Aoife
Mannion

A youth-team player both at Birmingham and Aston Villa, Mannion's start in senior football came with Villa, although she re-signed for the Blues in 2013. In seven years at City, she made over 100 appearances, featuring in both domestic cup finals and the UEFA Champions League and also claiming a spot in the FA WSL Team of the Year for 2017/18 and 2018/19. Aoife joined Manchester City in the summer of 2019 and received her first senior England call-up shortly afterwards, after progressing through the youth teams. She helped keep a clean sheet on her Reds debut on the opening night of the 2021/22 WSL campaign, playing the full 90 minutes a 2-0 win over Reading at Leigh Sports Village, but would unfortunately suffer a season-ending knee injury midway through the campaign, which would cut short her first term at United. Mannion battled back her way back however, true to her resilience, and would make her return to action for the Reds as a second-half substitute in United's FA Cup fifth-round win over Durham in February 2023. Earlier that month, she also switched her international allegiance to the Republic of Ireland - the country both of her parents were born in - and debuted for The Girls in Green during a friendly against China. The defender impressed as United secured Champions League qualification in the run-in, namely putting in a Player-of-the-Match performance as the Reds beat Arsenal, before putting pen to paper on a new deal with the club in the summer.