2 days Ago
WHEN IRELAND boss Carla Ward announced her latest squad, Aoibheann Clancy was among the more surprising names to feature. The Shelbourne midfielder was on the periphery of a couple of squads during the Vera Pauw era but earned her only cap in November 2022 as a sub in a friendly win over Morocco. A little under two years ago, she was in Greece on holiday with former Wexford Youths teammate Ellen Molloy, watching Ireland at play the Women’s World Cup.
This Friday, she will be part of the Ireland squad taking on Greece at Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Heraklion (kick-off: 5pm Irish time). “I suppose there’s a nice parallel, watching the girls in the World Cup while on holiday and now going back playing,” she says. Others in her position a couple of years ago might have immediately chosen to pursue professional football.
Instead, Clancy is undertaking a Health and Performance Science degree in UCD and has one more year left before completing it. “Around my Leaving Cert, I was trying to figure out what to do,” she says. “I was in and around Vera’s camps at the time, and there was that decision: ‘Do I go and try and get a degree first or do you go and try to play?’ I ended up going down the education route.
It’s probably important to get that first. The women’s game, while it’s developing, still has a bit to go. So, to have a degree behind you before you go, I think, is important.
“I am happy to have gone to college. Looking at it then, I was like: ‘Oh my God I’ll be so old by the time college is over, it’ll take so long.’ Now I’m like: ‘There’s only one year left, that flew.
’ I’m happy to have done it. I’m happy to have had that experience of going to college and stuff as well. That’s very important in the maturing process as well.
” Already, though, the 21-year-old is thinking about her next step. “I was just talking to Amber [Barrett] this morning about it, she was like: ‘Finish your degree.’ Hopefully, I’ll finish that, and if there are opportunities there, I’d definitely like to go professional [after].
” And would she be willing to follow the Standard Liege star’s example and go beyond the UK in search of a football career? “If I get the opportunity, I’d be pretty much open to any place once it was the right club and a step up in standard.” At the moment, however, Clancy feels she is well supported. She benefits from the Ad Astra sports scholarship at UCD “They have a range of different facilities and supports for the students between gym, nutrition, obviously the funding side of it as well.
Basically, anything I needed, in terms of even being away in camp, they’ll help you out with your college work.” The Limerick native grew up playing GAA and “just fell into” soccer at a later stage. She has been following the national team as a fan for many years, however.
“My first memory of the national team is going to Tallaght. And I played in the Gaynor Cup for Tipp. I remember seeing Denise O’Sullivan playing and was just like: ‘Wow!’ Do you know, as a young kid, going: ‘That’s just, like, unbelievable.
’ That was probably the first time I was like: ‘I’d love to be out there playing.’” The Shels star admits the Ireland call-up was a surprise, with Ireland boss Ward coming to the club’s training to tell her the good news. “I had a quick chat with her before training.
She was just saying that she had been at our games and was having a look. She was asking me about my strengths and weaknesses, and I think she was looking at my passing ability, so that’s maybe what got me in the door. I haven’t had a chance to have a further conversation about it with her — I had to go training — but I think that might have been it.
“I was in a bit of a daze during the warm-up [after]. I was like: ‘Oh my God!’ I was delighted. Eoin [Wearen], our manager, was kind of laughing.
He was, like: ‘You are just going around smiling.’ But it was unbelievable, I was taken aback.” Consequently, Clancy is happy to be seen as an example of how college education and high-level sport can coalesce.
“It’s brilliant the confidence Carla has given me by putting me in the squad. It’s great. And it is a tap on the back that it is possible to do both.
A lot of other players in this league are probably close enough to it. “It does make it harder that the girls [playing abroad] are in a full-time set-up, playing probably at a better standard. It does make it more difficult, but it still remains possible.
You’ve seen home-based players in the squad before — the likes of Julie-Ann [Russell] did so well and she was playing with Galway. So it is possible.”.
