Maya Le Tissier

Maya Le Tissier (born 18 April 2002) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Women's Super League club Manchester United and the England national team.

Le Tissier grew up on the channel island of Guernsey.

She began playing football at the age of four for local boys' club St. Martins A.C., coached by her father, Darren.

With no girls' teams on the island, Le Tissier began flying to Hampshire to play for the county team twice a month from the age of 13, doing so for two years until the time commitment meant she was missing too much school and too many training sessions.

She continued to play for St. Martins until the age of 16.

On 1 July 2018, Le Tissier joined the academy at English Women's Super League club Brighton & Hove Albion.

She was quickly promoted to the first team, being named as an unused substitute for a WSL match against Arsenal on 25 November 2018, and made her senior debut on 5 December, starting and playing the full 90 minutes of a 5–1 League Cup group stage win against Crystal Palace.

She made her league debut four days later starting against Chelsea and scored her first goal for the club on 9 May 2021 in a 3–1 league win against Bristol City.

Le Tissier made history when she became the first female player to play for the Guernsey under-16 boys' team, featuring in the under-16 version of the 2018 Muratti Vase against Jersey under-16s in March of that year.

Having been invited to an England under-15 south west regional camp, Le Tissier went on to captain the England under-15 women's national team.

In September 2018, Le Tissier was named captain of the under-17s ahead of 2019 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification.

England won all six qualification games without conceding and Le Tissier was named to the final squad for the 2019 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship in Bulgaria.

She started all three games as England were eliminated at the group stage on head-to-head goal difference having tied on six points with Germany and Netherlands.

She was named as Brighton Women's Young Player of the Season at Albion's end-of-season awards for both the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons.

She was also nominated for PFA Women's Young Player of the Year in June 2022.

On 20 July 2022, Le Tissier signed a three-year contract with Manchester United.

With one year remaining on her Brighton contract, the club triggered a release clause reportedly between £50,000 and £60,000.

She made her club debut on 17 September 2022, starting and scoring two goals in a 4–0 opening day WSL win against Reading.

Her step up to under-19 level came on 6 March 2020 against Sweden in the La Manga tournament.

She made her under-23 debut at the age of 19 in a friendly against Belgium on 25 October 2021.

In November 2022, Le Tissier received her first senior England call-up for friendlies against Japan and Norway.

She made her debut on 15 November, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–1 draw with the latter opponent.

On 18 November 2022, her England legacy number was announced as number 226.

In May 2023, Le Tissier was named to the standby list for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Le Tissier's father, Darren, previously played semi-professional football for St. Martins A.C. She credits him for introducing her to the team of four-year-old boys he was coaching, of which she has said: "credit to the boys back home, if they didn't just see me as another footballer, then I might not be where I am today."

Despite coming from the same small island of Guernsey and sharing a surname, Le Tissier is not related to the former England international footballer Matthew Le Tissier, although the two families know each other and Darren had previously played football with Matt.

In May 2022, Le Tissier signed up to footballing charity Common Goal, pledging to donate at least one percent of her salary.

Manchester United

England

Individual