Sunderland announce departure of defender Griffiths | OneFootball

Sunderland’s long-serving defender Louise Griffiths will leave the club this summer when her current contract comes to an end.

The Lady Black Cats announced the news via a post on their official club X account this evening.

The 27-year-old has spent most of her footballing career with Sunderland but she will take up a new challenge in 2026/2027.

Griffiths first joined Sunderland at the age of 11 and worked her way through the club’s academy system to the senior team. The player has been in and around the first team squad since 2017.

Griffiths has represented Sunderland in all of the top three divisions. After the club dropped out of the professional game in 2018, Griffiths stayed loyal to the Wearsiders and helped them gain promotion from Tier 3 back to Tier 2 via the ‘upward club movement’ system in 2021. She was then a member of the side that narrowly missed out on promotion back to the Barclays Women’s Super League in 2023/2024. In total, Griffiths has made 144 appearances for Sunderland in all competitions.

Griffiths is Sunderland through and through and she departs the club having very much achieved the status of ‘club legend’.

Further Sunderland squad news will be announced by the club in due course.