{"id":11729,"date":"2025-07-21T21:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/11729\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:06:08","slug":"football-fern-cj-bott-becomes-free-agent-after-release-by-leicester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/11729\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Fern CJ Bott becomes free agent after release by Leicester City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand international CJ Bott has been released by her English Women\u2019s Super League club Leicester City.<\/p>\n<p>The club has confirmed the Wellington-born defender is one of seven players who will be released after the expiry of their contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Bott (30) joined Leicester City in 2022 from Norwegian top-tier club V\u00e5lerenga, and signed a two-year extension in July 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo: CJ Bott playing for the Ferns during the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup. Photo: Shane Wenzlick \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/phototek.co.nz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Phototek<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bott\u2019s football career began with New Zealand clubs Tawa, Lynn-Avon United and Waterside Karori before heading to Europe, where she played for German Bundesliga side FF USV.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, she joined the Swedish club Vittsj\u00f6 GIK, and a year later, she joined Toppserien-based V\u00e5lerenga.<\/p>\n<p>Bott made her international debut in March 2014 and was part of the Ferns squad at the 2015, 2019 and 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cups.<\/p>\n<p>She has earned 50 caps for New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2024, CJ Bott and All Whites wingback Liberato Cacace were nominated for FIFA\u2019s Best 11 awards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendsoffootballnz.com\/2024\/11\/29\/internationals-cj-bott-and-liberato-cacace-nominated-for-fifas-best-11-awards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">READ MORE: Internationals CJ Bott and Liberato Cacace nominated for FIFA\u2019s Best 11 awards<\/a>\u00a0&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>This story was first published on July 22, 2025.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendsoffootballnz.com\/latest-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand international CJ Bott has been released by her English Women\u2019s Super League club Leicester City. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-11729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}