{"id":416597,"date":"2026-01-18T03:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:29:12","slug":"north-carolina-courage-transfer-captain-denise-osullivan-to-liverpool-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/416597\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Courage transfer captain Denise O\u2019Sullivan to Liverpool \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJon Endow-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The North Carolina Courage have announced the transfer of midfielder and captain Denise O\u2019Sullivan to Liverpool, ending a nearly nine-year run for O\u2019Sullivan in North Carolina. The teams did not disclose the transfer fee.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan is North Carolina\u2019s all-time leader in appearances with 186 across all competitions. She helped the Courage win three NWSL Shields and two NWSL Championships, plus two Challenge Cups. O\u2019Sullivan arrived at the Courage in 2017 and was part of North Carolina\u2019s brief dynasty on the the field.<\/p>\n

The Courage won three straight Shields from 2017-2019, and the NWSL Championship in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, the Courage lost just once in all competitions while winning both league trophies and the inaugural Women\u2019s International Champions Cup, a scaled-down (invitational) precursor to the forthcoming Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0hard to put into words what this club has truly meant to me,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said in a statement. \u201cNorth Carolina will always be my home, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0forever grateful to the club, my teammates, and the incredible fans who supported and believed in me every step of the way.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0on to a new challenge now, but\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0always be a part of Courage Country.\u00a0From the bottom of my\u00a0heart, thank you for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan joins a Liverpool team fighting to stay in the Women\u2019s Super League, England\u2019s top flight.<\/p>\n

Liverpool, which is coached by former Manchester City coach Gareth Taylor, is winless through its first 12 games of the season and has just 4 points. Liverpool sits last and currently in the relegation playoff spot, although West Ham has only 5 points.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan had been the subject of rumored potential transfers to England in recent windows. She told Liverpool\u2019s club website<\/a> that the move is important for her large family, too, who are now a short flight away.<\/p>\n

She is an Ireland international midfielder who helped her country qualify for the Women\u2019s World Cup for the first time in 2023. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan first arrived at the Courage in 2017 as a waiver wire pickup<\/a> after the Houston Dash waived her mid-season. The Courage picked up Sullivan and she found immediate success in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2023 season, O\u2019Sullivan became the second captain in the North Carolina era of the franchise (which began as the Western New York Flash). <\/p>\n

\u201cDenise has been an integral part of this club since the beginning, and she has helped define the Courage way,\u201d North Carolina chief soccer officer Ceri Bowley, who arrived at the club last year, said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cShe\u2019s\u00a0been a leader, both on and off the field, and the standard of excellence she set for herself, her teammates, and everyone at this organization will be her legacy. She will be missed, but we understand her desire to be closer to home and wish her all the best in her next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to her move to the NWSL \u2014 originally with the Dash, for 2016 and part of 2017 \u2014 O\u2019Sullivan played in Ireland and Scotland, where she also found success.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan made UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League appearances with multiple clubs, and was part of the Glasgow City team that made the UWCL quarterfinals in the 2014-15 campaign, becoming the first Scottish team to advance that far. <\/p>\n

Glasgow City won three straight Scottish league titles during O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s time there, along with multiple cup titles.<\/p>\n

She went on loan to Australia twice during the NWSL\u2019s offseason. She also played briefly in the Women\u2019s Super League before, on loan to Brighton in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, a loan that allowed her to compete for Ireland during uncertain times globally. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Endow-Imagn Images The North Carolina Courage have announced the transfer of midfielder and captain Denise O\u2019Sullivan to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-416597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}