Experience on De Búrca's side

At the age of just 24, Méabh De Búrca has had a very busy footballing life. Three countries and an international career have seen De Búrca gain valuable experience across the football world.

De Búrca made her senior international debut at the age of just 18; a day that she holds as one of her biggest achievements to date.

“It was a great experience making my debut. I still remember it so well when I came on, even though for everyone else it was just a meaningless friendly against Italy, but it was a big achievement for me to play for the senior team at such a young age.

“Putting on the Irish jersey for the Under-17 side was also right up there with the best moments I’ve had in football as it was the first time I played for Ireland.”

De Búrca was part of Sue Ronan’s senior Republic of Ireland squad that completed their American tour recently. Despite disappointing results, the experience was one that De Búrca cherishes.

“It was really good, I was involved in the tour we went on four years ago as well. It was a great experience. Playing for Ireland is always a great honour, but to play against some of the best players in the world makes is a big challenge. Overall it was a really enjoyable experience, expects the results of course.

“There’s always a great buzz around when we go away to play matches, especially over this week [in America] because there wasn’t as much pressure on us because nobody expected us to realistically get anything out of the game.”

De Búrca left Ireland in 2009 with a scholarship in the University of New Haven on offer and the chance to experience a new football life. After completing her masters at the university, she moved to Boston Aztec for another season in the US leagues, which she describes as very different to college football in Ireland.

“Sport in college in America is on a different scale to Ireland," De Búrca believes. "You train six times a week and you’re given one day off a week, whereas in Ireland you wouldn’t have the same commitment level but it seems to be a lot more professionally run, it was a great experience.”

After leaving America, De Búrca moved on to Norway and to Amizon Grimstad. In what is not a well-known league worldwide, De Búrca moved after speaking to a teammate and decided it was the best option at the time.

“I got in touch with one of my team mates, Shannon Smyth, and she had been with Amazon before, so I talked with her and it seemed to be the best fit for me at the time.

“The language barrier wasn’t as bad as I had expected, as they all spoke English, but I did need to learn some of the soccer terms for the matches.”

Being away from family and friends was tough for De Búrca, but she was thankful that she was allowed to travel home often.

“Missing family and friends was very difficult, that was a big part of it. I was fortunate that when I was in America that I got to travel home quite a lot because of qualifiers with the Irish side. I also played Gaelic football in New York so got to travel with them for matches too.”

Despite not being in Ireland during the start up of the Women’s National League in Ireland, De Búrca was delighted to see its development and says that it is being down in the correct way.

“I think that it was the next logical step here to be honest. It’s a stepping-stone and it’s building from the bottom up. In America they tried to build from the top and they failed, but with the Irish league they are being realistic.”

After a long season that ended in a disappointing tenth place finish in the Norwegian women’s league, De Búrca is now home in Galway, taking a well earned break over Christmas, before getting back to football in the new year.