Of the National League's many mainstays, former Arsenal midfielder Ciara Grant stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of them.

A combative and versatile footballer whose technical ability and goalscoring prowess were enriched by her intelligent reading of the game, Grant graced the English top flight from 1998 to 2014.

Steadfast throughout Arsenal's 'invincible' 108-match unbeaten run in the Noughties, Grant helped deliver nine Premier League titles during her 16 years in red and white.

Alongside that she played her part in an historic UEFA Cup triumph, multiple winning League and FA Cup finals plus back-to-back Women's Super League crowns.

"Ciara was a proper player," said former Arsenal boss Vic Akers as he looked back on Grant’s outstanding contribution to the Gunners. "Not a shouter, but she got her points across and we owe a lot to her performances over the years."

Grant grew up playing football with her brothers on the streets of Waterford in south east Ireland before getting a run out in senior football with hometown club Benfica Ladies in her early teens, then debuting for the Republic of Ireland aged 14.

It was while holding her own for an FAI FAS team at an annual five-a-side tournament in Westport, County Mayo, that Grant was offered the chance to take her game in a new direction.

"We played Arsenal in the final and I must've done okay because afterwards Vic came over and asked if I'd be interested in going across the water to play in London," she recalled.

It was not an immediate "yes", however, because the then 20-year-old was due to head across a far larger body of water to take up a football scholarship in Memphis, Tennessee. 

She remembered: "I went back to speak to my parents and said, 'Shall I go to America or England?' and Mam was like, 'Well England is closer!' So that made my mind up because it would be easier for me to get home and for my family to come and see me." 

So, in the summer of 1998, Grant left for north London alongside fellow recruit Carol Conlon, a teenage defender/midfielder. 

It was a path that many other Irish internationals would tread during Akers' Arsenal reign, among them Emma Byrne, Gráinne Kierans, Yvonne Tracy, Susan Heapes, Caroline Thorpe, Elaine O'Connor and Niamh Fahey. 

"It was nice," said Grant. “There was me and Carol at the start, then Emma came over, Gráinne and Yvonne, Susan, Caroline Thorpe, there were quite a few Irish.

"I think the league back then was mainly English so we were probably one of the only teams that had Irish in the squad, but then that bit of professionalism attracted players to Arsenal.”


It was, Grant reckoned, "completely different" to what she had been used to. 

"Me and Carol were given our own kit," she explained. "We were shown around the stadium and I was one of the lucky ones that got a full-time job with the club as well, so the standard of everything was top class."

Grant's job was to assist the woman who had met her and Conlon off the bus in London's bustling King's Cross – defender and club secretary Clare Wheatley.

As the club's development officer Grant worked alongside Wheatley, organising six teams and the Centre of Excellence, arranging referees, hotels and transport.

"I worked with Clare for 16 years," Grant noted. "She was a teammate and a boss so it was an interesting relationship for us to navigate when I look back, but at the time it was quite natural. 

"I respected her as a player and enjoyed being in the team with her, and in the office I appreciated the direction and support she gave me, especially when I first arrived in London and was finding my bearings."

It had not taken the Waterford native long to find her feet on the pitch, however, as Akers recalled:  "I always felt Ciara was one of the players that you would put down on your team sheet every week."

Grant was indeed ever-present in her maiden 1998-99 season as she teamed up with a raft of Premier League stalwarts as well as a string of upcoming youngsters.

Of the latter there was goalkeeper Sarah Reed, pacey winger Rachel Yankey - both teenagers at the time - and 20-year-old future England skipper Faye White. 

Then came the likes of inspirational club captain Sian Williams, lethal striker Marieanne Spacey, club veterans Kelley Few, Jenny Canty and Vicki Slee as well the hard tackling wing back and Grant's room mate on away trips, Kirsty 'Stan' Pealling.

Londoner Pealling had grown up playing football alongside her best mate, future Chelsea and USA boss Emma Hayes, and had been at Arsenal since the women’s club’s inception in 1987.

By the close of her one-club career in 2006 at the age of 31, the England international had won 23 major titles – including eight Premier League crowns – while forging a reputation as one of the best crossers in the game.

"Kirsty used to drill the balls in and they would fly across the box,” Grant reminisced. “She was one of the best.

"As a room mate, she used to like to put her feet up and have a cup of tea. Kirsty was like an old woman really, used to love a cup of tea. She was such a laugh and a lovely girl: the most laid back player and person, nothing fazed her.

"I'll never forget the day we were playing Everton at Marine FC with its bumpy pitch that had houses backing on to it with their numbers on [the wall] so if the ball went over we'd shout 'It's at number 66!'. 

“Anyway, Kirsty got injured and they strapped her on to a stretcher and wheeled her off and she was just bumping and bumping all the way down to the dressing room which was way down the pitch. I’m sure she had more of an injury coming off that stretcher than she did on the field. It was the funniest thing ever and we would always bring up that memory whenever we [played Everton]!"

It was against the Toffees that Grant won the first of her nine League Cups, her opening goal in the 1998-99 final paving the way for a 3-1 win in front of 3,005 fans at Tranmere Rovers’ Prenton Park.

Arsenal had to make do with runners-up spot in the Premier League that season after London rivals Croydon pipped them to the title. 

But after beating Southampton in the FA Cup final, Akers' players joined their double winning male counterparts to parade their two cups on an open-top bus celebration around Islington.

Arsenal retained the League Cup in Grant's second term, when she was hailed as the club's Player of the Season, a year that saw nippy 16-year-old striker Ellen Maggs cement her place in the team.

Among the new signings at the time was 17-year-old Casey Stoney from Chelsea, Angie Banks - who had been the 1998-99 Southern Division joint top goalscorer at Whitehawk - and Republic of Ireland and Fortuna Hjørring goalkeeper Emma Byrne, who arrived mid-season and quickly made the No.1 shirt her own with her athletic shot-stopping.

"Emma was my best friend in the team and my roommate for Ireland," said Grant. “On the pitch Emma was the boss, she made sure we were organised and if we weren't doing what she wanted we had a few rows from her! 

"I had a few belts as well – when she came for a ball and wouldn't care who was there, she'd clatter you – but she was a top class goalkeeper and it was a joy playing with her. She was loud, funny, always heard in the changing room."


Byrne ended up spending 17 years with Arsenal and was crucial to the Gunners' still unrivalled 2006-07 season, when they won every honour in club football, including their fourth successive Premier League title and the UEFA Cup - later re-titled the Champions League.

"That was a fantastic year," said Grant. "Everybody was on top form and we felt invincible."

Beating Swedish champions Umeå IK and their world class players, such as Marta and Hanna Ljungberg, to become the first English club to be crowned European champions was no mean feat – but Arsenal did have stars of their own.

Teenage striker Lianne Sanderson was playing beyond her years alongside two players who were the first from their respective countries to play professionally in America: England's talismanic attacker Kelly Smith and Scotland captain Julie Fleeting.

A prolific goal-getter who joined the club aged nine, Sanderson had made the first team at 15 and was still only 19 in their all-conquering quadruple year when she contributed 40 goals in 41 games.

"The 'Kid', Lianne was the DJ, loved music, the joker, the loud one, another goalscorer and a work horse, a lovely person and great team mate," said Grant. "She was a confident youngster and had the gift of the gab. 

"She just seemed to appear and be a first team player, it seemed like she was always there and if you wanted goals, between her and Kelly you were always going to get some."

The Kelly in question is, of course, Smith, who was no stranger to the National League when she arrived at Arsenal in January 2005 after spending eight years playing college and professional football in America. 

In her teens, the Watford-born player had won the 1995-96 League Cup with Wembley and, with Arsenal the following season, had scored the brace against Liverpool that helped secure the Premier League title at Highbury.

Smith made an impact in the title race on her return too as her 30-yard screamer against Charlton Athletic in April 2005 helped the Gunners retain their Premier League crown.

"Kelly was a world class player," said Grant. "I was lucky to call her a team mate. If we were a goal down I'd always know that if Kelly was playing we'd get a goal back; with Kelly in the team you'd always score. Off the field she was a quiet person, but on the field she did all her talking."


Smith's fellow trailblazer Fleeting had joined Arsenal in 2004 after WUSA, the American professional league, had folded. The former San Diego Spirit attacker had not played in England before, but her reputation came before her.

"Fleets was a top class player and goalscorer," said Grant. "I already knew of her because the Republic of Ireland used to play Scotland [a lot] and she used to score every time."

It was no different at club level and by the end of that 2003-04 season, Fleeting's goals had contributed to a dramatic but victorious three-way Premier League title race with Fulham and Charlton that went to the wire.

Fleeting's subsequent FA Cup final hat-trick against the Addicks was not just the cherry on the cake, it was vindication, if any were needed, of Akers' decision to fly the PE teacher up and down from her homeland of Scotland for matches.

"She'd come to [Arsenal’s home ground] Boreham Wood, score a few goals and fly off again," laughed Grant. "We'd often joke and say, ‘Yeah, did you get your helicopter down to the game today?'. She found it funny and used to laugh about it. 

"The fact was she was a lovely person and fitted into the team really well. And you look at the player and if the player is worth doing that for, then it's worth it. 

"There was a point when I was going to say to Vic, 'Can you fly me to Ireland?' But if he did he probably wouldn't have flown me back!"

That was a typically modest response from Grant, who was by that stage captain of her country and whose importance to her club throughout their historic quadruple campaign saw her voted Players' Player of the Year.

That season, after long term injuries deprived Arsenal of the services of Faye White, Leanne Champ and Yvonne Tracy, Grant had switched from midfield to form a central defensive partnership with Mary Phillip, while new recruit Katie Chapman forged a midfield of steel with Wales and Arsenal legend Jayne Ludlow, who was to become Grant’s wife.

Both Phillip and Chapman had been League Cup winners with Millwall in 1997. Going on to play professionally with Fulham, the two England internationals won the 2001-02 League Cup and, the following season, all three domestic honours.

But when the Cottagers' full-time funding was pulled, Phillip moved to Arsenal where her speed and experience proved invaluable.

 

"Mary was calm and so quick," said Grant. "Nothing would get past her and if anyone did they would think they were free - then all of a sudden she'd be there beside them getting the ball back. 

"She played for England and was one of the top players in the country at the time and fitted in really well. Her two boys would come to training and I always remember as Vic was laying out the cones her kids would be picking them up and we used to laugh. 

"She was quiet, but she had a motherly feeling about her, a lovely person and a good player."

Grant was equally impressed by another of the team's mums, Chapman, who had headed to Charlton after Fulham turned semi-pro before switching to the Gunners in 2006.

"Herself and Jayne were enemies when they played against each other and then they had to play together and were a solid midfield," she recalled. "Katie took no prisoners - if she wanted to win a ball she was going to get that ball before you were. 

"I remember she used to come training when she was pregnant and she'd still be one of the fittest players!"

Moving out of midfield to join Grant in defence that term was Anita Asante.

Spotted by Wheatley at one of the club's development sessions aged 13, Asante had broken into the first team in February 2003 and had turned 22 two days before Arsenal lifted the UEFA Cup.

"Anita was probably one of the quietest players on the pitch," Grant said. "You wouldn't hear a squeak from Anita but she was a fantastic player, very calm, could play anywhere. 

"And I always remember how a ball would come into the box and Anita would do a back heel or trap it and take a few players on and then get rid of it, and we'd be like, 'No just get rid of it!'."

In reality, Grant was more cultured than that and was often a reassuring presence to fellow defenders such as Alex Scott and, later, Gilly Flaherty.

"Alex was one of the quickest right backs around," said Grant. "Very determined, great speed and a winner."

Scott had been with Arsenal since the age of eight and had made her way into the first team in the Premier League-winning 2001-02 season when she played as an attacker. 

After a year away with Birmingham, however, she returned to her childhood club as a defender, a position she made her own with both club and country.

"There were a few times I used to stitch her up with the balls I used to give her," Grant admitted. "But I knew because she was quick she'd get herself out of trouble.

"To be honest, I was never the quickest and I always knew that, so I'd say to the likes of Gilly and Alex, 'I'm your eyes, but you're my legs,' so they would do a lot of running for me, whereas I used to read the ball. We had a good blend and when I went into defence I had three quick players around me."

Of former Millwall player Flaherty, who joined Arsenal in 2003 and impressed with her ability to play off either foot and in any defensive position, Grant said: "She was my bezzie!"

"We were defenders together for years," she added. "I used to say, 'Gilly, cover me over there' and she would. She was a youngster, but wasn't frightened to give orders on the pitch.

"She knew what she was doing and was a young leader, quick, calm on the ball, great in the air."

The same could be said for Grant, who amassed 30 major trophies before her departure from Arsenal in 2014 aged 35. Post-career and living in Wales with Ludlow and their two children, she looked back on her playing days and her many former team mates with fondness.

"We had the time of our lives," she said. "We travelled lots, won trophies and had fun most of the time. My team mates were great players and good friends, so competing and winning with your friends was an experience I’ll always cherish."

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: With thanks to Catherine Etoe for the interview/written feature and images from Simon Mooney and the FA Online Photo Library, plus other photographers credited.

These interviews were conducted in 2026 (CE)