Charlotte Soccer Ace Emma Wakeman Signs With Volos Women’s Football Club
Charlotte 49ers women’s soccer alum Emma Wakeman has signed a professional contract with Volos Women’s Football Club (WFC), based in Volos, Greece, and currently competing in the Greece Women’s Football First Division.
Wakeman is the third Niner to join the professional ranks in 2025 and the first goalkeeper to do so, joining former teammates Charlotte Harris (AFC Bournemouth) and Macey Bader (Charlotte Ascent FC) in inking contracts at the next level this year. She brings the total number of Charlotte women’s soccer alumni playing professional soccer to five, with Martha Thomas (Tottenham Hotspur) and Tash Hudson (Apollon Ladies F.C.) having been the first two former players to make the leap.
Volos WFC is set to make the jump to the Greece Women’s Football First Division for the 2025-26 season beginning in September, having secured promotion from the Greece Women’s Football Second Division Group A this past campaign. The only team in Group A to break the 50-point mark, finishing with 55, Volos rolled to an 18-1-1 record with a +66 goal difference, tied for best in the group.
A native of Harrisburg, N.C., Wakeman joined the Niners in 2020 and would enjoy a stellar five-year career both in goal and off the field for Charlotte. After seeing action in 10 games across her first three seasons, Wakeman earned the starting job heading into the 2023 season and put together one of the most impressive seasons in program history, playing every minute for Charlotte over 20 games and posting nine shutouts, the school record. Wakeman’s .845 save percentage, .803 goals against average, and 87 saves in 2023 rank third, fifth, and sixth respectively on the all-time charts at Charlotte, and she was twice named the American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week.
Wakeman was equally impressive in 2024, playing every minute of Charlotte’s 19 games in her final season and recording a 1.05 goals against average, .787 save percentage, 74 saves, and another eight shutouts, third-most in a season behind her tally in 2023. In becoming the first Niner to win American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week honors three times in a season, Wakeman joined Jenn Howell at the top of the record book with five total weekly awards to her name. Her career save percentage of .816 and goals against average of 1.05 both rank second overall in program history, while her 18 shutouts stand as the fourth-best mark.
Off the field, Wakeman earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors in both 2023 and 2024, while the 2023 season also saw her named to the American Conference Academic All-Conference squad.