Jessie Stapleton signs for West Ham: ‘It's been a dream of mine since I was a little kid to sign for a professional team’

Jessie Stapleton celebrates scoring Shels' opening goal in the cup final

Jessie Stapleton celebrates scoring Shels' opening goal in the cup final Credit: Peter Fitzpatrick (ETPhotos)

West Ham United have secured the signing of Ireland international Jessie Stapleton.

“I’m delighted to join West Ham United,” she said speaking to whufc.com.

"It's a massive honour for me to sign for this club. It's been a dream of mine since I was a little kid to sign for a professional team and I can't wait to get going.

"Every player growing up now wants to play in the WSL, it's one of the biggest and best leagues in the world. You watch the games every weekend over in Ireland.

"There seems to be a great bunch of girls here at West Ham and I'm excited to get started with pre-season training ahead of the new season."

The Ireland under-19 player of the year departed Shelbourne having made 71 appearances and scoring 21 goals for the club.

On her depature from Shelbourne she said: “It’s been a pleasure to play for this incredible club.”

“I’ve grown so much as a player winning two league titles, an FAI Cup and had the amazing experience of playing in the Champions League.”

West Ham General Manager Aidan Boxall said: "We are delighted to welcome Jessie to east London. She is a promising defender that we have been watching for a long time and have beaten off some strong competition to secure her services.

"Jessie will need some time to adapt to the WSL but we feel we have a fantastic talent in the building, and I’m delighted she has chosen West Ham as the place that’s best suited to continue her development.”



She began her career at Cherry Orchard before playing underage with Peamount United and at Shamrock Rovers, where she captained the Hoops’ under-17 side to the Women’s National League Final in 2020. 

Stapleton made her senior Ieland debut against the Philippines as a substitute in June of 2022 in a friendly match in Turkey and was most recently called-up to Pauw’s squad in November 2022 but did not make the final squad for the World Cup.

Stapleton joins Jessica Ziu and Izzy Atkinson as Republic of Ireland players in the Hammers squad.

Additional reporting by Andrew Dempsey 

 

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile