Laura Coombs (born 29 January 1991) is an English 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 a

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for

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club

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 ...

and the

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. She was awarded the Legacy number 193 by The Football Association in 2022. A hard-working defensive midfielder, Coombs is described by former teammate Gilly Flaherty as "a real grafter and she'll put in the work that some people don't want to do." She made her senior career debut for

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 ...

in 2007. She went on to play for Chelsea and

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 ...

before joining Manchester City in 2019. Coombs made her debut for the senior

England women's national football team The England women's national football team, nicknamed the Lionesses, has been governed by the Football Association (FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the Women's Football Association (WFA). England played its first interna ...

in October 2015.

Club career

Early career

Coombs began playing football aged seven or eight, when she joined a team run by her best friend's father. She progressed to

's youth academy and began playing in the first team at 16. In September 2009, Coombs made her

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

debut in Arsenal's 9–0 win over

PAOK Thessaloniki PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

. In summer 2011, Coombs played for American W-League team Los Angeles Strikers, scoring one goal in eight appearances.

Chelsea

During the mid-season break of the inaugural

2011 FA WSL The 2011 FA WSL was the inaugural season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's football league of England. The season began on 13 April 2011 and ended on 28 August 2011. The league also took a break between 12 May and mid-July to allow preparatio ...

season, Coombs transferred to Chelsea. The club reached the

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 ...

final for the first time in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, but were eventually beaten by

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional 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. The team compete in the ...

in a

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after twice taking the lead in a 2–2 draw. In the 2013 mid-season break, Coombs had another stint with LA Strikers. At the 2013 International Women's Club Championship Coombs scored in Chelsea's 3–2 semi-final win over

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

, Japan. In 2015 Chelsea won their first ever major trophy, in the 2015 FA Women's Cup Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. They then beat

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

4–0 in October 2015 to secure the

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 ...

title and 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 ...

. Teammates noted an improvement in Coombs' strength and power that season, a result of the team's transition from part-time to full-time training.

Liverpool

Coombs announced a season-long

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 ...

move to FA WSL rivals

on 22 December 2015, the same day as Chelsea signed

Karen Carney Karen Julia Carney (born 1 August 1987) is an English sports journalist and former professional footballer who played as a winger and midfielder. Carney has been a regular broadcaster for live football on TNT Sports, Sky Sports, ITV and Amazo ...

from

. During 2017 she eventually signed a two-year deal at Liverpool.

Manchester City

In June 2019, after three years at Liverpool, Coombs signed for

on a two-year contract, being part of the squad that won the 2020 FA Cup in her first season. Though she had not expected "to get straight in the team", Coombs later expressed disappointment at how little she had played for the club in her first season with them, remarking that she is a confidence player. She felt that time away from Man City due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

after her difficult first season helped her come back better for the team. Coombs' second season at Manchester City was marked by a midfield featuring prominent American and British internationals, with Coombs pleased to be able to work with and be challenged by them in training, as it made her raise her level. In May 2021 she signed a two-year contract extension. In the 2021–22 season, City won the 2022 League Cup. In the first half of the 2022–23 season, Coombs almost matched her total appearance count for Manchester City in her previous three seasons with them, having been elevated to a regular starter following the departure of the club's previous starting midfield three; she took on the role of an aggressive centre midfielder and had a strong start to the season. During this time, she was a constant in a midfield that gradually incorporated different new signings. While other adaptations were made, Coombs retained her typical role. She made her 100th appearance for the club on 17 December 2023.

International career

In July 2009, Coombs featured as England under-19 won the

2009 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship 2009 Final Tournament was held in Belarus from 13 to 25 July 2009. Players born on or after 1 January 1990 were eligible to participate in this competition. The tournament served as a qualifier for the 2010 ...

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 ...

, with a 2–0 final win over

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In 2010 England reached the final of the

2010 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2010 Final Tournament was held in Macedonia (country), Macedonia between 24 May and 5 June 2010. Players born after 1 January 1991 were eligible to participate in this competiti ...

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, where they lost their title to

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. Coombs had been ruled out by injury before the semi-final. National 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 F.C., Stevenage. Born in Creigiau, Wales, Sampson played amateur football for Cardiff Corinthians F.C., Cardiff Corinthi ...

gave Coombs her first senior call up in October 2015 for the China Cup. She won her first England

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

on 23 October 2015, as a substitute in England's 2–1 defeat by

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, also earning a few minutes in another match of the same tournament. In 2020, she was called up for England training camp but did not play. Having not played for England since 2015, Coombs was named in the squad for the 2023 Arnold Clark Cup after performing well with more regular playing time at Man City. ''The Offside Rule'' also said that she offers more age and experience for the attacking half of the England squad. She became the oldest player in the squad and said that, though always wanting to represent her country, she had parked those aspirations after not being called up in so long. She came on as a substitute for former City teammate

Georgia Stanway Georgia Marie Stanway (born 3 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Frauen-Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the England national team. Stanway started her senior career at Blackburn R ...

in their first match and started in the next. In May 2023, Coombs was named in England's squad for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

Personal life

Coombs graduated from the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a Universities in the United Kingdom, university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield ...

with a degree in HR and business. She aims to eventually become an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Chelsea *

2015 FA WSL The 2015 FA WSL 1 was the fifth season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's Association football, football league of England. The season was played from 25 March to 4 October. Liverpool L.F.C., Liverpool were the defending champions from the 2014 ...

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 ...

: 2014–15 Manchester City *

: 2019–20 *

FA WSL 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 ...

: 2021–22 England *

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

runner-up:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Women's Finalissima The Women's Finalissima is an intercontinental women's football super cup organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the Copa América Femenina and UEFA Women's Championship. Played as a quadrennial one-off match, the fi ...

Arnold Clark Cup The Arnold Clark Cup is an invitational women's association football tournament hosted by the Football Association in England, starting in 2022. It is named after car retailer Arnold Clark, who signed a multi-year sponsorship deal. ITV acts as t ...

Individual * PFA WSL Fans' Player of the Month: December 2022

References

External links

Laura Coombs
at

Chelsea FC Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club was founded in 1905 and named after neighbouring area Chelsea. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, pl ...

Laura Coombs profile
at

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coombs, Laura 1991 births Living people English women's footballers England women's international footballers England women's under-23 international footballers FA Women's National League players Women's Super League players Arsenal W.F.C. players Chelsea F.C. Women players Liverpool F.C. Women players Barnet F.C. Ladies players Manchester City W.F.C. players Footballers from Gravesend, Kent USL W-League (1995–2015) players Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States English expatriate women's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire Women's association football midfielders Nottingham Forest Women F.C. players Los Angeles Strikers players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century English sportswomen