Lauren Perry (born 5 April 2001) is a Northern Irish

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for Montrose in the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL (previously styled as ''SWPL 1'') and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of th ...

and for the Northern Ireland national team. She previously played for Linfield in Northern Ireland,

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

in England and Forfar Farmington and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

in Scotland. She made her international debut for Northern Ireland in 2018.

Club career

In March 2017, Perry signed for Linfield, the club where her father, Alan Perry, was assistant first team coach. She made her Linfield debut in a 5–2 win against Sion Swifts on 22 March 2017. On 22 August 2017, Perry made her Champions League debut in a 2017–18 qualifying round match against PK-35 Vantaa. In her first season with the club she was named

Women's Premiership The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership was the top level of women's rugby union in England until 2017. It was formed in 1990 and was run by the Rugby Football Union for Women. It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by Premi ...

player of the year and NIFWA Women’s Personality of the Year. On 2 October 2019, Perry signed with

in the English

FA Women's Championship 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 ...

, shortly after former Linfield teammate

Louise McDaniel Louise McDaniel (born 24 May 2000) is a Northern Irish association footballer who plays as a midfielder for Burnley in the FA Women's National League North and the Northern Ireland women's national team. Club career McDaniel has played for Linf ...

made the same move. In August 2020 she moved to Scotland, joining SWPL 1 team Forfar Farmington. On 18 April 2021, she scored with a free kick from 25 yards to earn Forfar a 1–1 draw against Heart of Midlothian and was subsequently nominated for the league's Player of the Month award. In July 2021, Perry was one of a number of players to leave Forfar for lower division teams shortly before they were forced to pull out of senior football. She joined

in the second tier of the SWPL, and was part of their squad that won the SWPL2 title in the 2021-22 season. Perry then joined another SWPL club, Montrose, in 2023.

International

On 15 September 2018, Perry made her senior international debut for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in a 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying defeat to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. She made nine saves and was voted player of the match.

Personal life

Perry comes from

Ballynahinch, County Down Ballynahinch () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 6,164 people in the 2021 census. Ballynahinch was traditionally a market town, and the market still takes place in the square every Thursday. The town lies on ...

. While playing for Blackburn, she studied for a degree in Sport and PE at the

University of Central Lancashire The University of Lancashire (previously abbreviated UCLan) is a public university based in the city of Preston, Lancashire, England. It has its roots in ''The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge'', founded in 1828. Previously k ...

Honours

Club

Linfield * NIFL Women's Premiership: 2017, 2018, 2019 * NIFL Women's Premiership League Cup: 2018 Dundee United *

Scottish Women's Premier League 2 Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

: 2021-22

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Lauren 2001 births Living people Alumni of the University of Central Lancashire Blackburn Rovers W.F.C. players Women's association footballers from Northern Ireland 21st-century sportswomen from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland women's international footballers Women's association football goalkeepers Forfar Farmington F.C. players Linfield F.C. Women players Women's Premiership (Northern Ireland) players Scottish Women's Premier League players Dundee United W.F.C. players People from Ballynahinch, County Down Association footballers from County Down Montrose W.F.C. players