One of the most well known names in Women's football, Steph Houghton MBE began her journey with the Durham Association of Boys & Girls Clubs with Boldon Girls.
Steph flourished in youth football and began her career with Sunderland Women (2002 - 2007) where she helped Sunderland to win promotion from the Northern Division in the 2005-06 season and going on to win the FA Young Player of the Year Award in 2006–07 before leaving to join Leeds that summer. After helping Leeds to win the 2010 FA Women's Premier League Cup, Steph went on to sign for Arsenal where she stayed until 2013 when she joined Manchester City.
Steph was involved in the national team setup from Under 16 level before progressing through the youth system before making her full debut replacing Emily Westwood after 73 minutes of a 6–0 win over Russia in Milton Keynes on 8 March 2007 before making her first start for the national team 3 days later in a hard fought 1–0 win over Scotland at Adams Park. Since her debut in 2007, Steph Houghton has played over 80 times for the England national team.
Despite suffering some serious and terribly timed injuries which saw Steph miss both the 2007 World Cup (broken leg) and 2009 European Championships (cruciate ligament) she bounced back and overcame the set-backs and has gone on to captain England throughout the 2015 World Cup in Canada where she scored her first World Cup goal against Norway where she helped England to reach their first ever semifinals.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Steph was also selected for Team GB where she became the record goalscorer, scoring in all 3 group games and helping Team GB to win the group with a 100% win record.
Steph was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to football to add another illustrious honour to an already glittering career. A true inspiration to the young and aspiring stars of Durham.
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