Celtic FC Women star Shen Mengyu has become the first ever Celtic player to represent their country at the Women’s World Cup, making history with an appearance for China on Saturday.
The Celtic midfielder came on as a substitute for China in a 1-0 defeat to Denmark earlier today, with matches against Haiti and European champions England to come over the next nine days.
Shen is one of two players selected for squads at this year’s tournament, with Olivia Chance part of co-host New Zealand’s team. Chance was on the bench in their opening match against Norway, but didn’t feature.
This is the ninth edition of the tournament, stretching all the way back to 1991, so it’s a notable achievement for the 21-year-old and Celtic. The club noted the landmark moment on social media earlier today.
It isn’t the first time that Shen has been a trailblazer in her career. Per FIFA, she became the first woman footballer from China to sign a professional contract in the UK in 2021, when she joined Celtic.
Since then she has won three trophies with the Hoops and will be hoping to be part of a title-winning side next term after so narrowly missing out on becoming SWPL 1 champions earlier this year.
Despite the defeat to Denmark, China will be eager to make it into the knockout stages of the competition. They’ve traditionally done pretty well in Women’s World Cups when they’ve qualified.
They were runners-up in 1999 and reached the quarter-finals in the subsequent two tournaments. More recently they made the 2015 quarter-finals and the last 16 in 2019.
The match against Haiti is definitely winnable and that comes on Friday at Noon UK time. Then it’s a huge fixture against England on Tuesday, August 1st – again at Noon.
Good luck to Shen in the remaining games!
In other news, Expert Tim Vickery delivers verdict on Celtic’s “exciting” South American transfer target.
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