Carla Ward
English footballer
Carla Ward (born 21 December 1983) is an English football coach and former midfielder who serves as the head coach of the Republic of Ireland women's national team.
Early life
Born on the Isle of Wight, Ward grew up on a council estate in Torquay where she learned to play football in the street.
Club career
After a season in Spain with Sporting Plaza de Argel, Ward joined Leeds United for 2007–08, but signed for Lincoln in December 2007. In summer 2009 Doncaster Rovers Belles beat competition from other Premier League clubs to secure Ward's signature, but she experienced a "change of heart" and returned to Lincoln after a few weeks. When Lincoln were accepted into the new FA WSL, Ward moved to Sheffield FC, initially on loan.
In November 2017, club captain Ward left Sheffield FC after more than 200 appearances and over 100 goals.
Managerial career
Sheffield United
In November 2017, Ward joined Sheffield United in the FA Women's Premier League Midlands Division One as player-assistant manager. She took over as interim manager on 17 January 2018 after Dan O'Hearne stepped down before being given the job on a permanent basis. In her first game as interim manager, United beat Birmingham & West Midlands 5–0 followed up with a 10–0 victory over Rotherham United. Ward was involved in the club's successful application to the FA Women's Championship.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Carla Ward” is english footballer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Carla, Ward and English, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55819505. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983, 2007, 2009 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carla Ward” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.