AIRPORTS ARE MAD places. Thousands of people coming and going, every hour of every day. Going to, and coming from, all corners of the world for various different reasons. Some happy, others sad.
They’re places for reunions too. Big and small. Most of them planned, some unplanned.
Others incredibly unlikely.
Katie McCabe experienced one of the latter versions as she and the Republic of Ireland women’s team flew to Glasgow for their historic World Cup play-off against Scotland last October.
She bumped into a coach she played under as a kid at Templeogue United.
A real full circle moment.
The Ireland captain and Arsenal star is telling The 42 about the impact of her former mentor, Caroline, when the story springs to mind.
“I actually met her on the way to Scotland, she works in airport security,” McCabe enthuses.
“I hadn’t seen her since I was probably 11 or something. It was such a weird moment. It was one of those where I was like, ‘What the fuck?!’”
15 years on, the stars aligned as McCabe’s footballing journey hit new heights.
And that chance meeting sparked so many memories of the good old underage days.
“She had a great relationship with my Dad. Obviously I’ve got a lot of siblings so my Dad was never able to get me to all the training and games. She’d collect me, pick me up, bring me home and stuff. She was massive.”
McCabe is speaking from her home in London as PepsiMax’s new brand ambassador.
Not long home from a holiday in Ibiza, she’s in “recharge mode” after a whirlwind season with Arsenal. In the past three days, she’s been named on the Champions League Team of the Season and won the WSL Goal of the Season. Not bad.
She typically deflects any praise. “It was a fantastic team effort, and it just leaves us hungry to push for more next year,” the 27-year-old Dubliner says.
The club season is parked, the focus now switching to a massive summer with Ireland as she prepares to lead her country to its first-ever Women’s World Cup. Vera Pauw is due to name her training squad on Friday with camp kicking off in Dublin next Monday, but McCabe is unsure when she’ll be joining as a club v country row continues.
One thing’s for sure: she cannot wait to feel the “World Cup buzz” within the team and around the country as it begins to get real. Childhood memories to be recreated, and enhanced.
“I remember the 2002 one,” she grins. “I think I was seven at the time. It was in Japan, wasn’t it?
“I remember Damien Duff’s celebration and doing that out with the boys when we played football. And then asking Mam and Dad to get me a Damien Duff shirt for Christmas. Stuff like that, those sort of moments I think you always remember growing up – and that’s what we want to do as a team, we want to leave a lasting legacy on young girls and young boys that will be watching the World Cup.
“Obviously Ireland as a nation, we’ve not been in it for a while. It’s such a monumental tournament and and to be playing on the world stage representing Ireland is something I couldn’t have ever imagined.
“It’s going to be an unbelievable experience and I just want to make sure I’m fit, healthy and ready to go to hopefully get my seat on the plane. Nothing’s guaranteed.”
As McCabe and co. so cruelly learned in the Euro 2022 qualifying campaign.
Their bid fell agonisingly short and once again, they were forced to watch their clubmates on the biggest stage in England last year. Bittersweet, but motivational.
“I went to a couple of the Euros games, as a fan cheering on your team-mates. It just hit you because of the Euro campaign being such a missed opportunity, but it was something we took with us and it kind of gave us that fire in our belly going into the World Cup campaign to not miss out again and make sure every game counts.
“We had our highs and lows, we were tested along the way, but just the character of the team, the never say die attitude to represent our country… it’s been a massive year for us, and again, we just want to push on and make the country proud in summer. Especially off the back of it now, just continue that momentum of women’s football in Ireland and make sure we don’t stop just because we qualified once. We want to keep going.”
Legacy.
September’s opening Nations League game against Northern Ireland being played at the Aviva Stadium is a case in point; an opportunity to strike while the iron’s hot and further grow the game post-World Cup.
McCabe hails the FAI’s “spot on timing” and is relishing another historic and significant occasion.
“We want to pack it out. But we don’t want it to just be a once-off thing. We want to keep striving and make sure it becomes the norm.”
With growth, comes different challenges.
Expectation, pressure, spotlight. Role model status.
It’s a whole new world as the women’s football fanbase increases.
A very different one to when McCabe was coached by Caroline at Templeogue, or bowing like Damien Duff in the streets of Kilnamanagh. But it’s one she welcomes — along with the increased spotlight it brings.
“Obviously, it’s a good thing that there’s more eyes on the women’s game, but there’s also more eyes on you as an individual and what you do and how you live your life,” she concludes.
“We’ve seen it in the men’s game for so long, how men’s players can be scrutinised for the smallest things. It is something we need to be mindful of as women’s footballers, with the growth of the game moving in the direction it’s going.
“As I said, it’s great for football and getting fans to come watch us, but like that, we need to be mindful of the choices we make. We’re role models at the end of the day for young women and girls. We want to be portraying the right things and using our platform in a positive way.”
