Jodie Michalska (née Snelson; born 2 September 1986) is an English

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 a striker for Barnsley WFC of the

FA Women's National League North The FA Women's National League North is a football league at the third tier of women's football in England. Together with the National League South, the two leagues form the highest division of the National League. Established in 1991 as the W ...

. She previously spent four seasons with Lincoln Ladies of the

FA Women's Premier League Northern Division The FA Women's National League North is a football league at the third tier of women's football in England. Together with the National League South, the two leagues form the highest division of the National League. Established in 1991 as the WFA ...

Club career

Michalska scored 75 goals in 25 games during the 2005–06 season for East Midlands Premier League club Sheffield United Community Ladies FC. The team remained unbeaten and secured a League and Cup "

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

", in their most successful season since Tony Currie had founded the club in 2002. During her time at United, Michalska scored a last-minute winner against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

to secure The Blades' first ever win over The Owls in the female

Steel City derby The Steel City derby, or the Sheffield derby is a local derby between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, the two professional football league teams in the city of Sheffield, England. the teams have met 146 times in competitive games, ...

. Michalska earned a summer 2006 transfer to Lincoln City, who competed in the

, then the second tier of

women's football in England Women's association football, Women's football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men's game in the country in which the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game were codified. Wome ...

. In 2006–07 Michalska finished as the Northern Premier League's top goal-scorer, collecting the award at that year's The FA Women's Football Awards. She scored a total of 35 goals in 2007–08 to retain her top goal-scorer award. Although Lincoln narrowly missed out on

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 ...

, Michalska agreed to extend her contract with the club. Club chairman Geoff Adams praised Michalska's ability and loyalty: "it is a huge credit to this player who is, quite frankly, good enough to play for any club presently in the National Division, to show her loyalty to her club and put pen to paper so early." England striker Amanda Barr joined Lincoln for the 2008–09 season as the club sought promotion to the Premier League National Division. In November 2008 Michalska and Barr scored four goals each in a 9–0 win at

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

. Lincoln missed promotion after finishing second in both 2008–09 and 2009–10, but successfully bid for one of eight licences for the new

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 ...

. Michalska was one of nine players from Lincoln's Northern Premier League squad to be invited back to try out for a place in the club's WSL team. Following the birth of her first child Michalska returned to training with Lincoln ahead of the inaugural 2011 FA WSL season. In March 2011 she was sent on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

to Sheffield FC Ladies, in order to recover her fitness. Michalska scored on her debut for her home town club and helped the team to promotion from the Northern Combination in her first season. In 2011–12 Sheffield competed at Premier League Northern Division level for the first time, the third tier of English women's football following the introduction of the

. Michalska hit 42 goals across all competitions as the team finished runners-up to

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 ...

in the League. She scored twice in the final against Sheffield Wednesday as the club won the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Cup for the first time. Michalska remained with Sheffield in 2012–13, her 38 goals helping the team to win the Northern Premier League title. At The FA Women's Football Awards in 2013, she secured the award for Northern Premier League top goal-scorer for the fifth time in seven seasons. In November 2013 Michalska scored her 100th goal for Sheffield, in her 86th game for the club. Sheffield's manager Helen Mitchell gave Michalska the

captaincy A captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish colonies, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule admin ...

and paid tribute to her achievement: "She's one of a kind, and we are all desperately proud she plays for Sheffield FC. She's already a part of history here, but I am sure there’s a lot more to come yet." Sheffield won the

FA Women's Premier League Cup The FA Women's National League Cup is an annual England, English women's association football, football cup competition, founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, Women's Football Association (WFA). The 1991–92 WFA Women's National L ...

in May 2014, Michalska scoring the fourth goal in a 6–2 win over

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

at the

Pirelli Stadium Pirelli Stadium is an association football stadium on Princess Way in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was built in 2005 and is the current home of Burton Albion FC, replacing the club's old Eton Park home, also on Princess Way, ...

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

. In 2013–14 and 2014–15, Michalska retained her position as Northern Premier League top goal-scorer as Sheffield won the League on both occasions. In the latter season she helped the club beat Southern champions

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

in a play-off for the

FA WSL 2 The Women's Super League 2, also known as Barclays Women's Super League 2 for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in England, operated by WSL Football. It is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The div ...

's newly available promotion slot. 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 Wick ...

against Sporting Club Albion on the final day of the regular season took Michalska to 25 goals, 11 more than the League's next highest scorer, and also took her to the 200-goal mark for Sheffield. Sheffield made an unexpectedly poor start in WSL 2, but Michalska scored in their first win at the higher level; a 3–1 home victory over

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

just before the mid-season break in May 2016.

Personal life

In August 2008 Michalska

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

Carmen Michalska. Ex-soldier Carmen became known as the 'angel of Haiti' after rescuing a survivor 11 days after the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

. Their first child, a daughter named Faye, was born in December 2010 after a course of

in vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an ovum, egg is combined with spermatozoon, sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the Ovulation cycle, ovulatory process, then removing ...

References

External links

Profile
at

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michalska, Jodie 1986 births Living people Derby County F.C. Women players English LGBTQ footballers English lesbian sportswomen English women's footballers FA Women's National League players Footballers from Sheffield LGBTQ people from Yorkshire Notts County L.F.C. players Sheffield F.C. Ladies players Sheffield United F.C. Women players Women's association football forwards Women's Super League 2 players 21st-century English sportswomen