Footballers tend not to be strangers to meandering career journeys in a ‘have boots, will travel’ kind of way, usually being happy enough to head for wherever opportunities present themselves.
Still, Madie Gibson’s trip from New Jersey to Athlone via Lithuania, with a brief stopover in the Czech Republic, is quirkier than most.
On Sunday, the 25-year-old American will add a stopover in Tallaght to her itinerary when she heads there as part of an Athlone Town team that will play in its first ever FAI Cup final, her hat-trick in the semi-final against holders Wexford Youths having sent the club through.
The game will cap what has been a remarkable season for Athlone who were runners-up to Shelbourne – their double-seeking opponents on Sunday – in only their third season in the National League. In the previous campaign, Shelbourne finished 42 points clear of them, this time around that gap was narrowed to just two.
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Gibson has played a big part in that success since arriving midway through the season on the recommendation of her old Monmouth University room-mate Dana Scheriff.
“Dana had joined Athlone at the start of the year and then she reached out to me at the end of June about following her there. I spoke to the club and they showed a lot of interest in me, so within the next two weeks I was on my way. It happened really fast, but I settled in so quickly – coming from a small town myself, Athlone kind of felt like a home away from home.”
Her native town is Cape May in New Jersey, one of the United States’ oldest holiday resorts.
“A ghost town in the winter, and then really busy in the summer,” she says.
It was in the local high school that she began excelling in football, while being pretty useful at basketball and lacrosse too, ultimately earning a scholarship in Monmouth in her home state where she majored in communications.
“Soccer kind of runs in the family, my Mom [Anne] played semi-professionally, so that’s where the passion came from, I guess. As soon and as me and my sisters were able to run, we had a ball at our feet.”
Monmouth is the alma mater of the legendary Christie Pearce (formerly Rampone), the former United States captain who won three Olympic gold medals and two World Cups.
But such was Gibson’s impact for the college team – 35 goals and 32 assists in her 82 appearances – she managed to surpass Pearce’s achievement of inclusion in two of the region’s teams of the year, Gibson making it on to her third after her final season.
“Playing professionally definitely started to become a more realistic possibility for me in the last two years in college. Making that transition from high school to college is a big jump, but the fact that I was not only able to compete but to be a stand-out player really showed that it could happen for me.”
“I always liked the idea of playing in Europe, so after a one-month trial with Sparta Prague, which didn’t work out, I was offered the chance to play with FC Gintra in Lithuania. They win their league pretty much every year, so that meant you’d get a chance to play Champions League, so I went for it.
“It was a bit of a culture shock because I really hadn’t left the States before that, but I had the support of other American players in the squad who were going through the same thing.”
But take a note of when she arrived in Lithuania: March 2020 . . .
“I think I was there for a week when everything shut down because of Covid. We weren’t training and had no matches for about two months, so lockdown had a huge impact. It was a strange time.
“And then we finally returned and a month or two later, I tore my ACL, so I had to go through that whole process of surgery and everything in Lithuania. Let’s just say, 2020 was not my year,” she laughs.
She managed to return to action in just seven months (“it was my second ACL, so I knew what to expect and how to deal with it”) and got to play – and score – in the qualifying phase of the Champions League for Gintra, as well as help them to yet another league title.
“But the league games just weren’t competitive at all, Gintra were winning some of them by double digits, one of them was 18-0. So, it just wasn’t the challenge I needed.”
She returned home, and that’s when Scheriff called.
“Dana told me that the league was really competitive and physical – and fast and physical is definitely more my style, so I thought I could fit in pretty well here. And just from the very first game, I loved how competitive it was.”
She’s averaged a goal every other game since arriving, seven in all, three of them coming in that semi-final when Wexford found her unstoppable.
“That was a special day, one I’ll never forget. When I first came here it was not even a thought that we’d make it to the cup final or come close in the league, but as the games went by, we really started to believe.”
“Even finishing in the top two, from where we were last season, is a huge accomplishment and next season we’re only going to get better. It’s really cool to be a part off, to see everyone in the whole town supporting us, and to really see the National League grow.”
Gibson is now combining her football with studying for an MSc in Digital Marketing at the Technological University of the Shannon, so she’ll be with Athlone for at least another year.
“I have long-term goals for myself, I want to get some Champions League again, so hopefully that’s possible with this team. But getting to play in the cup final is a dream end to the year. There’s really no pressure on us, Shelbourne are the league champions, we’re the underdogs. We really just have to go out there and play to the best of our ability, that’s all we can ask of ourselves.”
Obligatory question: have you any Irish connections?
“I don’t believe I do – maybe somewhere down the line, but none that I’m aware of.”
Although, you were born on St Patrick’s Day?
“I was! It’s like I was meant to be here,” she laughs.
