Holly Furphy

Holly Furphy
Personal information
Date of birth (2002-04-29) 29 April 2002
Place of birth Melbourne, Australia
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 Melbourne Victory
Number 9
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2022–2024 Santa Clara 36 (4)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2016–2019 Senior NTC 62 (19)
2025– Melbourne Victory 14 (3)
International career‡
2022 Australia U20 1 (0)
2025 Australia U23 5 (4)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 2 July 2025
‡ National team caps and goals as of 19 August 2025

Holly Furphy (born 29 April 2002) is an Australian soccer player. She plays as a forward for Melbourne Victory in the A-League Women. Upon debut, during the 2024–25 season, she scored her first goal.[1][2] In May 2025, Melbourne Victory were runners-up in the grand final to champions, Central Coast Mariners. Furphy has represented Australia in the Australia U-20s (Young Matildas) and Australia U-23s. The latter team won the 2025 ASEAN Women's Championship and she was awarded Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Early life

Furphy was born in Melbourne to Liza Alpers and Richard Furphy and grew up with two brothers.[3] Alpers is a former diver, who won national titles.[4] Furphy's father is a former Australian Football League (AFL) player.[3] Her older brother, Joe is a former Geelong AFL reserves player.[5][6] Younger brother, Johnny, is a professional basketballer for the Indiana Pacers in America's NBA.[7] She began playing soccer for Yarra Jets juniors (Victorian State League Division 4 East) as a ten-year-old.[1] At 13 she joined the Football Federation Victoria National Training Centre (FFV NTC).[1] She attended Maribyrnong College as a secondary student.[8] For tertiary studies Furphy attended California's Santa Clara University, under a sports scholarship,[6] from 2022 and started an Environmental Science Degree.[5][8][9]

Youth career

In 2016 Furphy was a member of Victoria's Under-15 girls soccer team at the National Youth Championships for Girls, which won the tournament contested by seven other state/regional teams.[10] As a teenager, Furphy was a train-on player for Melbourne Victory in 2020.[5][9] She relocated to Santa Clara, playing for their soccer team from 2022, as part of the American college soccer system's NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament.[5][8][9] Furphy's first season was interrupted after five matches by an ACL injury,[5] "[it was a] bit of a set back for me and made me really reflect on what I want to do really because of not playing for 10 months and trying to work my way back to what I was, in that moment I decided to become a different player."[9] After recovery, the second season resulted in 18 matches and two goals.[8][9] In her third and final season, the forward kicked two goals in 13 matches.[8]

Club career

Furphy played for an FFV NTC side, Senior NTC/FV Emerging, in the NPLW Victoria from 2016 to 2019,[1][9][11] both 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.[12][13] After three years in Santa Clara, Furphy returned to Australia and signed with Melbourne Victory in 2024–25 mid-season as an injury replacement for Paige Zois on 24 January 2025.[1][14] Her first game was against Sydney, where she scored her debut goal nine minutes after being subbed on, which resulted in their 2–0 win.[1][15] On 18 May Furphy participated in Melbourne Victory's Grand Final against Central Coast Mariners, which finished in a 1–1 draw after extra time.[16] In the ensuing penalty shootout, she converted her spot kick, but her team lost 5–4.[16]

International career

Furphy was selected for the Australia women's national under-20 soccer team (Young Matildas), 24-Player squad's training camp for 1–4 October 2019 in Sydney.[17] She joined another Young Matildas training camp from 30 May to 3 June 2022 in Sydney.[18] Subsequently Young Matildas coach Leah Blayney selected her for a friendly match against New Zealand on 12 June 2022.[19] Due to an ACL injury in Santa Clara, she was unavailable for the Young Matildas campaign to the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica in August.[20] Furphy joined the 23-player squad for the Australia women's national under-23 soccer team (U23 Matildas), which competed at the 2025 ASEAN Women's Championship in Vietnam from 6 to 19 August.[21] She scored the team's first goal of the tournament in their 2–1 loss against Myanmar on 7 August,[22] and two more in their 9–0 defeat of Timor Leste to reach the semi-finals.[23] In the final of the tournament, Furphy scored the only goal giving Australia U23 the trophy.[24] Consequently she was awarded Player of the Match for the final and Most Valuable Player of the tournament.[24][25]

Honours

Regional

Club

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Yap, Kieran (29 January 2025). "A brief history of Holly Furphy". impetusfootball.org. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Holly Furphy". Melbourne Victory. 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Who are Johnny Furphy's Parents? Meet Richard Furphy and Liza Alpers". Sportskeeda. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  4. ^ "Legends of Diving SA – Diving SA". revolutioniseSPORT. 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ a b c d e Dodds, James (May 2025). "The 'fever dream' inspiring Victory star with sporting DNA: 'I love this game so much' – A-Leagues". A-League Women. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  6. ^ a b Cats Media (12 September 2023). "Cats sign Furphy as Category B rookie". geelongcats.com.au. Retrieved 3 August 2025. Furphy comes from a sporting family with his brother and sister both at College in the United States with basketball and soccer scholarships respectively.
  7. ^ "Aussies in the NBA: Johnny Furphy | Basketball.com.au". www.basketball.com.au. 24 March 2025. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Holly Furphy – 2024 – Women's Soccer". Santa Clara University. 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Yap, Kieran (18 March 2025). "Holly Furphy: taking shots and grabbing her chances". impetusfootball.org. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  10. ^ "Victoria clinch double at National Youth Championships". Football Federation Victoria (FFV). 11 July 2016. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ Holly Furphy in Senior NTC or FV Emerging:
  12. ^ "2021 Start Up". Football Victoria. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Metro Melbourne 2021 season status". Football Victoria. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  14. ^ Melbourne Victory [@gomvfc] (24 January 2025). "Melbourne Victory can confirm that Melbourne born Holly Furphy has joined the A-League Women's squad as an injury replacement for Paige Zois" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  15. ^ "Women's Match Report | Victory continue winning streak against Sydney FC". Melbourne Victory. 24 January 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025. Jeff Hopkins introduced Holly Furphy just past the hour mark for her Victory debut, a decision that certainly paid off. Just nine minutes after entering the game, Rachel Lowe played through the debutant who rounded Sydney's goalkeeper and put the Navy Blue's 2–0 up.
  16. ^ a b Dodd, James (18 May 2025). "A-League Grand Final: Mariners win thrilling penalty shoot-out". A-League Women. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  17. ^ "FFV0023%20ANNUAL%20REPORT%202019.pdf" (PDF). footballvictoria.com.au. 2019. p. 98. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 June 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Road to Costa Rica continues 27 player Commbank Young Matildas training camp". Football Australia. 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  19. ^ "Blayney Selects 24-Player CommBank Young Matildas Squad For Aotearoa New Zealand Tour". Football Australia. 6 June 2022.
  20. ^ Comito (March 2025). "Holly Furphy for Matildas? How Victory young gun can follow Laini Freier's lead". A-League Women. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
  21. ^ "JANČEVSKI, FURPHY and SAKALIS named in U23 National Squad". Melbourne Victory. 30 July 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  22. ^ "MSIG Serenity Cup – Report: Myanmar 2–1 Australia". aseanutdfc.com. 7 August 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  23. ^ "MSIG SERENITY CUP™ 2025: Australia vs Timor-Leste - Group B". ASEAN United Football Confederation. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  24. ^ a b c d e Tan, Gabriel (20 August 2025). "How Australia U23 overcame slow start to be worthy ASEAN Women's Championship winners". ESPN.
  25. ^ a b c d "Australia win ASEAN Women's MSIG Serenity Cup™ 2025 after Furphy's second-half strike ends Myanmar's resistance". AFF. 19 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.


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