One more throw of the dice for Megan

Irish sntadr Campbell had to deal with mental anguish of missing World Cup but is hoping for more in green

‘I’d like to think I am more than just someone who can throw the ball,” says Republic of Ireland international Megan Campbell. “I did it when I was 13. I was playing with boys and I could just throw it further than them and they were like, ‘Do that again!’

“As I grew up, it got longer and I’m hypermobile, which means my joints are more flexible than normal, so that definitely helps. If ever called upon and you’re needing it in a game, I’m gonna do it and it’s probably going to work.”

Campbell is seeking to win her 50th cap after being included in Eileen Gleeson’s squad for the upcoming Euro 2025 qualifiers double-header against Sweden.

There is much more to Campbell’s game than her ability to throw the ball 50 yards. The Drogheda woman is comfortable as a left-back or centre-back, and her superior technical ability has been a key factor in contributing to her high number of career assists.

When she came off the bench against France in April, she shored up the left side of the defence, which had been visibly exposed, with her aggressive and physical approach. It is likely Gleeson is thankful to have the experienced defender injury-free and back in the squad.

Eleven months ago, Megan Campbell was in a very different place, physically and mentally, to where she is today. Having played an integral role in helping Ireland to their first Women’s World Cup, she suffered a knee injury at the back end of the club season and did not recover in time to make the World Cup squad. Instead of playing in Australia, she spent the competition working as a pundit for RTÉ.

Campbell’s mental resilience had been severely tested on previous occasions, having spent lengthy spells on the sideline due to knee and ankle injuries. But her failure to make the World Cup squad last June was a bridge too far in some ways.

“Mentally, I think it took me a while to get my head around it,” she says. “Physically, I’m an athlete, it’s easy, the physical side is what you want to do, it’s what you do daily, but the mental side is the hardest thing.

“Being able to put your hand up and go, I actually need help. I do need to speak to somebody here because I’m at rock bottom. Previously, I thought I was struggling when I got injured in lockdown. I contemplated retiring multiple times because it could have been a career-ending injury at the time, but I got back. I got myself playing again, and I got to play with Ireland again and qualify for the World Cup.

“And then it happened again. I think without putting my hand up and saying, I need to speak to somebody, I don’t think I would have continued playing, to be honest.” Her drive and determination haven’t diminished since that setback, but she has a broader attitude to how important a work-life balance is to personal performance and well-being.

“It has also changed my perspective on football. Now I feel there’s more to football than what I perceived it to be because my whole life was surrounded by football.

“My partner and I agreed that it was maybe a nice opportunity to just be a normal person, and just step back from football, and think. Football doesn’t make you a person, it’s part of you, yeah, but it doesn’t define you.

“It took me a long time to get my head around that, and I think I’m probably enjoying football more now than I have in years because I’m no longer constantly getting at myself, or the lack of confidence. That’s gone, and I think I can see that in how I’m playing, too. I’m just enjoying myself.”

This year has afforded a fit-again Megan Campbell the opportunity of a clean slate. On transfer deadline day in January, she signed with Barclays Women’s Championship side London City Lionesses and in February played her first 90 minutes for Ireland in almost 10 months in a 0-0 draw with Italy.

The last time she pulled on an Ireland jersey, her manager was Vera Pauw, whose departure has been widely documented.

“There’s obviously different stuff that goes on behind closed doors privately, but for myself, I was able to play. I was selected for my national team, I was representing my

country, playing at the highest level. I was part of the team that qualified against Scotland and I wouldn’t have been in those squads had it not been for Vera selecting me, so I am grateful for that.

“I think it was a tough time for everybody, but obviously now, we’re on to a new chapter with Eileen in charge and we’re positive about the future.

“Decisions were made, the FAI came to a conclusion and that’s the thing that we now have to stand by and follow through with. It’s on us, as players, to perform on the pitch.

“To have to deal with other external situations that was on the FAI to decide things and those things were dealt with and those decisions were made. As players, we can’t get into the political side of things.”

Campbell strikes me as a professional who has remained modest, free of arrogance yet unassumingly confident and the type of personality managers jump at the chance of working with. It has been no surprise that she has been included in every Ireland squad this year.

“I’ve really enjoyed the last camp that we’ve been in. Just the positivity around the camp, the girls are buzzing, it’s a real confidence-builder, the new staff that’s come in as well, the background staff especially who are there to help tactically and technically to improve you as an individual and as a collective encourage more positive and forward-thinking playing.”

While the atmosphere within the Ireland WNT might be easygoing, the same cannot be said for their 2025

If you qualify for the Euros, you’re going to have to play the best teams anyway.

however, that positivity within the squad that she talks about is also present in the mindset of the players.

“It’s a hard group, but ultimately, if you qualify for the Euros, you’re going to have to play the best teams anyway, so doing it early on in the competition doesn’t make a difference.

“I think we put ourselves in a great position by qualifying from League B to League A. Ultimately, we want to finish as high as we can in the group, and in the next two games against Sweden, I think we take it day by day and game by game.

“You learn from the France game to the England game. I think you’ve probably seen an improvement in performance and I’d like to think you’ll see another improvement come the Sweden game.

“They are two massive games for us, both home and away, because we’ve played them in the previous qualifying campaign, so we’re more aware of them than we have been France and England. Yes, you see those teams on the television, but actually playing against them is completely different. But Sweden are also a top side.

“I think we’ll focus on ourselves and how we can best play our gameplan and how we can equip ourselves going into those games. It’s about us, it’s not about anybody else, and when you look at both the France and England games, if we can just get a little bit more in that first half because the second half, especially the England game for the last 20-25 minutes, it was all us.”

Her club, London City Lionesses, finished eighth in the league. In the second half of the campaign, the aim was to avoid a relegation battle. However, the outlook for 2024/’25 could not be more different.

“We want to get promoted,” she says. “I want to finish first, I don’t want to finish second. I know two teams go up, but I want to finish top of the league. That’s the aim.

“Plans are being put in place now [and] they’ve signed some great staff as well who are there to help the players in the off-season to get us to where we need to be, so I’m looking forward to it.”

The shift in mindset is due to a takeover of the club last December by American businesswoman and philanthropist Michele Kang. It has resulted in the complete transformation of expectations for the upcoming season and the club’s long-term future.

Kang has emerged as one of the key figures behind the global movement that is becoming central to transforming women’s sports globally. In December 2020, she became the majority owner of Washington Spirit, which competes in the United States National Women’s Soccer League, and in January of this year, she became part of the Baltimore Orioles Major League Baseball team’s ownership group and the following month she acquired Olympic Lyon women’s soccer team, the most successful women’s club team in Europe.

Kang has a clear ambition to make London City Lionesses the first standalone female club to play in the Barclays Women’s Super League. The project will also include a redevelopment of the training facilities and a new stadium in London. At present, the club is based in Kent.

Campbell is aware of the power of Kang’s vision for London City and also the impact it can have on her personally as she enters the latter stages of her career.

“I’m enjoying it, it’s a new challenge. Obviously, it’s a different set-up and the new owner Michelle Kang’s come in. Her ambitions and the project, as to where she wants to take the club and the team, are definitely massive.

“For me personally and professionally, I’ve not got 10 more years in my legs, so it’s a great opportunity for me as well to get in and work around the best people in the world who are doing it on a big stage, so if I can learn from those people then brilliant, fantastic for me so it could be phenomenal.”

Campbell is definitely more than someone who can throw a ball and break the internet. She has dedicated her life to becoming the best player she can possibly be, fulfilling her dream of becoming a professional footballer in the process.

She takes nothing for granted and is one of the many reasons Ireland WNT fans are behind the team. If anyone deserves another chance to play at a major tournament, it’s the kid from Drogheda, who, growing up, used to draw goals with chalk on the walls of houses, lose footballs in neighbours’ gardens. Her roots belong in street football.