Meet Claire Rafferty

Claire Rafferty was a hugely experienced defender in the Women’s Super League, having retired from West Ham United in 2019. She is Chelsea’s longest-serving player and has played at the World Cup and Olympic Games for England and Team GB respectively.

Claire joined Chelsea in 2007 and in her final season won her second domestic double before announcing her transfer to WSL side West Ham, in June 2018. She was part of both the Team GB squad which reached the quarter-finals at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2015 FA Cup winning Chelsea squad.

Claire represented England from Under-15s level, making her senior debut against Austria in March 2010. In 2015 she was the first-choice left back in the England side which won Bronze at the World Cup in Canada.

Since retiring from football, Claire has appeared on BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sports News, talkSPORT, TRT World, BBC 5Live, Yahoo Sports and Chelsea TV, and has covered major sporting events such as the 2019 Women’s Word Cup in France.

Alongside her playing career, she held down a part-time job as a financial analyst for Deutsche Bank from 2012. Claire retired from football at the end of the 2019 season, and took up the role of Partnership Sales Manager at former home club Chelsea FC.

Outside of football, Claire has an economics degree which she graduated with from Loughborough University in 2011. She also now works for Transfer Room as an Agency Success Manager working to create successful transfers throughout their global network.

Honours

Chelsea

• FA WSL: 2015, 2017-18
• FA Women’s Cup: 2014-15, 2017-18

England

• Cyprus Cup: 2015
• FIFA Women’s World Cup third place: 2015