Soccer

‘Just another day in the life of a s***e footballer’: Ruesha Littlejohn criticises London City Lionesses after contract termination

Ireland midfielder on the lookout for a new team after messy departure from old club

Ruesha Littlejohn in action for Ireland against Wales last November. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Ruesha Littlejohn in action for Ireland against Wales last November. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Mary Hannigan
Thu Feb 06 2025 - 17:13

Ruesha Littlejohn has always had a way with words. “Just another day in the life of a s***e footballer” was how she summed up her meeting with London City Lionesses last month when they told her that they were letting her go. The 34-year-old Republic of Ireland international has yet to find a new club and is now planning on going on the dole. “Unemployed again,” she laughed, “I’m skint.”

There was a notion that when the club announced that they and Littlejohn had “mutually agreed to part ways” that there was nothing mutual about it. And so it’s proved, Littlejohn revealing on her YouTube channel that her contract had, in fact, been terminated because the club wanted to “improve the squad”.

She had already sensed there was trouble ahead when she was called to a meeting last December after Ireland’s Euro 2025 play-off against Wales and was asked why she wasn’t available for her club when she had played in both legs for Ireland.

Littlejohn disputed that suggestion, insisting she was available, but that her long-running issue with Achilles tendinopathy had to be managed. She alleged that the club hadn’t managed it well and that “if I was listened to I believe I wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place ... I’m 34, I know what’s best for me”.

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She also suggested that the club had an issue with her work outside football - “social media, podcasts”, that “everyone wants control of what players do these days”. Asked by her twin sister Shebahn Aherne, a broadcaster with talkSPORT, if she would have considered giving up that work, she said an emphatic “no”. “Because I’m never going to change for anyone. Maybe that’s my biggest downfall, maybe I wouldn’t be in this situation, but I’ll always be me. I’m never going to be a robot.”

Littlejohn is on 85 caps with Ireland, her chief ambition to reach the 100 mark under new manager Carla Ward, who she played for at Aston Villa.

“I feel like I’ve still got so much to give. I know it’s coming to an end, I’m very aware of that, and that’s fine, you don’t play football forever. But I don’t like the way it’s been taken away from me.”

“The one thing I wanted was to play for Ireland and get to 100 caps. Will I get there? I don’t know, right now it’s looking a bit unrealistic. I need a team. And you also need to be playing at a certain level to get picked. So that’s the way things are right now, but it might change in the next week or two, you don’t know what’s around the corner. But I still believe in myself. Maybe I’m absolutely cuckoo.”

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times