Natasha Jane Flint (born 2 August 1996) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

USL Super League The USL Super League (USLS), officially known as the Gainbridge Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional women's soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system, alongside the National Women's Socce ...

club

Tampa Bay Sun Tampa Bay Sun FC is an American professional women's soccer club based in Tampa, Florida, that competes in the USL Super League (USLS). Sun FC is owned by real estate developer and investor Darryl Shaw, Bern's Steak House owner David Laxer, and ...

. She has represented England at the youth levels, playing at the

2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was an international association football tournament and the world championship for women's national teams under the age of 20, presented by Grant Connell, organized by the sport's world governing body FIFA. I ...

, as well as the

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is an annual competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belon ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, collecting a runners-up medal in 2013. She played as a teenager for

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 ...

, with whom she won the

FA Women's League 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 ...

Youth career

Born in the Lower Kersal area of

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, Flint joined the Manchester United Centre of Excellence at age five. In 2013, she joined the

academy and by the following year, she was training with and traveling to camp with the senior team.

Senior career

Manchester City

In March 2014, at age 17, Flint signed her first senior contract with Manchester City ahead of the club's first campaign in 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 ...

. In July 2014, she scored a goal against Chelsea that was named a finalist for the

2014 FA WSL The 2014 FA WSL 1 was the fourth season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's football league of England. The season began on 30 March and ended on 12 October. Liverpool L.F.C. are the defending champions from the 2013 FA WSL. The top two tea ...

Goal of the Season, and in October, she was in the starting lineup when City won the 2014 Continental Cup (WSL Cup). However, a In October 2015, following a 2015 campaign with just one start and five substitute appearances in the

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 ...

, Flint was released by Manchester City at age 19.

2015–17

Following her release from Manchester City, Flint signed with Preston North End (later renamed Fylde Ladies) in 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 ...

, the third tier of English women's football in October 2015 and played the remainder of the year before signing with

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

in the Super League. However, she left Notts County in March 2016, four days before the start of the

2016 FA WSL The 2016 FA WSL 1 was the sixth edition of the FA WSL since it was formed in 2010. The WSL 1 was expanded to nine teams. The season started on 23 March and Chelsea were the defending WSL 1 champions. Manchester City Manchester Cit ...

season citing "personal reasons" and signed with the renamed Fylde Ladies in June 2016. In January 2017, she signed with

Sheffield F.C. Sheffield Football Club is an English association football, football club, currently based in Dronfield, Derbyshire. They compete in the , on the eighth level of the English football league system, English football pyramid. Founded in October ...

in WSL 2 (now

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 ...

) before rejoining Fylde in July the same year.

Blackburn Rovers

In December 2017, Flint signed with

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 the FA Women's National League, the third tier of women's football in England. In

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, Flint helped Blackburn achieve their first-ever promotion to the

and scored in the playoff final against

Coventry United Coventry United Football Club is an English association football club based in Coventry in the West Midlands, England, United Kingdom. The team competes in the , the 9th tier of English football, and is managed by Ellis Alleyne. The club was ...

. Although she was limited to six games and nine goals in the 2019–20 campaign curtailed by 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 ...

, she had amassed 70 goals in 66 matches over three seasons.

Leicester City

In June 2020, Flint left Blackburn at the conclusion of her contract and in August 2020, she signed with Leicester City Women, along with eleven other new players who were brought in as part of the women's club's conversion to a fully professional structure. She won the Women's Championship Player of the Month honours for December 2020 with four league goals during the month. On 4 April 2021, Flint scored the second Leicester goal in a 2–0 win over

London City Lionesses London City Lionesses is a professional women's association football club based in Hayes, Bromley, England. The team competes in the Women's Super League the first tier of English women's football. The club was founded in May 2019, as an indep ...

, securing the 2020–21 season title and a promotion to the

FA 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 ...

. Flint had previously worked part-time as a lab technician, but after losing the job to a COVID-19 pandemic-forced furlough, she moved to training full-time, a change that she has credited for her scoring form with Leicester. She ended the 2020–21 Championship season as the club's top scorer with 17 goals in the competition. On 16 May 2021, Flint scored the winning goal in a 2–3 upset of

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

in the fifth round of the 2020–21 Women's FA Cup.

Celtic

Midway through the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, Flint joined

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on loan for the remainder of the season. She saw a successful loan spell scoring eight goals which helped Celtic capture the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 23rd edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 15th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the third edition to fe ...

Liverpool

In July 2023, Flint signed for

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 ...

. After struggling to get regular games for Liverpool, she rejoined Celtic on loan for the rest of the 2023–24 season in January 2024.

Tampa Bay Sun

In June 2024, Flint joined

ahead of the inaugural

season. Flint scored her first two goals for the Sun in November and was named to the league's team of the month.

International career

Flint has represented England at youth levels and played at the

2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2013 Final Tournament was held in Wales between 19 and 31 August 2013. Players born after 1 January 1994 were eligible to participate in this competition. It was the first time ...

, where England under-19s reached the final, as well as the

and the

editions of the tournament, scoring a 40-yard goal against Spain in the latter. She also played for England under-20s at the

Honours

Tampa Bay Sun *

: 2024–25

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flint, Natasha 1996 births Living people English women's footballers Women's association football forwards Footballers from Salford Notts County L.F.C. players Manchester City W.F.C. players Fylde Ladies F.C. players Sheffield F.C. Ladies players Blackburn Rovers W.F.C. players Leicester City W.F.C. players Women's Super League players Women's Super League 2 players Celtic F.C. Women players Liverpool F.C. Women players Scottish Women's Premier League players England women's under-23 international footballers England women's youth international footballers Tampa Bay Sun FC players English expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States 21st-century English sportswomen USL Super League players