Caroline Elspeth Lillias Weir (born 20 June 1995) is a Scottish professional

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 lea ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

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) ** Smal ...

for Spanish

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as the Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of Sports league, league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent ...

club

Real Madrid CF Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and the Scotland national team. She began her career in Scotland with Hibernian, moving to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

aged 18 and spending the next nine years in English football with Bristol Academy,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, winning four trophies (two

FA Women's Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup 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 (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

s and two WSL Cups) in her time at City. She joined Real Madrid in 2022, becoming the first Scottish player in the top division of Spanish women's football. Weir made her full international debut in 2013, and played for Scotland at the UEFA Euro 2017 and 2019 FIFA World Cup tournaments. She also featured for the rarely-assembled

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

team at the

2020 Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

(held in 2021).

Club career

Elgin Star

Raised in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, Weir began her footballing journey playing for local boys' team Elgin Star FC in the Fife Football Development League at Pitreavie Playing Fields between 2003 and 2005. She played as a midfielder in the 7-a-side games, invariably scoring two to three goals each game and regularly receiving the player of the match award.

Hibernian

Weir started her career in the Hibernian youth system from the age of ten. In 2011, she won the SWFL First Division player of the year award for her performances in Hibs' reserve side while also making her first team debut in May against Glasgow City.

Arsenal

Weir joined

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

side

in July 2013 after leaving high school. Whilst at Arsenal, Weir won the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

but was unable to establish herself as a regular starter.

Bristol Academy

On 9 July 2015, it was announced that Weir left Arsenal for

side Bristol Academy.

Liverpool

On 18 January 2016, it was announced that Weir had left

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

Bristol to sign for

. While with the ''Reds'', she won the club's Ladies Player of the Year Award for 2016.

Manchester City

On 1 June 2018,

announced the signing of Weir. She won the Player of the Match award in the 2019 WSL Cup Final as Manchester City defeated her former club Arsenal 4–2 on penalties. Weir scored the winner, a 25-yard strike, as Manchester City defeated

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

1–0 in the inaugural

Manchester derby The Manchester derby refers to association football, football matches between Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and Manchester United F.C., Manchester United, first contested in 1881. City play at the City of Manchester Stadium in Bradford, ...

on 7 September 2019. The goal was subsequently nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award 2020. On 31 January 2020, she signed a new contract with Manchester City until 2022. On 29 November 2021, another goal against Manchester United on 12 February 2021 – a chip from the edge of the area – was nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award 2021. Almost exactly a year later she scored a very similar goal against the same opposition.

Real Madrid

On 7 July 2022,

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

announced the signing of Weir on a free transfer. Shortly after that, a statement was released about a "hold on processing of non-EU licences", affecting the signing of Weir, who was not registered with Real Madrid before 30 June. A month later she scored a goal that knocked her previous club Manchester City out of Champions League qualifying and enabled Madrid to progress the second phase. Weir suffered damage to her

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

while on international duty in September 2023 and was out of action for a year. Shortly after her return from the injury in October 2024, she "curled in a brilliant opener from distance" to open the scoring in a

2024–25 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2024–25 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 24th edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 16th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the final edition to fea ...

fixture against

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 Foot ...

which Real Madrid won 4–0; it was the first time she had played a club match against a Scottish team since Arsenal defeated Glasgow City in the 2013–14 edition of the same tournament, a few months after Weir left Hibernian for the English league. On 3 December 2024,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

named Weir at 83rd place among the top 100 women footballers in the world for 2024, a drop of 39 places from her 2023 placing attributable primarily to her injury absence.

International career

Scotland

Having represented Scotland at all youth levels, Weir received her first call-up for the

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

senior squad for their match against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in June 2013. She retained her place in the squad for the following game against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. During Euro 2017, the first major tournament for which Scotland had qualified, Weir scored the opening goal against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and was voted player of the game. She helped Scotland qualify for the 2019 FIFA World Cup, and played in all of their three matches at the tournament. During the 2023 FIFA World Cup UEFA play-off match against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, which the Scots lost 1–0, Weir had a penalty saved. After missing more than a year of football due to injury, she was recalled to the national squad in October 2024.

Great Britain Olympic team

Weir was one of two Scots selected by

for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, along with

Kim Little Kim Alison Little (born 29 June 1990) is a Scottish professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for and captains Arsenal W.F.C., Arsenal of the English Women's Super League. Before her retirement from international ...

. She was initially credited with scoring in the 1–1 draw with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, but it was later denoted as an

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

by Nichelle Prince. She also had a penalty saved during their 4–3 loss to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in the quarter-final.

Career statistics

International appearances

:''Scotland statistics accurate as of match played 26 September 2023.'' :''Great Britain statistics accurate as of match played 2 August 2021.''

International goals

:''Results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Arsenal *

: 2014 Manchester City *

FA Women's League Cup The Women's League Cup, also known as the Subway Women's League Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since t ...

: 2018–19, 2021–22 *

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup 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 (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

: 2018–19, 2019–20 Individual * Liga F AFE Player of the Season: 2022–23 *Scotland Player of the Year: 2016, 2020 * SFWA Women's International Player of the Year: 2021–22, 2022–23 *NRS Scottish Sporting Breakthrough Award: 2017 *

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

Goal of the Month: February 2022 *PFA Bristol Street Motors Fans’ Player of the Month: December 2020 *PFA Women's Super League (WSL) Team of the Year: 2016–17, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2021–22 * Puskas Award Nominee: 2020, 2021 * Liverpool Ladies Player of the Year: 2016 *

Player of the Season:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weir, Caroline 1995 births Living people Footballers from Dunfermline Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers Scotland women's youth international footballers Olympic footballers for Great Britain Hibernian W.F.C. players Arsenal W.F.C. players Bristol Academy W.F.C. players Liverpool F.C. Women players Manchester City W.F.C. players Women's Super League players Women's association football midfielders 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Scottish Women's Premier League players Real Madrid Femenino players Liga F players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Scottish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Spain UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players FIFA Women's Century Club Scottish Olympic competitors 21st-century Scottish sportswomen