Little renumeration but Irish football is the gift that keeps on giving

Tiegan Ruddy’s announcement on Monday that she was joining Switzerland’s FC Sion might not have garnered quite the same attention as Mario Balotelli’s imminent move to the same club, but it was the latest transfer in a busy summer involving current or aspiring Republic of Ireland internationals, several of them spreading their wings in search of greater opportunities.

The 22-year-old from Celbridge, Co Kildare, a former Ireland youth international, had long held the ambition to play professionally, which she will do for the first time at Sion. With the club in the second division of the Swiss League, she will hope this move is but a stepping stone to bigger things.

For Peamount United, losing a key member of their set-up to a club beyond these shores is a well trodden road. Among those Vera Pauw chose for her squad for Thursday evening’s World Cup qualifier against Finland is a raft of names who spent part of their formative years with the club, including Louise Quinn, Heather Payne, Hayley Nolan, Amber Barrett and Chloe Mustaki.

Denise O’Sullivan also had a couple of brief spells with the Dublin side, making cameo appearances for them in the Champions League before she set sail for the United States. A bit further back, Peamount lost another gifted player, although they’d probably concede she made a wise enough career choice when she focussed on boxing. You might have heard of her - Katie Taylor.

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In the last couple of seasons, though, Shelbourne have been drained of more talent than any of their rivals. At the start of 2021, a year in which they went on to win the league title, they had in their ranks seven players who have since moved to English or Scottish clubs - Mustaki (Bristol City), Jamie Finn (Birmingham City), Jessica Ziu (West Ham), Saoirse Noonan (Durham), Izzy Atkinson (West Ham via Celtic), Ciara Grant (Hearts via Rangers) and Emily Whelan (Celtic via Birmingham).

Some loss.

And, of course, they didn’t receive as much as a cent in transfer fees or ‘training compensation’, Fifa yet to apply the latter rule in the women’s game for fear it would negatively impact the free movement of players while the game is still in its growth phase.

Which was a perfectly understandable decision when it was made all those years ago, but you’d be wondering if it’s time the likes of Shelbourne and Peamount received some form of remuneration, perhaps achievement-related, for rearing these players, rather than having to cope with being mere feeder clubs who have to rebuild season upon season when their best and brightest move on.

Imagine how flush Shelbourne would be now if Arsenal compensated them for the gift of Katie McCabe back in 2015.

There were 257 transfers internationally in women’s football in the January window this year, only 21 of them involving a fee, a record €485,000 spent on those moves (more than half of it by English Super League clubs), up 57 per cent on the year before.

The highest (disclosed) transfer fee ever paid for a female footballer remains the €280,000 Chelsea paid Wolfsburg for Pernille Harder back in September 2020, marginally more than Jesse Lingard earns a week at Nottingham Forest.

But, as we know, comparing the finances in lads and lasses’ football is akin to likening apples to pepperoni pizzas, and those who try need to acquire a firm grip. Until women’s football generates the same stratospheric loot as the lads, it can’t expect as many zeros in its cheques.

[ Lisa Fallon: Crucial World Cup qualifier can be a defining day for Irish women’s football ]

[ ‘We will be ready’ - Pressure fails to faze Ireland ahead of crucial Finland qualifier  ]

“Everyone at Peamount would like to wish Tiegan Ruddy the best of luck as she signs a professional contract with Swiss club FC Sion! Tiegan has been a fantastic player for us and we wish her well in this exciting new stage of her career!”

So tweeted Peamount this week, wishing Ruddy nothing but the best, the club knowing, for now at least, it’s not in the position to offer her the opportunity she’ll have even with a second tier Swiss club - to be a full-time footballer, allowing her the chance to develop as a player and see how far she can go.

Complaining about the lack of opportunities for these players at home is much like complaining about the weather, not a whole lot can be done about it until there’s significant investment in the domestic game. ‘Tell me about it,’ as any supporter of a lads’ League of Ireland club would sigh.

Just four home-based players were named in Pauw’s squad for the Finland game - Eve Badana (DLR Waves), Áine O’Gorman (Peamount), Ellen Molloy (Wexford Youths) and Abbie Larkin (Shelbourne) - the bulk of the other 24 having started their careers with Irish clubs but have moved on since.

The upturn in Ireland’s fortunes in the last year or two has played no small part in opportunities opening up for them, Ziu’s progress under Pauw, and her predecessor Colin Bell, ultimately earning her a move to West Ham in the English Super League.

After England’s Euro 2022 success, the Super League is the biggest show in town, and come Saturday week, when the new season kicks off, there’ll be 12 Irish players on the books of clubs in England’s top flight: McCabe (Arsenal), Ruesha Littlejohn (Aston Villa), Megan Connolly and Megan Walsh (Brighton), Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Niamh Fahey, Megan Campbell and Leanne Kiernan (Liverpool), Grace Moloney and Diane Caldwell (Reading) and Jessica Ziu and Izzy Atkinson (West Ham).

Meanwhile, Tyler Toland, exiled by Pauw from the Irish set-up, will be turning out for Levante in the Spanish league, Niamh Farrelly will be playing for Parma in Italy, Amber Barrett will lining out for FFC Turbine Potsdam in Germany, Kyra Carusa for HB Koge in Denmark, O’Sullivan, Payne and a host of college players, like Roma McLaughlin and Eabha O’Mahony, in the United States.

We’re the gift that keeps on giving.