Ireland captain Katie McCabe on coming out and what’s next for women’s football

Ireland captain Katie McCabe believes qualifying for a major tournament will transform the game for generations to come – and she believes it is possible under head coach Vera Pauw.

cCabe scoring Ireland’s goal in the impressive 1-1 draw against a world No.2-ranked Swedish side earlier this month gave the nation’s World Cup qualification hopes a huge boost.

Now McCabe said sundayworld.com that the rise of women’s football in Ireland will go to a whole new level and that the Girls in Green will qualify for the World Cup final.

The Arsenal winger, who has 61 caps for his country, also praised the FIA ​​and sponsors Cadburys for the support they have given the women’s team and hopes attendance for women’s football will continue to rise.

Women’s football has come so far in Ireland, so is the next big dream to qualify for the World Cup?

I don’t think I will stop playing until I get to a tournament. It’s something we talk about. It gets frustrating watching your teammates compete in tournaments, so that’s our real focus. If we qualify for a World Cup, I’m glad everyone in Ireland is on the bandwagon.

When you were young, did you think you could become a professional footballer?

Maybe if I put on a male wig! When I was growing up my heroes were Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, people who were visible to me with them playing for the Republic of Ireland men’s team and watching the Premier League.

I only had male role models growing up and it wasn’t until I was 12 or 13 that I went to my first women’s national team game and saw Emma Byrne play and Ciara Grant. I didn’t know they were playing for Arsenal and winning FA cups and league titles. Where we are now is a credit to them and now it’s up to us to keep developing the game.

How do you handle media and advertising? You don’t seem to have had much negativity towards the women’s team?

I think the relationship is quite organic, we have a good relationship with the media. I don’t think the women’s team is subject to the same level of scrutiny as the men’s team, but never say never.

How do you think about the nation’s reaction to your decision to date your partner Ruesha Littlejohn?

I never hid from anyone. I think it’s important to be who you are. Looking back on Aviva’s campaign, Ruesha (Katie’s partner) and myself, I don’t think we realized how huge it was, but after the campaign our direct messages on Twitter were inundated of people thanking us. If we helped at least one person, we were doing our job.

Have you ever had snipes on social media?

Fortunately, I had more good than bad. Don’t get me wrong, if you have a bad game you probably get a few tweets, but these are accounts that don’t have an icon so you can’t really pay too much attention to them. What’s important to me is what my teammates and my manager think of the performances, so I tend not to pay too much attention to those comments because they leave me in a bad state of mind and that is not good for anyone.

Can we do more to increase the number of spectators at women’s matches?

We are getting small increases, probably not as much as we would like, but I think if we continue to develop the game at national team level it will push the trajectory towards the league itself. For me, it is essential that we sell the Tallaght stadium, unfortunately we are not playing there until September. Before Covid, I think we were doing well in that sense, but after that we stopped getting the spectators. I think the FIA ​​is doing a wonderful job with the promotion and the Cadburys deal. Hopefully they raise more awareness among players. If they target all regions of the country, I think it will push the game further.

How has your life changed in the last two years with the rise of the Irish team?

It was fantastic. The deal with Sky was great for publicizing our game and we also brought in Cadburys, two big companies that support the women’s national team. I think it’s fantastic that we can get support because it will help to develop women’s football, which we obviously need.

To ‘become a supporter and a half’ and help grassroots women’s football, you can visit Spar stores nationwide until 5 May 2022 and buy a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk. For a chance to win funding for your club, go to womensfootball.cadbury.ie before 5 May 2022 and complete the short entry form. Terms and conditions of application.