Joelle Murray has been named as the recipient of Athletic Club’s prestigious 2025 One-Club Women Award!
The award is given annually by Spanish outfit Athletic Club to recognise players who have devoted their entire careers to a single team, embodying loyalty, leadership and commitment to their club.
Previous One-Club Award winners include European champions Jennifer Zietz and Pia Wunderlich, as well as UEFA Champions League winners Paolo Maldini, Carles Puyol and Billy McNeil.
Murray spent her entire playing career with Hibernian FC Women, becoming the most decorated player in the Club’s history, and has now been named the first Scottish recipient of the One-Club Woman Award.
The former defender would make her senior debut in 2004 after graduating through the Hibs Academy, and would go on to play 507 times for the Club throughout her illustrious career, scoring 69 goals.
The 48-time Scotland international won two league titles, seven Scottish Cups and five League Cups with Hibernian as a player, becoming the Club’s most decorated player.
She picked up her first Scottish Women’s Premier League winner’s medal as Hibernian went unbeaten across the 2005/06 season, before incredibly bettering that feat by winning every single league match to seal a second ‘invincible’ title in the 2006/07 campaign – while also winning the Scottish Cup, which would be the second of three consecutive successes in the competition between 2006 and 2008.
The Chirnside native would then go on to lead Hibernian, as Club Captain, to seven consecutive domestic cup triumphs between 2016 and 2019, as Hibernian secured three Scottish Cups and four League Cups in a row – even netting the winning penalty to defeat Glasgow City in the first Scottish Cup final victory during this historic period.
In 2020, Murray would significantly become the first female player to sign a professional contract for the Club and would retire at the end of the 2023/24 season after 20 years of service, immediately taking on the role of First Team Coach at Hibernian Women.
She was promptly inducted into the Hibernian FC Hall of Fame and is noted for holding the record for most titles secured as a Hibs Captain, male or female, as well as appearing 19 times in the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the Club.
Murray would continue to find success following her retirement, as the Hibees went on to win the 2024/25 Scottish Women’s Premier League title – granting the 38-year-old coach her third league winner’s medal.
“I feel extremely honoured and privileged to be presented with this award, to be thought of in the same light as previous winners, not only female winners but male winners, it is certainly up there with the most proudest and special moments in my career,” Murray said.
