Holly Furphy
Australian soccer player (born 2002)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Holly Furphy (born 29 April 2002) is an Australian soccer player. She plays as a forward for Melbourne Victory in the A-League Women. Upon debut, during the 2024–25 season, she scored her first goal.[1][2] In May 2025, Melbourne Victory were runners-up in the grand final to champions, Central Coast Mariners. Furphy has represented Australia in the Australia U-20s (Young Matildas) and Australia U-23s. The latter team won the 2025 ASEAN Women's Championship and she was awarded Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 29 April 2002 | ||
| Place of birth | Melbourne, Australia | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Melbourne Victory | ||
| Number | 9 | ||
| College career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2022–2024 | Santa Clara | 36 | (4) |
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2016–2021 | Senior NTC | 73 | (22) |
| 2025– | Melbourne Victory | 14 | (3) |
| International career‡ | |||
| 2022 | Australia U20 | 1 | (0) |
| 2025 | Australia U23 | 5 | (4) |
|
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 2 July 2025 ‡ National team caps and goals as of 19 August 2025 | |||
Early life
Furphy was born in Melbourne in 2002,[3] to Liza Alpers and Richard Furphy and grew up with two brothers.[4] Alpers is a former diver, who won national titles.[5] Furphy's father is a former Victorian Amateur Football Association player.[6] Her older brother, Joe is a former Geelong AFL reserves player.[7][8] Younger brother, Johnny, is a professional basketballer for the Indiana Pacers in America's NBA.[9] She began playing soccer for Yarra Jets juniors (Victorian State League Division 4 East) as a ten-year-old.[3][1] At 13 she joined the Football Federation Victoria National Training Centre (FFV NTC) in 2016.[3][1] She attended Maribyrnong College as a secondary student.[10] For tertiary studies Furphy attended California's Santa Clara University, under a sports scholarship,[8] from 2022 and started an Environmental Science Degree.[7][10][11]
Youth career
In 2016 Furphy was a member of Victoria's Under-15 girls soccer team at the National Youth Championships for Girls, which won the tournament contested by seven other state/regional teams.[12] As a teenager, Furphy was a train-on player for Melbourne Victory in 2020.[7][11] She relocated to Santa Clara, playing for their soccer team from 2022, as part of the American college soccer system's NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament.[3][7][10] Furphy's first season was interrupted after five matches by an ACL injury,[7] "[it was a] bit of a set back for me and made me really reflect on what I want to do really because of not playing for 10 months and trying to work my way back to what I was, in that moment I decided to become a different player."[11] After recovery, the second season resulted in 18 matches and two goals.[10][11] In her third and final season, the forward kicked two goals in 13 matches.[10]
Club career
Furphy played for an FFV NTC side, Senior NTC/FV Emerging, in the NPLW Victoria from 2016 to 2021,[1][13][14] both 2020 and 2021 seasons were cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.[15][16] After three years in Santa Clara, Furphy returned to Australia and signed with Melbourne Victory in 2024–25 mid-season as an injury replacement for Paige Zois on 24 January 2025.[1][17] Her first game was against Sydney, where she scored her debut goal nine minutes after being subbed on, which resulted in their 2–0 win.[1][18] On 18 May Furphy participated in Melbourne Victory's Grand Final against Central Coast Mariners, which finished in a 1–1 draw after extra time.[19] In the ensuing penalty shootout, she converted her spot kick, but her team lost 5–4.[19]
Immediately after her international performances (see below) Furphy, in late August 2025, was re-signed by Melbourne Victory for the 2025–26 season.[20]
International career
Furphy was selected for the Australia women's national under-20 soccer team (Young Matildas), 24-Player squad's training camp for 1–4 October 2019 in Sydney.[21] She joined another Young Matildas training camp from 30 May to 3 June 2022 in Sydney.[22] Subsequently Young Matildas coach Leah Blayney selected her for a friendly match against New Zealand on 12 June 2022.[23] Due to an ACL injury in Santa Clara, she was unavailable for the Young Matildas campaign to the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica in August.[24] Furphy joined the 23-player squad for the Australia women's national under-23 soccer team (U23 Matildas), which competed at the 2025 ASEAN Women's Championship in Vietnam from 6 to 19 August.[25] She scored the team's first goal of the tournament in their 2–1 loss against Myanmar on 7 August,[26] and two more in their 9–0 defeat of Timor Leste to reach the semi-finals.[27] In the final of the tournament, Furphy scored the only goal giving Australia U23 the trophy.[28] Consequently she was awarded Player of the Match for the final and Most Valuable Player of the tournament.[28][29]
Honours
Regional
- ASEAN Women's Championship: Champions (2025)[28][29]
Club
- A-League Women Champions: Runners-up (2024–25)
Individual