{"id":41259,"date":"2026-06-30T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/41259\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T06:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:20:10","slug":"matildas-striker-holly-mcnamara-departs-melbourne-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/41259\/","title":{"rendered":"Matildas striker Holly McNamara departs Melbourne City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne City have confirmed striker Holly McNamara will depart the club after five seasons, with the Matildas forward set to pursue opportunities overseas.<\/p>\n

McNamara leaves City as the club\u2019s all-time leading women\u2019s goalscorer after scoring 45 goals in 66 appearances, capping a remarkable spell in Melbourne that also saw her help the club win three Premierships and one Championship.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has established herself as one of the Ninja A-League\u2019s most dangerous forwards despite overcoming multiple serious injuries during her time at City.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Holly McNamara of Melbourne City poses with a fan<\/p>\n

Having already recovered from one anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury before joining the club in 2021, McNamara suffered further ACL injuries during the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons before returning each time to re-establish herself among the league\u2019s premier attackers and become a regular member of the Matildas squad.<\/p>\n

Since making her senior international debut at the 2022 AFC Women\u2019s Asian Cup, McNamara has gone on to make 19 appearances for Australia and score two international goals.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s definitely bittersweet to be leaving a Club that has meant so much to me over the past five years, but I feel ready for the next chapter in my career,\u201d said McNamara.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first joined City as a teenager, I never imagined everything we\u2019d go on to achieve together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful to everyone at the Club who has supported me throughout the journey, especially through some of the tougher moments.<\/p>\n

\"\"Leticia McKenna and Holly McNamara (R)<\/p>\n

\u201cRado (Vidosic) gave me my first opportunity at the Club and had a huge belief in me from day one, while Dario (Vidosic) and Michael (Matricciani) have played such important roles in my development both as a player and person.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my teammates, coaches, staff and the fans who have supported me through the highs and lows, thank you. I\u2019ll always be incredibly proud of what we achieved together at Melbourne City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her individual honours at City included back-to-back Ninja A-League Golden Boots, the Young Footballer of the Year award in 2022, a shared Melbourne City Player of the Year award alongside Hannah Wilkinson in 2021-22 and the club\u2019s Golden Boot in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

McNamara also starred in City\u2019s AFC Women\u2019s Champions League campaigns, scoring five goals in eight appearances to finish as this year\u2019s tournament leading goalscorer. She also scored four hat-tricks during her time at City, the most by any player in Melbourne City Women\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Holly McNamara of Australia<\/p>\n

Melbourne City Director of Football Michael Petrillo paid tribute to McNamara\u2019s contribution across her five seasons at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resilience and determination Holly has shown to overcome the setbacks she has faced perfectly illustrate why she has the right mindset to reach the very top level.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been an incredibly important part of the success of our Women\u2019s team since her arrival and has helped us continue to set the standards both on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish her all the very best as she prepares to take the next step in her career and explore opportunities overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne City have confirmed striker Holly McNamara will depart the club after five seasons, with the Matildas forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[342,1417,4640,7066,260,152,24641],"class_list":["post-41259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-a-league-women","tag-a-leagues","tag-alwfeatured","tag-matildas","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-transfer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}