Kerys Julia Harrop (born 3 December 1990) is a former English footballer who played

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

/ wing back. Harrop had been involved with the England national team at Under 19 and Under 23 level and was part of the Under 19 squad who won the European Championships in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in 2009. She was also a member of the

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 who won a gold medal in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

in the 2013

World University Games The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

. With Birmingham City Ladies, she helped them win the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 2012 and helped them progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2014. On 2 April 2023, she broke the

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 ...

's all-time record for appearances by chalking up her 178th game in the competition. On 24 August 2023, Harrop announced her retirement from professional football. In addition to her footballing achievements, Harrop has obtained a

first class Honours degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

from

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

in Sport Science and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate 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 prac ...

from the Sports Business Institute Barcelona, and PGCE Teaching Degree from the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

. Harrop holds both British and American citizenship.

References

External links

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England FA player profile

1990 births Living people Birmingham City W.F.C. players English women's footballers FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players Women's association football defenders FISU World University Games gold medalists for Great Britain Summer World University Games medalists in football Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade Sportspeople from Wordsley Footballers from Stourbridge 21st-century English sportswomen {{England-women-footy-bio-stub