Paul Fennessy

FROM A young age, Tyler Toland was no stranger to people doubting her.

It has always felt as if she had something to prove.

Growing up, she predominantly played football with boys.

From the age of four or five, the St Johnston, Donegal native regularly participated in five-on-five games in her grandmother’s garden with her uncles and cousins after school.

Toland then asked her parents to let her try out for the local boys’ team.

“I gave them no choice,” she tells The 42. “I just pestered them that much. ‘I want to play football. Can you take me to the nearest team?’”

“I was playing with boys from five up until 18, until I made the move to Man City in England.

“It’s something I really enjoyed growing up. I think it toughened me up as a player.

“Nowadays, there are loads of opportunities, and girls are fortunate that they can play in the girls’ teams. I didn’t have that option. Near me, it was all boys’ teams.”

Character-building though it was, Toland did not appreciate relentlessly encountering abusive and condescending attitudes on account of her gender.

“It was something I experienced every week, getting comments before and after the game. ‘There’s a girl playing on that team.’ But I had a really supportive group of lads around me.

“It’s as if you’re coming into nearly every game as an underdog, and you need to prove yourself.” 

Toland always dreamed of becoming a professional footballer. But it was only when she got a senior Ireland call-up and became the national team’s youngest-ever player at 16 that it dawned on her how it might be a viable career path.

Her debut came as a late substitute in a World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland in Lurgan, close enough to her home.

“I remember after the game, with my family, thinking: ‘This is class. This is what I want to do as a career,’” she adds.

The fairytale rise became even more remarkable when she joined one of the biggest clubs in the world at 18.

“I went from my Leaving Cert, straight over to Man City that summer,” she recalls.

It was thereafter that Toland encountered some of the complications that routinely disrupt young footballers’ careers.

While enjoying operating in an elite environment at City with top-class facilities, a sustained run in the first team never came, with an ankle ligament injury she suffered during that period not helping matters.

Subsequent moves to Glasgow City and Celtic didn’t really work out either, but Toland rejects the suggestion that she struggled with the burden of expectation, having burst onto the international scene at such a young age.

Toland was still only 20 when she made the bold decision to move to Spain and join Levante, but again found regular minutes elusive with the Liga F outfit.

While it did not pan out as she would have hoped, Toland describes the Levante stint as “a great life experience” — the Irish star learned the basics of the Spanish language and feels she benefited from being around “world-class players” who gave her a sense of “what it actually takes to be at the top”.

She continues: “The culture and the language were something really different. Going away from home also at such a young age for the past few years has been quite difficult, and that’s why I’ve really settled in England now. It’s obviously so close to home and I can go over and back [regularly].”

Tyler Toland pictured during her time at Man City. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Toland’s next move to Blackburn Rovers, in August 2023, on a two-year deal, proved more fruitful.

It was the first club abroad where she enjoyed a sustained run of first-team action.

“That’s when my career hit the ground running,” she says. “I started getting regular game time week in, week out. All the experiences in the past helped me get to that stage where I got on the pitch and started to get regular minutes. I was ready for it, and I really kicked on from there.

“I think ultimately it’s all managers’ opinions, isn’t it? When you find a manager who really believes in you, you really do thrive as a player.”

Toland was one of coach Simon Parker’s first signings, and she was made captain at the English second-tier club.

The first season went okay as the Lancashire-based side finished mid-table in sixth. Last year, however, turned into a nightmare — serious financial problems marred the campaign.

Despite this turbulent season, 12 points from 20 fixtures was enough for Blackburn to avoid relegation as they finished second from bottom.

Still, they were forced to withdraw from the Women’s Championship because club owner Venky’s were unwilling to meet the league’s requirements on facilities, player welfare and staffing. 

Although it ended in disappointment, Toland describes Blackburn as “one of the best moves of my career”.

While the troubled club exited the division, Toland remained, signing in the summer for Durham, considered among the promotion contenders, having finished fourth in the 2024-25 season.

It may have taken slightly longer than she would have liked, but the 24-year-old is now playing regularly and enjoying her football.

“I’ve been around now for a couple of years, so I don’t consider myself young, but I also think age is only a number. When you’re ready to play, you’re ready to play. I think it just all happened at the right time.”

Durham have had an inconsistent start and sit seventh in the table after six games, with Toland a regular in the team.

“I did have a few offers,” she says. “But Durham’s values really stood out for me, and what they wanted to do, it’s a team that really suits my playing style, and it’s definitely a team I can thrive in going forward.”

The outlook for Toland is consequently much brighter compared to the difficult few years she experienced previously.

The midfielder, at one point, might have feared her Ireland career was over before it really began.

A high-profile falling out with then-manager Vera Pauw led to her four-year exile from international football.

But the revival of the player’s club career at Blackburn coincided with her return to the Ireland fold.

After Eileen Gleeson succeeded Pauw as national team coach, Toland was included in the Dubliner’s first squad.

“When I got that first call-up back to Ireland, it was a dream come true,” she says. “She just called me up. She said: ‘Would you be interested in coming back in?’ I said: ‘I’d absolutely love the opportunity,’ and thanked her very much.”

Toland doesn’t “really know” if being in the international wilderness for so long affected her club career, adding, “Football is a game of highs and lows. If you can’t balance the highs and lows, you’re not cut out for it.

“I don’t really blame it on anything or think it’s influenced by anything; it’s just part and parcel of football.”

What’s unequivocal is that Toland has gone on to win 25 caps and become a regular fixture in Ireland squads since then, proving many people wrong, not for the first time.