.

UEFA Women's Euro 2013

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held in Sweden from 10 to 28 July 2013, became the mos ...

England lost 3–2 to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in their opening game, when Spain scored a 94th-minute goal, and were knocked out in the first round. Hope Powell was sacked in the wake of that failure but new coach

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 Car ...

continued to select Bardsley.

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Canada

In May 2015, Bardsley was named to England's final squad 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 ...

, hosted in Canada. Bardsley had previously played as goalkeeper in all five games and was part of the history-making team which beat

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

in the round of 16 to become the first senior England women's team to win a world cup knockout match. She was substituted in the 51st minute of the quarter-final match against

, after suffering an inflammation of her right eye; she was immediately taken off pitch with her eye visibly swollen and was substituted with

Siobhan Chamberlain Siobhan Rebecca Chamberlain (born 15 August 1983) is an English sports pundit, commentator, and former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper. She joined Manchester United in 2018 after playing for Liverpool. Before joining Li ...

. The reasoning for the swelling was unknown, but parts of the artificial turf were suspected.

UEFA Women's Euro 2017

Bardsley played in England's first two Group games (against Scotland and Spain) but was rested in the final Group game against Portugal. She suffered a fractured fibula in England's quarter-final against France and did not take any further part in the tournament.

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, France

On 8 May 2019, she was named in the squad for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...

. She played in two of the matches in the group stage, against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and Japan. She played in the round of 16 against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

and in the quarter-final against

Coaching career

Bardsley began coaching as a volunteer coach at her alma mater,

, before being employed as an assistant coach with the University of San Diego. She graduated with a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Sports Directorship at the

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

in July 2019.

Honours

Manchester City *

Women's League Cup The Women's National League Cup is an annual English football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA). It was renamed the FA Women's Premier League Cup from 1994 to 2018. The first edition of the Cup include ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, 2018–19, 2021–22 *

Women's Super League 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 ...

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship rea ...

: 2016–17, 2018–19, 2019–20 England *

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalen ...

runner-up: 2009 *

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 t ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, 2015 * FIFA Women's World Cup third place: 2015 *

SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup is an invitational women's soccer tournament held in different cities in the United States in late February or early March. In its first three years (2016, 2017 and 2018), it was contested by the same four teams: the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* *
FA profile

Manchester City profile

Sky Blue FC player profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardsley, Karen 1984 births Living people American women's soccer players English women's footballers England women's international footballers Cal State Fullerton Titans women's soccer players Sky Blue FC (WPS) players Pali Blues players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden USL W-League (1995–2015) players Olympic women's footballers of Great Britain Notts County L.F.C. players Linköpings FC players Damallsvenskan players Manchester City W.F.C. players Women's Super League players American emigrants to England England women's under-23 international footballers Soccer players from California Soccer players from Santa Monica, California Women's association football goalkeepers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States English expatriate women's footballers Ajax America Women players Women's Premier Soccer League players Lesbian sportswomen LGBT association football players English LGBT people San Diego Toreros women's soccer coaches Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University American people of English descent English expatriate sportspeople in Sweden English football managers People from Chino Hills, California OL Reign players National Women's Soccer League players Women's Professional Soccer players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players