Bio
COMPOSED STOPPER
Goalkeeper Katie Startup became City’s seventh summer recruit ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, joining the Club from fellow WSL side Brighton & Hove Albion.
She’d already spent six weeks with Gareth Taylor’s side the previous season, however, having joined on an emergency loan deal at the back-end of our WSL title pursuit.
With Ellie Roebuck and Sandy MacIver both sidelined, Startup provided competition for Khiara Keating between the sticks as we equalled our highest WSL points tally and ended the campaign with the best defensive record in the top flight.
It’s an experience that Startup looks back on fondly and was a key factor in her decision to make the move permanent in the summer of 2024.
The stopper represented England at various youth levels having spent time at both Gillingham and Chelsea before a move to Charlton Athletic in 2017.
Enjoying a hugely successful three-year spell at the Addicks, Startup helped her side gain promotion to the second tier in 2018.
She would go on to be an ever-present between the sticks in 2018/19 as Charlton finished an impressive third in the Championship.
In the following campaign, the goalkeeper would change her number from 1 to 40 as a means of promoting awareness around the importance of mental health and suicide prevention charities.
Joining Brighton in 2020, Startup has since had loan spells back at Charlton and Liverpool before making her WSL debut in March 2022 in a 2-0 victory over West Ham United.
