Ellie Bohannan
Stoke City Women’s fourth signing of the season after Daniela Kosinska, Lizzie Steele and Meesha Dudley-Jones had signed earlier on in the season, was the returning Ellie Bohannan. Ellie had made her return in the game against Nottingham Forest coming on as a second half substitute at right back and also got her first goal in the 89th minute during that game. Ellie has featured in every game since as well as a 75th minute substitute against West Brom before making her first start against Middlesborough at Centre Back and has started to form a partnership with Meg Bowyer at the back as the season progresses.
Ellie is now 22 years old and first started playing football at 6 years old before moving onto join Crewe Alexandra at 9 years old. Stoke City was apart of her development for 4 years before she moved to Everton Youth and reserves at 16 years old. Aston Villa Development and Crewe Alexandra was a dual contracted to make the most out of Ellie’s game time and development. Before she moved to Manchester City’s Academy and Development before playing in Sweden and returning to Stoke City, also will no doubt recreate an old link with Hollie Gibson as they both played together in England Schools in 2013 and Youth Camps.
I first got to see Ellie play for Aston Villa Development in a Jack White side where Ellie was impressive at the back in a team also with Lucy Porter, Mollie Rouse, Hayley Crackle. But from Aston Villa she was touted by Manchester City to play at their incredible Academy system. This would be the next time we saw Ellie play in a game against Villa’s Development in preseason friendly at The Academy in Manchester.
I noticed her name down for BT’s new show Ultimate Goal which will premiere on November 3rd in a 6 part series. Also had heard that Ellie had been training with Stoke City but hadn’t seen her before the Nottingham Forest game so didn’t think too much of it until she came on. But so glad to see Ellie back playing once again and at Stoke City is a bonus. Her 240 minutes so far this season have been impressive and she is only just getting started as well.
Ellie is a player that can play across the back line if needed to and is most comfortable at CB but can cover when needed as well as she is very versatile.
Stoke City’s new number 5 for the season, shows as above that this is her second stint at Stoke City after being in the youth set up. Before moving onto Everton and Aston Villa Development while being dual contracted to Crewe Alexandra. Ellie captained Aston Villa Development as well before she moved onto Manchester City Reserves where she won the double with them where she won the WSL Development League and Cup as seen in the photos below, Ellie also studied towards her degree at University at MMU before the end of the season came around.
What came next was an opportunity that Ellie couldn’t turn down a chance to play abroad in Sweden for a team called Domsjo IF Damer in the Division 1 Swedish League on a professional contract while playing on good pitches and in big stadiums. An experience where she was named in the Team Of The Year and also scored the winning goal against Ostersund which kept Domsjo IF Damer in the division.
When Ellie’s time was over in Sweden she returned to England but decided to put her studies and career first as she finished off her University Degree and Post Graduate Teacher Training. Ellie works as a PE teacher now while also playing for Stoke City Women. While studying Ellie continued to play for the England University and kept her fitness levels at match sharp so her return to first team football was an easy one.
I saw Ellie’s name listed for the BT Ultimate Goal show that is due to air on November 3rd. It was great to see her still involved in football and I asked Holly Rogers where she was playing but she was unsure. It was great to hear that Ellie had been training with Stoke City and great to see her in and around the squad as the season continues will no doubt make a big impact in the back line for Stoke.
Ellie wasn’t able to make the start of the season as she was waiting for clearance from her registration from Sweden but trained with the team till she could make her debut with the team and hasn’t looked back since being involved in every game since her debut against Nottingham Forest.
With the show on BT coming up real soon Stoke City Women fan’s will have some real interest in watching the show and following Ellie’s journey, She was one of the 31 players selected to be on the 6 part special filmed down at St Georges Park. I’ve heard a few things and I’m sure it is to be a fantastic watch while it is on air.
If you can get down to the game on Sunday against Fylde and check out Ellie and the rest of the team as they take their season into game day 8 against the early league leaders.
