Bailie ready for 30th and final season at Glentoran

"Thirty is a nice round number, we will finish there. " Kelly Bailie is preparing for her 30th and final season at Glentoran, a club she has represented since the age of 16. In the close to three decades since her debut, the now 46-year-old has made over 750 appearances for the club, won over 30 trophies (including 13 league titles) and represented Northern Ireland 56 times.

Bailie has spent more consecutive seasons at the east Belfast side than the likes of Sait Altınordu at Altınordu S. K (27 years), Francesco Totti at Roma (25 years) and Ryan Giggs at Manchester United (24 years) and was shocked to learn she was among the longest-serving one-club players. "I wouldn't even have been thinking about that until you mentioned it.

It's hitting home, 30 years, I don't want to say you take it for granted, but I've never thought about it and when you do, that's some massively big players who have done some big things in world football, it's nuts," she told BBC Sport NI's Nicola McCarthy. "Everything is surreal, you don't grow up and think this is what I want to do. I never expected anything like that.

I'm extremely proud of it and entirely grateful for it all. " 'The club, the environment, the people' key to Bailie's longevity Bailie started at Glentoran when it was still called Belfast United, as a nimble left winger but she has since transitioned into a no-nonsense defender in the twilight years of her career. She has won every domestic trophy possible, but when asked what the main driving factors behind staying at the Glens for so long she said it was "the club, the environment and the people".