 Phillip playing for Arsenal in October 2006 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mary Rose Phillip | ||
| Date of birth | (1977-03-14)14 March 1977 (age 48) | ||
| Place of birth | Peckham,England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Defender | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Peckham Town (manager) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Lambeth Ladies | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1992–2000 | Millwall Lionesses | ||
| 2000–2004 | Fulham | ||
| 2004–2008 | Arsenal | ||
| 2008 | Chelsea | ||
| International career | |||
| 1996–2008 | England | 65 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2019– | Peckham Town | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Mary Rose Phillip (born 14 March 1977) is an English football manager and former player, who manages men'sKent County League team Peckham Town.
A versatile player, she played in all four positions at the back and also in midfield. Phillip captainedEngland, the first black player to captain an England women's international football team, and until 2011, was the only player to represent the country in twoWorld Cup squads. During her playing career, she had 65 international caps.[2] She enjoyed a successful club career withMillwall Lionesses,Fulham Ladies,Arsenal Ladies andChelsea Ladies, and won theFA Women's Cup with three different clubs. After retiring as a player in 2008, she became a team coach and manager and in 2020, became the first female manager of a cup-winning men's senior side.
In October 2024, Phillip was inducted into theEnglish Football Hall of Fame.[3]
Phillip was born and raised inPeckham[4] and isbiracial.[5] Her father was a bus driver of Saint Lucian descent, and her mother was a primary school teacher of Irish origin.[6] Phillip was keen on football from childhood.[2]
Phillip joinedMillwall Lionesses as a 12-year-old and later won the FA Women's Cup with them in1997 when Millwall beatWembley.[7] She then moved toFulham Ladies as a professional in 2000;[5][8] she was one of the first 16 UK women players to turn pro.[2] She won her second FA Women's Cup, and first with Fulham in2002 when Fulham beatDoncaster Belles 2–1 atSelhurst Park.[7]
Phillip became the club captain at Fulham, for whom she lifted theFA Women's Cup in front of 10,000 fans and 1.9m viewers on BBC television in May 2003, the season Fulham completed the treble.[7]
She played forArsenal Ladies in central defence and was with the club for four years after joining from Fulham in July 2004. Her central defensive partnership withFaye White played a part in Arsenal's unprecedented success, both domestically and in Europe.[9] She would go on to win the FA Women's Cup again with Arsenal in2006,2007 and2008.[7] At the end of the 2007–08 season, it was announced that Phillip would be leaving Arsenal.[10] She later joinedChelsea Ladies in time for the start of the 2008–09 season. In October 2008, Phillip retired from football at the age of 31.[11]
Phillip made herEngland debut whilst withMillwall Lionesses, playing in the same team as future national coachHope Powell in 1996.[12] As an 18-year-old, she received an unexpected call-up to the squad that played in the1995 FIFA Women's World Cup;[13] she was pregnant at the time.[5][2] Phillip won six caps,[14] then spent four years out of the international set-up while having her two sons.[15]
She returned in early 2002 and subsequently captained England in two international friendlies againstSweden in February 2006, whenFaye White was absent with an ankle injury. She again captained England in the absence of White, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury at the start of the 2006–07 season, when they overcameFrance to secure passage to the2007 FIFA Women's World Cup.[16] She was the first black player to captain an England women's international side.[4][5][2][17]
After being named in the squad for China, Phillip became the first English player to feature in twoWorld Cup squads.[2][18][19] In February 2008, Phillip was one of a record eightArsenal players who started in England's 2–1 friendly win overNorway.[20] She won a total of 65 caps for the national side.[16]
She was allotted 114 when the FA announced their legacy numbers scheme to honour the 50th anniversary of England's inaugural international.[21][22]
After her retirement as a player in 2008, Phillip became a coach, completing herA licence in the 2010s.[4] In 2019, she became manager of Peckham Town, her local club, where she had coached first the Under-18s and then the senior squad; in 2020, they won the London Senior Trophy, the club's first cup win and the first for a senior men's side with a female manager.[4][2][17][23] In 2021, she assistedLydia Bedford in coaching the England women's Under-18 team as part of the Elite Coach Placement Programme.[17]
Phillip has two sons and two daughters.[4] She hasmultiple sclerosis, diagnosed in 2017.[4][5]
Millwall Lionesses
Fulham
Arsenal
Peckham Town
England squads | |||||||||||||
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