‘Football has been so good to me and now I want to try to inspire young girls to take part and enjoy it’

Thirty-four-year-old Marissa Callaghan is captain of the Northern Ireland women’s football team. The Belfast woman is also a girls’ participation officer at the Irish Football Association. She has played for Cliftonville Ladies since she was 13 years old.

“I always played football when I was a kid,” she says. “I would play on the street with the boys as we didn’t really have many girls’ teams back then, so playing with the boys was the only option. It wasn’t until I was 13 that I got into my first girls’ team.

“And that was all through my youth leader Marty Foy — he put me in contact with Newington Girls who then amalgamated with Cliftonville, so I have been playing for the Cliftonville Ladies since I was 13.”

Marissa says that there are so many more opportunities for female footballers now than when she was a young player.

“In my position in the Irish Football Association I’m lucky enough to be able to offer opportunities throughout Northern Ireland to young girls,” she says.

“We are starting off a Shooting Stars programme which aims to reach girls as young as four years old up to the age of 11. The programme is about getting young girls involved, making it all fun and hopefully getting them to fall in love with the game.

“At the end of the day, football has been so good to me and I just want to try to inspire young girls to enjoy it and let them know that it can open up a lot of doors for them.”

Marissa says that exciting things are happening in the game here.

“I can only talk for Northern Ireland football — at the minute our association is starting to pump a lot of money into girls’ football, because they are obviously seeing that it’s the biggest growing sport in the world,” she explains.

“If the senior women’s team keeps doing well at the top, then everything else will filter in below that. We need to just keep working hard and keep inspiring the girls.

“The more young girls that

we get playing, the more players that we will get to choose from for our senior team in the future. And that can only better the country playing football.”

She believes that the Women’s World Cup has raised the stakes enormously for the game on a world stage.

“From the World Cup the women’s game has grown massively in the last couple of months,” she says.

“There is a lot more awareness around it. People are starting to take heed of it.

“Even when Northern Ireland men did so well in the Euros a couple of years ago, that has boosted Northern Ireland football.”

And new sponsorships have taken the game to even greater heights. Electric Ireland first became involved in girls’ and women’s football just over two years ago when it launched the Game Changers campaign in partnership with the IFA.

In August, the company and the IFA announced a further expansion to their partnership

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which meant that the energy provider became the title sponsor of the Northern Ireland senior women’s international team as part of a broad commitment to women’s football.

Electric Ireland’s support now also covers title sponsor to the Northern Ireland youth international teams as well as the elite pathway for the female game. In addition the company is lead sponsor for women’s and girls’ grassroots football and competitions like the Electric Ireland Women’s Challenge Cup and Schools’ Cup as well as the Shooting Stars initiative which encourages girls aged four to seven to play football. “What’s happening now is because the awareness is so high,” Marissa says. “The likes of Electric Ireland have come in these last few years and that has really helped to promote the women’s game here.

“They have increased participation with young girls and it is those sponsorships that are helping to build and grow awareness.

“It is just a really good time to

On the ball: Marissa Callaghan (also left) playing against Georgia

be involved in women’s and girls’ football.”

Marissa says that the fight against the perception that women’s football isn’t taken seriously is a daily battle.

“The fight is still there,” she says. “When I was younger and playing with the boys, I got a lot of respect for it.

“There were some people who would have said that I was a tomboy.

“But I grew up in west Belfast and got a lot of respect for playing alongside the boys and I was lucky not to come across anything like that. But back then I knew a lot of young girls involved in boys’ teams who got a lot of stick and still do to this day.

“Those are the girls who are championing it all going forward, because they are brave enough to step onto the pitch with the boys.

“I would encourage young girls who are involved in boys’ teams to stick with it and stay as long as they can, because it helps with their development. The girls’ clubs across Northern Ireland are just growing and growing.

“There are so many opportunities out there for girls and it’s up to us as senior players who have been around for a few years, to inspire them and show them what is out there.”