Holly Furphy

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Holly Furphy
Personal information
Date of birth (2002-04-29) 29 April 2002 (age 23)
Place of birth Melbourne, Australia
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position 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)
2016–2021 Senior NTC 73 (22)
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

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Furphy was born in Melbourne[citation needed] 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 Victorian Amateur Football Association player.[5] Her older brother, Joe is a former Geelong AFL reserves player.[6][7] Younger brother, Johnny, is a professional basketballer for the Indiana Pacers in America's NBA.[8] 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.[9] For tertiary studies Furphy attended California's Santa Clara University, under a sports scholarship,[7] from 2022 and started an Environmental Science Degree.[6][9][10]

Youth career

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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.[11] As a teenager, Furphy was a train-on player for Melbourne Victory in 2020.[6][10] 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.[6][9][10] Furphy's first season was interrupted after five matches by an ACL injury,[6] "[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."[10] After recovery, the second season resulted in 18 matches and two goals.[9][10] In her third and final season, the forward kicked two goals in 13 matches.[9]

Club career

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Furphy played for an FFV NTC side, Senior NTC/FV Emerging, in the NPLW Victoria from 2016 to 2021,[1][12][13] both 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.[14][15] 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][16] 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][17] 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.[18] In the ensuing penalty shootout, she converted her spot kick, but her team lost 5–4.[18]

Immediately after her international performances (see below) Furphy, in late August 2025, was re-signed by Melbourne Victory for the 2025–26 season.[19]

International career

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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.[20] She joined another Young Matildas training camp from 30 May to 3 June 2022 in Sydney.[21] Subsequently Young Matildas coach Leah Blayney selected her for a friendly match against New Zealand on 12 June 2022.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] She scored the team's first goal of the tournament in their 2–1 loss against Myanmar on 7 August,[25] and two more in their 9–0 defeat of Timor Leste to reach the semi-finals.[26] In the final of the tournament, Furphy scored the only goal giving Australia U23 the trophy.[27] Consequently she was awarded Player of the Match for the final and Most Valuable Player of the tournament.[27][28]

Honours

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Regional

Club

Individual

References

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  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. ^ "Johnny Furphy - 2023-24 - Men's Basketball". University of Kansas. 24 October 2025. Retrieved 18 October 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. ^ Pierik, Jon (25 June 2024). "Here's Johnny! How a kid from Clifton Hill rose to the NBA draft". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 18 October 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "Aussies in the NBA: Johnny Furphy | Basketball.com.au". www.basketball.com.au. 24 March 2025. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Holly Furphy – 2024 – Women's Soccer". Santa Clara University. 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d e Yap, Kieran (18 March 2025). "Holly Furphy: taking shots and grabbing her chances". impetusfootball.org. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ Holly Furphy in Senior NTC or FV Emerging:
  13. ^ Persoglia, Tony (28 March 2025). "2025 NPLW Official Season Guide V1 05" (PDF). Football Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 April 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  14. ^ "2021 Start Up". Football Victoria. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  15. ^ "Metro Melbourne 2021 season status". Football Victoria. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ "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.
  18. ^ a b Dodd, James (18 May 2025). "A-League Grand Final: Mariners win thrilling penalty shoot-out". A-League Women. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  19. ^ kyogasingham (20 August 2025). "Melbourne Victory trio Jančevski, Furphy & Sakalis re-sign". Melbourne Victory. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  20. ^ "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.
  21. ^ "Road to Costa Rica continues 27 player Commbank Young Matildas training camp". Football Australia. 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Blayney Selects 24-Player CommBank Young Matildas Squad For Aotearoa New Zealand Tour". Football Australia. 6 June 2022.
  23. ^ Comito (March 2025). "Holly Furphy for Matildas? How Victory young gun can follow Laini Freier's lead". A-League Women. Retrieved 3 August 2025.
  24. ^ "JANČEVSKI, FURPHY and SAKALIS named in U23 National Squad". Melbourne Victory. 30 July 2025. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
  25. ^ "MSIG Serenity Cup – Report: Myanmar 2–1 Australia". aseanutdfc.com. 7 August 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  26. ^ "MSIG SERENITY CUP™ 2025: Australia vs Timor-Leste - Group B". ASEAN United Football Confederation. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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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