Ruesha Littlejohn


Ruesha Littlejohn is an Irish footballer who plays as a striker for FA WSL club West Ham United. She has also had four spells with Glasgow City and stints with Norwegian First Division club IL Sandviken and English sides Arsenal, Liverpool and London Bees. Despite having played youth football for Scotland, Littlejohn chose to feature at the senior level for the Republic of Ireland.

Club career

Glasgow-born Littlejohn played youth football with Clydebank and Baillieston girls before joining Arsenal North. She signed for Glasgow City in January 2007 and won four successive titles with the club. In January 2010 Littlejohn signed for English champions Arsenal and made an immediate debut in the Gunners' 2–1 home win over Chelsea. Shortly afterwards Tony Gervaise, who had also been Littlejohn's coach in Scotland's youth national teams, stood down as Arsenal manager. With Littlejohn then out of favour she returned to Scotland on loan with Rangers, where she featured in the first women's match to be staged at Ibrox Stadium.
Littlejohn then returned to Glasgow City. She hit seven goals in the final game of the season against Inverness, as City secured another Premier League title.
Along with Megan Sneddon and Suzanne Lappin, Littlejohn signed for Liverpool Ladies ahead of the 2011 FA WSL season. The Scottish trio made their Liverpool bow in a friendly win over Hibernian Ladies. On her competitive debut against Charlton Athletic in the FA Women's Cup, Littlejohn marked the occasion by scoring a hat-trick. She also fired a last-minute goal as Liverpool held rivals Everton 3–3 in the opening match of the WSL campaign. During the mid-season break Littlejohn and Lappin went back to Scotland, this time with Celtic, making their debuts against Rangers.
In May 2012, the Football Association gave Littlejohn a six-match ban and charged her £500 costs for comments made on Twitter. During the 2012 FA WSL mid-season break, Littlejohn returned to Glasgow City: "It is great to be back at City again. I know the club so well. I have been here since I turned 16 years old and City is like my home, as I always seem to come back here."
In March 2014 Littlejohn signed for the Norwegian First club IL Sandviken, based in Bergen. By August she had scored 11 goals in 13 games to top the goalscorer's chart. She finished the season as the league’s top goalscorer with 19 goals from 22 matches as Sandviken were promoted to the Toppserien as 1. divisjon champions.
Littlejohn was called into the Ireland squad in February 2015, listed as a free agent. After a year with Celtic in 2015, Littlejohn returned to Glasgow City for her fourth spell with the club in January 2016. She departed during the mid-season break, and was back in Celtic colours for the second part of the campaign.
In July 2018 Littlejohn signed with London Bees. In 2019, she joined West Ham United on non-contract terms. On 25 January 2020, she signed a deal until the end of the season.

International career

Scotland

Littlejohn represented Scotland at Under–15 and Under–17 level. At the Under–19 age group, Littlejohn was part of the side which qualified for the 2008 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship in France. She scored Scotland's only goal in a 3–1 defeat to England at the final tournament group stage. Littlejohn scored 12 goals in her 15 appearances for Scotland's Under–19s.
Scotland's senior national team coach Anna Signeul excluded Littlejohn due to personal differences: "Em, well, the senior manager wasn’t a fan of mine. I think she thought I had too much carry on, a little personality, and she wasn’t really into that."

Ireland

After three year of not playing internationally, Littlejohn situation caught the eye of Arsenal teammates Emma Byrne, Yvonne Tracy and Niamh Fahey. They alerted the FAI to her eligibility through her maternal grandparents.
In February 2012 Littlejohn received her first call–up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad, for the 2012 Algarve Cup. She made her debut with the Irish national team against Hungary at the final game of the Algarve Cup on 7 March 2012. Ireland won 2–1 to avoid a last place finish. Altogether Littlejohn has so far been capped 54 times by the Irish.

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentResultCompetitionScored
16 March 2013Tasos Markou, Paralimni5–12013 Cyprus Cup1
212 March 2014GSP Stadium, Nicosia1–22014 Cyprus Cup1
34 March 2015Veli Jože, Poreč1–12015 Istria Cup1
414 May 2015Central Broward Regional Park, Lauderhill, Florida1–0Friendly1
59 March 2016Tasos Markou, Paralimni2–02016 Cyprus Cup1
67 April 2016Stadion pod Malim brdom, Petrovac5–02017 UEFA Women's Championship Qual.1

Personal life

Ruesha's twin sister Shebahn is a travel reporter on 102.5 Clyde 1 radio. The family has a Northern Irish background and grew up in Old Drumchapel. She is openly lesbian. In June 2019, fellow player and captain Katie McCabe revealed that they are in a relationship for three years, and that women's association football is very accepting of LGBT people.

Honours

Club

;Glasgow City
;IL Sandviken