Celtic FC Women’s Captain Kelly Clark – Arbroath FC Ambassador
We are delighted to announce that our latest official Arbroath Football Club ambassador is Kelly Clark, who is current club captain of Celtic FC Women’s team.
Arbroath born footballing star Kelly, who is current club captain of Celtic FC, joins twice Commonwealth Gold winning Darren Burnett, ATP World Tennis Star Jonny O’Mara, former professional golfer and legendary Golf Commentator Ewen Murray and PDC Darts star Alan Soutar as a Club Ambassador.
Kelly is a real life inspiration for all footballers who come from the Arbroath Area, especially to all the young girls who make up a large portion of our support on a match day and are turning out in huge numbers over many different age groups at the Arbroath FC Community Trust Football Academy.
At the age of 7 in 2001 Kelly started playing football for the Arbroath girl’s side Arbroath Inchcape Strollers. In 2006 she played and scored in the winning Inverbrothock Watters Cup Final at Gayfield.
Kelly moved to Forfar Farmington in 2010 and Forfar Farmington Manager Mark Nisbet handed Kelly her full Women’s debut that year at just 15-years-old.
Moving to Stirling to attend university, Kelly was finding it hard to juggle her studies and travel to Forfar to train three times a week. A chance to sign for Celtic was just too good to turn down, after having turned them down earlier in her career when she was still in school. This month is the 9th anniversary of Kelly signing for the Parkhead side as she moved to the Glasgow Giant at just the age of 18.
Since then Kelly has went on to become a history maker with the Glasgow side and in October 2021 Kelly reached a historic milestone as she played her 200th game for Celtic. To mark that occasion, Celtic made a special documentary on Kelly called “Counting on Kelly” and that can be watched here:
Leading out the team in the Championship League was a dream come true for Kelly, but in December Kelly lifted the SWPL Cup as Celtic overcome Glasgow City in the final which Kelly says was the best day of her life as she lifted the trophy in a packed out Firhill in front of her family.
Kelly has 26 goals for Celtic and is up to 207 appearances and whilst she shines on the pitch, Kelly was also a regular pundit on Celtic TV before the pandemic struck.
Internationally Kelly made her Scotland debut in 2007 against Wales for the U15s. Including friendlies she made over 40 appearances for the U15s, 17s and 19s combined scoring 1 goal against Belarus in 2012. In November was given a late call up for the Scotland squad and flew out with the Scottish team to Spain for the crucial qualifier.
Kelly’s career is even more remarkable as she has combined her amazing football career with an education and a career in finance also under her belt after becoming a qualified Chartered Accountant for Deloitte. Anyone who works in finance will know, it takes a lot of dedication and exams to become a chartered accountant.
With a staggering schedule Kelly manages to juggle working as a Chartered Accountant as well as training with Celtic and playing on a Sunday.
Club Chairman Mike Caird said “We are absolutely delighted to have Kelly agree to join the club as an official ambassador, She epitomises everything we look for in a representative of the club, she is local to the town, has excelled in her field and is a huge supporter of Arbroath, we look forward to working closely with Kelly to help attract the next generation of young Lichtie girls and boys in supporting and possibly representing the Club in years to come”
On being asked what she can do as an ambassador, Kelly answered “I think what the Community Trust do with girl’s football in the town is amazing, and hopefully I am a face for the younger girls that they can look to me and say I want to do that, or I can do that. They know Kelly started in Arbroath, she played for a girl’s team in Arbroath, she supported Arbroath on a Saturday, She came to Gayfield, she was a mascot at Gayfield, she has done everything I’ve done and now she is a professional footballer. There is a future for them (the young Arbroath footballers) to be professional footballers. The sky is the limit.”
We think you will all agree with us that Kelly is a real life inspiration and as a Club and Town very proud of her achievements and look forward to the many more to come.
You can follow Kelly on Twitter her; https://twitter.com/kellyclark_94
Welcome on board Kelly!
C’mon the Lichties!
