Striker Stephanie will follow in the footsteps of Ronaldo, Neymar and Ibrahimovic if she wins FIFA’s Puskas Award but as she tells Garry Doyle, she just wants to put Irish football on the map
When Stephanie Roche collected Áine O’Gorman’s pass in the second half of the Women’s National League match between her Peamount United team and Wexford Youths, she had only a vague idea of what would happen next.
Instinct told her to try something special. Tightly marked all day, the proximity of a Wexford defender convinced her that space lay elsewhere, so as she controlled the ball with her right foot, Roche contrived to convince Wexford’s defenders to adopt a higher defensive line.
Guessing they were out of position, she subtly flicked the ball with her left before spinning away in the direction whence she came, from where she acrobatically volleyed the ball high into the corner of the Wexford net for a goal that would change the game before subsequently it changed her life.
Until then, she was Stephanie Roche. Since then, she is known as Stephanie Roche, internet sensation for within a week of her manager, Eileen Gleeson, uploading the strike onto her YouTube account, 800,000 people had watched it. The great, the good… and Piers Morgan noted it and retweeted it.
And that was where she thought the saga would end. But Gerry McDermott had other ideas.
An employee of the FAI, one of McDermott’s tasks is to promote the women’s game in Ireland. Here was the perfecting marketing tool and when FIFA opened up their nominations for their annual Puskas award, handed to the player who scores the best goal of the year, McDermott filled out the form and suggested Roche’s strike for Peamount United was every bit as impressive as Robin Van Persie’s and James Rodriguez’s for Holland and Colombia in last year’s World Cup.
Voters agreed. Shortlisted initially for the top 10, an aggressive marketing campaign resulted in the Dubliner being nominated for the final three, along with Van Persie and Rodriguez, and together the three players will arrive in Zurich on January 12 to find out which goal has topped the poll.
Yet Roche isn’t heading to FIFA’s annual awards gala simply to be a tourist. She wants to win — for herself, Irish football and the women’s game. The first female to be short-listed for the FIFA Puskas Award since its inception in 2009, Roche is also the first Irish player to appear at the prestigious awards gala — a prize that escaped Roy Keane, Paul McGrath and Liam Brady.
“I’m very proud of that fact — proud to be representing Ireland, proud to be the first female up there,” she said.
“When I got short-listed for the top 10, I thought ‘great’ but let’s see if I can into the final three. Now I’m there, I want to go on and win it.
“Come the day of the awards, I know I’ll be really nervous. That’s when the enormity of this will hit home. It’s just great to be there — especially when you consider the names of previous winners.”
Ronaldo was the first to collect the gong in 2009, before stars including Neymar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic succeeded him. Now a 25-year-old Irish international, who only went fully professional this year, has beat both those players to the podium.
“When it went viral on YouTube, all of a sudden, loads of people were contacting me via Twitter, the likes of Paul McGrath, Norman Whiteside.
“Ian Wright interviewed me on his radio show and said it was the best goal he had ever seen. Then, when it got shortlisted, there was no shortage of well-wishers.
“Irish people are good at getting behind their own. The way I look at this, I’m doing this for Irish football. We’re putting our name out there.”
While Roche is the poster girl of the women’s game here, it is easily forgotten there is a vibrant league ongoing.
Winner of the golden boot during Peamount’s first season, when they won a league and cup double, Roche proved she is a scorer of great goals, as well as a great scorer of goals, when she delivered that strike against Wexford. “You don’t plan things like this. They happen. Instinct took over. After the game, we were more interested in the fact we had won than in the fact I’d scored a nice goal.
“Then, it was put up on the internet and went viral. If that proves to highlight how good the women’s game is in Ireland then that means so much because the fact is that there are loads of exceptional players back home and it deserves respect.”
Roche, however, was the pick of the bunch — which was why she got headhunted last summer by French side, ASPTT Albi.
While the full-time aspect of pro football has its appeal, the language barrier and homesickness are major issues.
“It can be a bit lonely out here,” she admits. “But my boyfriend (Bray Wanderers stalwart, Dean Zambra) is a professional player, too, so he understands the draw of a club like this. You come to clubs like this because you want to make your mark as a player.”
With that goal against Wexford, she already has. So much so, that the club's manager David Welferinger confirmed on Tuesday that Roche would be leaving the team after just six months to explore the benefits of her recent success.
