Singaporean player Sara Merican signs with Wigan Athletic women's football team

While pursuing her master's degree in film and screen studies at the University of Cambridge in early-2024, Sara Merican continued to showcase her football skills by securing a spot on the Cambridge City women's team.

She has since completed her studies, but the 28-year-old’s footballing dreams have kept her in Britain despite tough competition.

Inspired to improve, the winger attended a trial with Wigan Athletic’s newly formed women’s team – who are managed by 2013 FA Cup winner Emmerson Boyce – and was accepted.

She told The Sunday Times: “I trialled with different clubs, and I saw that Wigan announced their intentions to set up a women’s team, and they had follow-up announcements in terms of the people they’ve hired, their ambitions, and the infrastructure that they’ve invested in.

“I saw that they were putting a lot of their words into action, and these were some things that I was looking for in a club. Wigan ticked a lot of those boxes.”

Wigan’s head of women’s operations Hayley Sherratt highlighted Merican’s passion and attitude.

She said: “Not only a talented footballer, she is also very ambitious and sets a wonderful example for her teammates with how she goes about her business both on and off the field. We know she’s really determined to make everyone in Singapore proud, and we hope one day, she will become the first Wigan Athletic Women’s player to represent her country.”

Wigan will play their debut season in the Lancashire Women’s County League, starting with an away fixture against Haslingden on Sept 1. The league is an amateur competition and consists of two divisions at levels 7 and 8 of the women’s pyramid.

The club will not share facilities with the men’s or youth teams, and Merican will get sufficient playing time, which was something she was looking for.

She added: “I was also looking for a good coaching set-up. I wanted to work with coaches that I can grow and learn from, to be in a team where people take (football) seriously, where people go to training and have very high expectations of themselves and of others, and where I can still continue to grow as a player.”

During her time at Cambridge City, Merican was also struck by how the footballers were hungry for success.

She added: “I had teammates who were driving two hours to training. To fight for a position with people like that (made me realise) the hunger is there, and I needed to up my game to be able to challenge for a spot.” 

That, together with having teammates on loan from higher divisions and a footballing structure with promotion and relegation, played a part in her decision to continue pursuing the sport in Britain.

It also allowed her to continue playing cricket, the sport she represented Singapore in at the 2023 SEA Games. The cricket season runs from April to August, while football fixtures are from August to April.

Before the move to Cambridge, she played with the Lion City Sailors in 2022, when they won the Deloitte Women’s Premier League title.