Former Leicester City Women Football Club Captain, Holly Morgan, discusses her ambitious new sports agency and recent venture into the world of politics, thanks to an impressive performance on Channel 4’s ‘Make Me Prime-minister’.
Holly Morgan is a name which is synonymous with women’s football – one which is well known, and very well respected – especially here in Leicester.
The 29-year-old is a pioneer of women’s football in the UK – a player who spent 17 years on the pitch as a defender for LCFC Women. Her strong, supportive personality saw her serve as team captain and she played almost 300 games for the club, before deciding to hang up her boots in the summer of 2021.
Although she’s since moved on to pastures new, it’s fair to say that Holly will remain an integral part of the club’s history, witnessing its growth from grassroots level, all the way through to the Women’s Super League.
She grew up in a “competitive family” in Glen Parva, which was headed up by her father Rohan, the former chairman of LCFC Women.
He became involved in the club after Holly was signed aged 11, and her brother Jonathan served as manager from 2014 until November 2021.
He was the one who initially sparked her interest in the game, she told Pukaar.
“Because my older brother played football, I was that younger sibling who followed him around everywhere, and played with him in the back garden.
“I was the only girl who played the sport at school and it was never really encouraged. However, I just loved it so much that it never really bothered me,” she revealed.
“When I was younger, it was boys not really wanting to play with the girls and the girls thinking ‘why are you playing football?’ But I just genuinely loved the sport, and continued from there…”
Despite her own early experience of playing, Holly is pleased to see that times are changing, and more girls are getting involved in the sport she loves.
“The game is growing so much, and we’re now seeing record audiences attending matches, which is a sign in itself that people are more engaged with the sport,” she said.
Holly remains engaged, and invested in the future of women’s football. However, now that she has given up playing professionally, she is keen to explore the other skills and interests she has. She is a qualified solicitor, who also has a strong voice and a passion for politics.
These qualities lead Holly to an impressive TV appearance last year, when she became a finalist on Channel 4’s ‘Make Me Prime Minister’.
After impressing political heavyweights Alastair Campbell and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Holly ended up coming third on the show, beating off competition from a string of other talented hopefuls, all vying for a chance to be named Britain’s first ‘alternative’ PM.
“It was definitely a unique experience for sure!” she said of the show, where she spoke about dismantling institutional racism – something she claims to have experienced herself.
“I always wanted to have the opportunity to speak about institutional racism in this country, and to get to the final, where I was able to talk about that on a larger platform was an amazing opportunity,” she said.
“It was also wonderful to share the stage with two other females who were extremely passionate and strong in the arguments that they presented.”
Holly is someone who is big on female empowerment, and this was something she embraced during her time at Leicester City Women FC.
She is also a keen champion for diversity – something which she feels is lacking “significantly” within the female football arena.
In order to help address this, Holly has recently opened her own sports agency: ‘Morgan Sports Management’.
“For me it just felt like a natural progression for me to go into the agency world where I could still be involved in football but in a different capacity,” she said of the venture.
“However, it’s about more than just signing players. My agency is all about helping to support players across the spectrum of different races – understanding that people are different and require different services and needs.
“I’m proud of how much the sport has grown in recent years. However, in women’s football, I think we still have a problem with diversity and representation,” she added.
“With my agency, I feel like I have a responsibility and a duty to make sure that players from different backgrounds have a different level of support because they need a different level of support.
“I’ve seen it within the game, that contracts can differ because of a person’s skin colour. I’ve seen it in the game where a person who’s black or brown gets treated differently because of their behaviours and attitudes, which are just misunderstood. I’ve experienced racism and discrimination myself, so for me it’s just really important to be a voice, and to be a help.”
To find out more, visit: https://www.morgansportmanagement.co.uk/
By Louise Steel
