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Katie Alison McCabe (born 21 September 1995) is an Irish professional footballer who plays for English Women's Super League club Arsenal and captains the Republic of Ireland women's national team. Mainly a left back, she can also operate as a left winger and a left midfielder. McCabe is the fourth Irish woman to win a UEFA Champions League trophy.
As a teenager, McCabe won the Irish Women's National League title twice and the FAI Women's Cup three times with Raheny United before signing with Arsenal in 2015. With Arsenal, she has won the FA Cup in 2016, the 2018–19 WSL, three League Cups, and the Champions League. She was also named in the PFA Team of the Year for 2021. During her short loan to Glasgow City in 2017 she also won the SWPL.
After earning her first Ireland cap in 2015, she was named the country's captain in 2017, the youngest captain in the history of the team, and named as Ireland Women's Player of the Year in 2021. In 2023 , The Guardian has described McCabe as "the undoubted face of Irish women's football" and the Irish Times named her Sportswoman of the Year. She won Irelands 2023 international goal of the year for her Olimpico goal goal against Canada in the 2023 Women's World Cup
In 2023, McCabe made history as the first Irish woman nominated for the renowned women’s Ballon d’Or award. She is the first Irish player nominated since Roy Keane nomination in 2000.
She missed four months of the 2013–14 season with a broken leg. Despite spending a majority of the season sidelined due to injury she still won the WNL Young Player of the Year award. That year, she had also been recruited by Florida State University to play for the Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team in the United States, but the move collapsed due to her injury.
In 2014–15 McCabe scored 23 WNL goals for Raheny, two behind top scorer Áine O'Gorman of UCD Waves. In November 2014, she scored the opening goal for Raheny in the FAI Women's Cup final, from a 35-yard free kick, winning her second FAI Cup with the club. She clinched the last minute winner for the 2015 WNL Cup in extra time, defeating Peamount United 3-2. Her performance in the 2014-15 season landed her a spot on the WNL Team of the Season for the first time.
For the 2015–16 season, McCabe remained with the club in their new guise as Shelbourne Ladies.
In the 2018–19 season, McCabe helped lead Arsenal to the FA WSL title, playing the most minutes of any player in the squad. On 26 March 2019, she signed an extension with Arsenal. Five days later, in one of the last matches of the year, she scored a crucial game-winning goal against Birmingham, keeping Arsenal one point clear on top of the league table.
McCabe scored 5 goals and picked up 12 assists during the 2020–21 FA WSL season as Arsenal finished third. She tied for first in the league for assists and was named in the PFA Team of the Year. In December 2020, she made her 100th appearance for Arsenal in a 4-0 victory over Everton, assisting a Jen Beattie goal from the corner. Later that month, McCabe was involved in a COVID-19-related controversy after posting a picture of herself on a beach in Dubai despite a travel ban for Tier 4 residents in London. She stated that she had gone to Dubai for a business meeting with her agent. She did not receive any disciplinary sanctions from the FA for the controversy.
Ahead of the 2021–22 FA WSL season, McCabe signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal.
McCabe won Goal of the 2022–23 Season for her game winning strike against Manchester City. On 20 June 2023, McCabe was announced as the Arsenal Women Player of the Season.
On 29 September 2023, McCabe signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal. She made her 200th appearance for the Gunners against Manchester City on 5 November 2023.
While playing against Chelsea in her 250th game for Arsenal on 26 January 2025, McCabe received a red card for dissent, the second of her career and resulted in a two match ban. McCabe won the club-wide goal of the month for March 2025. On 24 May 2025, McCabe was part of the team that defeated Barcelona 1–0 to claim the 2024–25 UEFA Women's Champions League trophy. She played 1,296 minutes during the entire campaign, breaking the record for amount of minutes played in one UWCL season.
In March 2015 national coach Susan Ronan gave McCabe a senior debut against Hungary at the 2015 Istria Cup, a 1–1 draw. A quad injury kept McCabe out of Ireland's 3–0 UEFA Euro 2017 qualifying defeat by Spain on 26 November 2015 at Tallaght Stadium, Dublin. At the 2016 Cyprus Cup, McCabe scored her first international goal to secure a 1–1 draw with Italy.
McCabe featured in Ronan's squad for the UEFA Euro qualifying stage, making seven appearances in total. In August 2017, new national team coach Colin Bell appointed 21-year-old McCabe as the Ireland captain, the youngest captain in the history of the team.
In April 2021, she earned her 50th cap for Ireland against Belgium. In September 2021, the FAI announced that it would implement equal pay for its men's and women's national teams, after negotiations led by McCabe and men's captain Séamus Coleman.
McCabe and manager Vera Pauw led Ireland to qualify for the 2023 FIFA World Cup, the first major tournament appearance in the team's history. On 26 July 2023 she scored an in their group stage match against Canada, becoming her country's first-ever goal-scorer at the Women's World Cup. This goal won the 2023 Ireland international goal of the year. Ireland was ultimately defeated by Canada 2–1, eliminating them from the tournament. McCabe said she was saddened by the result, but added that "this is our first ever major tournament and I know for a fact, given those performances we put in, it won't be our last."
Mccabe captained the Irish team during the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifiers. Advancing to the playoffs, they took a win over Georgia, with a 6-0 victory in the opening leg. They were eventually knocked out by Wales.
She is coming out lesbian. In June 2019, McCabe revealed she was in a relationship with fellow Irish footballer Ruesha Littlejohn, and that women's football is very accepting of LGBT people. The couple split in May 2023. McCabe is currently in a relationship with Arsenal teammate and Australian international, Caitlin Foord.
While playing in the Irish Women's National League, McCabe worked as a grill coordinator at a Nando's restaurant in Tallaght.
| Raheny United | 2011–12 | WNL | 5 |
| 2012–13 | 6 | ||
| 2013–14 | 7 | ||
| 2014–15 | 28 | ||
| 2015–16 | 4 | ||
| Glasgow City | 2017 | SWPL | 7 |
| Arsenal | 2016 | FA WSL | 0 |
| 2017 | 1 | ||
| 2017–18 | 2 | ||
| 2018–19 | 10 | ||
| 2019–20 | 4 | ||
| 2020–21 | 5 | ||
| 2021–22 | 6 | ||
| 2022–23 | 3 | ||
| 2023–24 | 3 | ||
| 2024–25 | 2 | ||
| + Appearances and goals by national team and year | |||
| Republic of Ireland | 2015 | 6 | 0 |
| 2016 | 11 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 10 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 8 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 8 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 5 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 9 | 3 | |
| 2022 | 10 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 15 | 6 | |
| 2024 | 11 | 3 | |
| 2025 | 5 | 0 | |
| +International goals scored by Katie McCabe |
Arsenal
Glasgow City
Individual
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