IF EMILY KRAFT was nervous before her Ireland debut last October, it didn’t show.
Lining out for the U17s against Albania, in 67 minutes on the field, she hit four goals in her side’s first match of the Uefa European Championships Qualifying Round in Serbia, as the Irish team earned an emphatic 14-0 victory.
“It actually couldn’t have started better,” she tells The42. “I really enjoyed it and starting off a tournament that well is a good feeling to keep on — you want to win another match and the whole tournament. So it gives you that energy and that kick.
“At half-time, we were up 7-0. Going into the second half, we did our little circle [before kick-off] and we told each other: ‘We want another seven.’”
Manager Colin Bell, who also is in charge of the senior side, was suitably impressed.
Emily Kraft did really well,” he said after the game. “She’s a really robust player, very physical and gives us another dimension. She trains five or six times a week in Germany and the players have really taken to her straight away so it’s great to see.”
Three days later, Kraft and co drew 0-0 with Wales, before qualifying for the elite round, which takes place in the spring, despite a 1-0 loss to Serbia in the final game.
Kraft impressed to the extent that she was called up to the senior squad the following month for an intensive week of training at the FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, as preparations begin for the European Championships qualifying campaign, which begins in September.
As interest in her exploits increased in Ireland, the fact that Kraft grew up in Germany will not have escaped the attention of devoted fans. She was born in Frankfurt and lives in Gernsheim, a town about 20 minutes away from the city of Darmstadt.
Kraft’s mum, Orla, is a Dubliner who initially was based in Sutton near Howth, where the family return on holiday regularly, including this Christmas, with most of the relatives on her mother’s side still living in Ireland.
It was at 19, however, that Orla got a job with Aer Lingus, which required her to live in Germany and move to Frankfurt. While over there, she met her future husband, Hennes, at the party of a mutual friend. They both shared a love of sport, with Orla a keen hockey player and Hennes a promising footballer who came close to playing in the German second tier, before injuries curtailed his progress.
Kraft initially represented Germany at underage level, but opted to make the switch to Ireland earlier this year.
It helped that Bell had managed her club FFC Frankfurt, between 2013 and 2015, and three years ago guided them to Champions League glory — the last team to win the competition before Lyon’s recent hat-trick of triumphs.
“I started playing for Germany at the moment you’re able to, I played for two-and-a-half years — U15 and U16,” she says. “The problem was I never really knew that there was my age group for the Irish national team.
“I never really had the contact with Colin, which was funny, because he was the head coach at my old club that I play for. That’s how it all started. My coach got in touch with Colin and he showed one of my matches playing at Eintracht Frankfurt. After that match, we got to talk, and [Colin is] a really good convincer, so he convinced me to go try it out, because I wasn’t too happy with the way it went in Germany.
“We talked and it was like we knew each other longer. It was open, direct and it was a really nice, friendly talk.
“So he kind of convinced me and I enjoyed it that much that I went straight for Ireland.
Apart from that, Ireland is my home. When someone asked me where I’m from, I would say ‘Ireland’. That’s also a thing, because of course, Germany are maybe a bit better at the moment, but playing for your country is the most important and highest level you can reach, so that was the main reason I went to Ireland.”
Kraft insists now there is no chance of her ever switching back to Germany, with the heart set on a career with the Girls in Green.
“I’ve made my mind up,” she adds. “I am willing to play for the Irish team. Of course, my German national trainer asked me a few times to come back. In Germany, you have these tournaments where all the counties play each other — it goes over a week. There are people there that cite you for the German national team and I got cited again this year, but even if that’s going to happen, I’m still going to plan to play for Ireland.”
There is a genuine sense of excitement in Kraft’s voice as she describes meeting up with the Irish senior squad for the first time last November.
“It was actually pretty amazing,” she says. “My team-mates were really open and really there for me.”
Aside from Bell, Kraft also knew a couple of players from the U17 side who had likewise been called up to the senior set-up. Meanwhile, she met up with 24-year-old Limerick-born defender Claire O’Riordan, who also plays her football in Germany with MSV Duisburg, at the airport.
With other teenagers such as Rebecca Cooke, Jessica Ziu and Leanne Kiernan also on the panel, the senior squad has had a distinctly youthful look of late, and Kraft is grateful to be playing under a manager who is clearly not afraid of giving inexperienced starlets a chance.
“We think the same thing — that I am going to be staying with the U17s, I will play with my age group, but I will hopefully be able to be a part of a few of the senior matches coming up if all goes well and nothing [bad] happens.
“The underage teams, they’re good, but they just don’t play as rough as the seniors do. Colin wants me to get used to that.
It’s pretty amazing what he wants to build up, what he’s going through with us. You don’t get to see that very often — a 16-year-old or a 19-year-old gets to play in a senior team. What Colin has planned to do with us and what he is doing is pretty amazing. I think we’ll get pretty far with it.”
She continues: “The way we are as a team and the way we cope with each other, you don’t see that very often and it also makes our lives very easy as young players playing with more experienced players.
“[Arsenal striker] Katie McCabe, to be able to play with her, and learn from her, is something that I’m really thankful for.”
At club level, Kraft is making progress too. Despite not turning 17 until February, she is hopeful that a chance with the Frankfurt senior team is not far off. The side’s head coach, Niko Arnautis, knows the young forward well, given that he also manages her at schools level.
“We’re always in touch, we always talk,” she says. “It’s kind of getting to the time now that I get the opportunity to play and train with the seniors.”
A sports scholarship student, Kraft does extra work with her athletic trainer every week in the fitness centre, focusing on her strength and co-ordination.
I like school because of the way they treat us,” she adds. “Me being away in Serbia [with the Irish team] for two weeks wasn’t a problem for them. They’re really proud of me and they’re behind me and they’re there for me. That makes my life a bit easier.
“It’s gotten really tough [balancing sport and academics] a few times, but that’s where my club is there for me. When I have a big exam coming up on a Thursday, I’ll be able to take training off on a Wednesday… So I’m a good student, no bad grades.”
Football, however, will always be her primary passion. It was a dream she has pursued since around the age of three, when family friend and babysitter, Ruairi Keating, who has gone on to play for Sligo, Finn Harps, Galway and now Torquay, identified her talent for kicking a ball.
Kraft subsequently signed up for her local team, playing with boys initially before graduating to her current status.
She hopes to go much further, of course, and while there remains plenty of hard work to be done, the early signs are highly promising.
“I think the most important thing is just stick to your dream,” she says. “If you have a dream, don’t let go of it. Fight as hard as you can to achieve it, and once you get there, it’s the best thing in the world.
“Playing for your country is the best thing you can achieve.”
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