Sophie Harding (born 6 June 1999) is an Australian

soccer player 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 for

Fort Lauderdale United Fort Lauderdale United FC is an American professional Women's association football, women's soccer club based in Broward County, Florida, that competes in the USL Super League (USLS). The team will play its home matches at a new soccer-specific ...

in the

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 ...

. She has previously played for

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

and

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

Early life

Harding was born in England before immigrating to Sydney, Australia at the age of six. She played youth football for Harbord Seasiders United, Brookvale, and

Manly United Manly United Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney. The club competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW and their home ground is Cromer Park, in the suburb of Dee Why, approximately 15 minute ...

. Harding began playing for Manly's U'13 team and progressed to the first team who she represented for three years. In addition to her career as a footballer, Harding is a disability support worker, with Harding receiving the news of her first national team callup while she was in the middle of a shift.

Club career

Harding made her

National Premier Leagues NSW Women's The National Premier Leagues NSW Women's, also known as the NPL NSW Women's, is a Association football, soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales. The l ...

debut for Manly United in 2015. After breaking through with Manly she joined fellow NSW NPLW side North West Sydney Koalas in 2019, Harding has scored 19 goals in 44 appearances across three seasons with NWS Koalas. Harding was signed by

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Fe ...

club

ahead of the

2020–21 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 ...

season. She played 11 of the Jets 12 matches and was noted for her pace. The young forward scored her first goal for Newcastle in a 5–1 win over

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

on Matchday 2 of the 2021–22 season, after re-signing for the season. In September 2022, the club announced she had departed, and two months later she signed a two-year contract with

. In July 2025, Harding moved to American

club

International career

As an Australian citizen born in England with Irish grandparents, Harding is eligible to represent

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

. In February 2024, Harding received her first international call up to the Australian national team for the

2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The 2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was the sixth edition of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine which wo ...

third round against

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Sophie 1999 births Newcastle Jets FC (women) players Western Sydney Wanderers FC (women) players Manly United FC players Living people Women's association football players not categorized by position Australian women's soccer players 21st-century Australian sportswomen English women's footballers English emigrants to Australia Soccer players from Sydney 21st-century English sportswomen Women's association football forwards Australian expatriate women's soccer players Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Fort Lauderdale United FC players Australian people of Irish descent