Caroline Thorpe (born 2 August 1981) is an Irish former international football

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 ...

who played for Raheny United, Peamount United and DLR Waves of the Women's National League. She also represented English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

clubs

Arsenal Ladies Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is an English professional women's football club based in Islington, London, England. The club plays in the Women's Super League, the top tier of English women's football. Arsena ...

and Leeds United Ladies, as well as Memphis Mercury in America.

Club career

Thorpe began her career with Redlake before moving to St. Catherine's in 1999. After helping the club to

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

, she joined

in August 2000 along with compatriots Susan Heapes and Yvonne Tracy. Thorpe was one of seven Irish players then in the Arsenal squad, and with

Emma Byrne Emma Anne Byrne (born 14 June 1979) is an Irish football goalkeeper who played for the Republic of Ireland women's national football team on a record 134 occasions and served as captain of the team. She spent almost 17 years with Arsenal before ...

and Ciara Grant, one of three who were regulars in the first team. On her debut Thorpe scored two goals in a 5–0 win over

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

. She won the domestic treble in her first season, and was an unused substitute as Arsenal beat

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswo ...

in the 2001

FA Women's 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 re ...

final at

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst in the London Borough of Croydon which is the home ground of Premier League side Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted international ...

. Despite this success Thorpe returned to St. Catherine's in May 2001. She was back in the

FA Women's Premier League The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...

in 2001–02, but with newly promoted

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. In summer 2002 Thorpe played in the American W-League with Memphis Mercury, before returning to Leeds for 2002–03. Thorpe and her ex-Arsenal teammate Susan Heapes both played in St. Catherine's 1–0 FAI Women's Cup final defeat to St Francis in July 2009. A third Arsenal player from that era,

Grainne Kierans Gráinne Kierans (born 20 September 1978) is an Irish football coach and former player who was the head coach of Shamrock Rovers team who play in the Women's National League (Ireland). Kierans, the holder of a UEFA A licence, played as a midfie ...

, was on the opposing side. Thorpe signed for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

for the inaugural 2011–12 Women's National League (WNL) season but only played in one match before transferring to Champions elect Peamount United during the campaign. At the end of the season she joined Raheny United and collected another league winner's medal in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. She was also named in the 2012–13 WNL Team of the Season. In the 2013 FAI Women's Cup Final at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and re ...

, Thorpe was Player of the Match as Raheny United beat

Castlebar Celtic Castlebar Celtic F.C. ( ga, Cumann Peile Caisleán an Bharraigh Ceiltigh) is an Irish association football club based in Castlebar, County Mayo. They currently play in the Mayo Association Football League. They have previously fielded teams in ...

3–2 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

. She finished the 2013–14 season back at Peamount, then retired after spending two seasons with

UCD Waves UCD Women's Soccer Club is an Irish association football club based in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. It is the women's association football team of University College Dublin. Founded in 1966, UCD are one of the oldest women's football clubs in the ...

International career

Thorpe's first representative games for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

came as a 16-year-old. In September 2000 Thorpe scored against

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 th ...

and

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. North ...

as the Republic won the Celt Cup, a quadrangular tournament also featuring the Isle of Man. That year she was named Under-18 International Player of the Year at the

FAI International Football Awards The FAI International Football Awards is an awards evening held to honour the best Republic of Ireland international footballers of the year. Senior International awards Senior International Player of the Year Senior Women's International Pl ...

. She later featured in the qualifying tournaments for the 2003 World Cup and 2005 European Championship. In October 2004 Thorpe scored Ireland's winner in a 2–1 friendly win in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic archipelago, island group and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotlan ...

and then played in a 5–1 loss 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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Foot ...

. She completed her international career with six goals from 24

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Personal life

Thorpe battled an

eating disorder An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating ...

and depression during her football career. She left Arsenal after one season due to alleged

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an i ...

from an unnamed teammate. She later spent approximately six years away from football after taking offence at a comment made by one of her Ireland teammates.

References

External links

Caroline Thorpe
at FAI.ie
Caroline Thorpe
at FIFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Caroline Republic of Ireland women's association footballers Arsenal W.F.C. players Leeds United Women F.C. players Republic of Ireland women's international footballers FA Women's National League players 1981 births Living people Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Raheny United F.C. players Women's National League (Ireland) players Peamount United F.C. players USL W-League (1995–2015) players St Catherine's L.F.C. players Dublin Women's Soccer League players UCD Women's Soccer Club players Women's association football midfielders Shamrock Rovers Ladies F.C. players DLR Waves players Republic of Ireland women's youth international footballers