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The 42
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Champions League winner McCabe receives warm welcome from Irish teammates
IRELAND CAPTAIN Katie McCabe was given a guard of honour by Ireland teammates after landing at the squad's base this evening. The Kilnamanagh native was a late arrival in camp after being part of Arsenal's victory parade celebrations following their Champions League triumph against Barcelona at the weekend. On Saturday, the 29-year-old became just the fourth Irish woman to win a Champions League trophy, following in the footsteps of ex-Arsenal trio Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant and Yvonne Tracy in 2007. She was also the first Irish Champions winner since Liverpool's Caoimhín Kelleher lifted the trophy in 2019 and the first Irish player to start the final since John O'Shea in 2009. Advertisement Linking up with the squad ahead of upcoming Nations League fixtures away to Türkiye and home against Slovenia, McCabe was warmly applauded and serenaded by her Irish teammates in recognition of the momentous achievement. Our European Champion is here 🏆🌟 — Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) May 27, 2025
Irish Independent
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Watch: Katie McCabe receives rapturous welcome as she arrives for Ireland duty after Champions League success
The Irish captain was greeted by rapturous applause at the team hotel and was hugged by goalkeeping coach Emma Byrne, who with fellow Irish women Yvonne Tracy and Ciara Grant, was part of the only other English European champions, who were also from Arsenal, in 2007. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. McCabe had enjoyed celebrations with her club colleagues, friends and family since her side stunned favourites Barcelona 1-0 in the Lisbon final. McCabe's Irish side face crucial promotion clashes in the Nations League against Turkey this Friday and Slovenia, in Cork next Tuesday.
BreakingNews.ie
24-05-2025
- Sport
- BreakingNews.ie
Katie McCabe stars as Arsenal beat Barcelona to claim Champions League
Arsenal have beaten Barcelona in the Women's Champions League final, with Ireland's Katie McCabe playing a key role. Stina Blackstenius came off the bench to give the Gunners a 1-0 win in Lisbon. Advertisement Republic of Ireland star Katie McCabe was central in getting her team back to the top of European football. Caroline Graham Hansen of FC Barcelona passes the ball whilst under pressure from Katie McCabe of Arsenal during the Uefa Women's Champions League final match between Arsenal WFC and FC Barcelona at Estadio Jose Alvalade on May 24th, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo:Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, the Dubliner said she's had a long journey to get here. McCabe paid tribute to Irish stars Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant and Yvonne Tracy, who were part of the Arsenal team who won the club's first Champions League title in 2007. Katie McCabe of Arsenal lifts the Uefa Women's Champions League trophy. Photo:"They taught me what it meant to be a professional footballer and play for Arsenal and wear the badge and here I am. Advertisement "It's just an unbelievable feeling. I'm a Champions League winner, we all are. To give that to our fans today, they've been unbelievable and with us for every kick of the game." Arsenal withstood a flurry of Barca chances before Blackstenius broke the deadlock in the 75th minute. Katie McCabe of Arsenal lifts the Uefa Women's Champions League trophy after her team's victory at Estadio Jose Alvalade on May 24th, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo:TheSweden international latched onto fellow substitute Beth Mead's reverse pass in a crowded area and fired a low diagonal shot past goalkeeper Catalina Coll at the Estadio Jose Alvalade. Renee Slegers' Gunners, making their second appearance in the final having won Europe's top club competition in 2007, held on to win against a Barca side going for a third straight Champions League title. McCabe played the full 90 minutes of the final, which took place at Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal.
Irish Daily Mirror
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Who is Katie McCabe? The Irish Arsenal star playing in Champions League final
The dreams just keep turning into reality for Katie McCabe and she is absolutely loving it. Captain of her country at 21, league champion of Ireland, Scotland and England by her 23rd birthday, tonight she becomes the fourth Irish woman to play in a Champions League final. Not just that - in all, since Tony Dunne and Shay Brennan played in the 1968 European Cup final for Manchester United, just 13 players have played in European football's biggest stage. McCabe becomes No14 in Lisbon. She said: 'As a kid, you looked at the men's Champions League finals back in the day when the women's final was not on TV. So for us as a club, to be there, it is special.' Yet so is her story. One of 11 kids, she has had her hard times, like when a leg-break stopped her getting a football scholarship to Florida State University, like when she had to work in Nandos while living with her parents and pursuing a dream. She tells a funny story about when Arsenal first called. She was 19 at the time, playing for Shels. They were due to face Castlebar when her phone rang. Pedro Leso was the man calling, the then Arsenal manager. 'It is safe to say I shat myself,' was McCabe's recollection of that phone call, her Tallaght wit shining through. She wasn't going to say no, not when the Irish connection was evident, Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant and Yvonne Treacy being the first Irish players to feature in a women's Champions League final, 18 years ago. As a 15-year-old she watched the three Irish girls play in the 2010 FA Cup final, the only women's match screened on TV that year. 'I remember seeing Emma Byrne playing in that game and thinking I wanted to be like that,' she would later say. 'I wanted to be playing professionally and in cup finals, playing on TV and having my name on the back of my shirt, that kind of thing.' That was easier said than done. Leso, the man who signed her, used her as a bit -part player, prompting McCabe to go to Scotland on loan, where she won a league with Glasgow City before returning to find Leso was gone and her confidence was back. And she hasn't looked back. Unexpectedly named Ireland captain by Colin Bell when she was just 21, she worked tirelessly for issues close to her heart, securing an equal pay deal for men and women when they represented Ireland, in tandem with Seamus Coleman. On LGBTQ issues she has been unafraid to voice her opinion, coming out as gay at an early stage in her career. Then, on occasion, she has criticised the FAI, doing so at press conferences inside the Association's headquarters, winning respect for her independence. Then there's everything she stands for as a player. Her record of 21 goals from 96 internationals is unheard of for a left-back. Check out her stats. She is joint fifth in terms of most assists in the women's national league, possessing an 84 per cent pass ratio. Yet she is also joint second on the list of most yellow cards, highlighting the fact she plays with an edge - more of a Roy Keane than a Robbie Keane. As a player, she's outstanding, versatile, technically sound, superb at set-pieces, strong in the tackle, easily one of the best left backs in the world. And as a sports star she is commercially aware, the biggest recipient of sponsorship deals in the Ireland squad, their most marketable star as well as their best player. Yet, at 29, this is the prize she wants. In an interview with Sky Sports this week, she said: 'Leading the girls out with Ireland at the World Cup was definitely a highlight but this is up there from a club point of view if not the best. 'Champions League is what you play football for. 'It has been 18 years since we have been there. We have had seasons without Champions League football. For us to get to that last stage is really exciting. It has been a journey. There is a picture of Emma, Ciara sand Yvonne with the Irish flag after winning the Champions League with Arsenal all those years ago. 'I would do anything to have that chance.' Tonight she may well get her opportunity, for while Barcelona are hot favourites, having won three of the last four Champions Leagues, Arsenal have their own strengths. 'We have to respect them,' McCabe said. 'They have won three of the last four finals. The football they played against Chelsea and Wolfsburg was class. But we have to have no fear. We will be absolutely focused on ourselves but also respect the fact they are a fantastic football team.' Yet so are the Gunners. Tonight they are chasing history with their 29-year-old Dubliner leading the charge.
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Yvonne Tracy hoping Katie McCabe can follow in her foosteps to be an Irish Champions League winner
Yvonne Tracy is struggling to believe it's a whole 18 years since she, Emma Byrne and Ciara Grant became the first – and only – Irish women to win the equivalent of the Champions League. That triumph topped off a magical 2006-07 quadruple-winning season for Arsenal, no English club winning Europe's premier trophy, then called the Uefa Cup, before or since. The bulk of the squad reunited at the Emirates Stadium last year when the club invited them as guests of honour for the women's league game against Manchester United. 'We had some craic,' says Tracy. 'I hadn't seen most of the girls in 10 plus years, but it was like we'd never been apart. The laughs we had that day. We didn't even go out to watch the second-half, we just sat inside in a lounge chatting. By 10 in the morning the girls were on the wine already. 'Ah sure,' they said, 'it's ****ing five o'clock somewhere'.' 'They wanted us to do a lap of honour at half-time, which wasn't really our thing. We only went as far as the corner flag, turned back, went upstairs again and carried on chatting. And laughing. It was brilliant to see the girls, we had the best of times together.' READ MORE They were invited to another reunion at Arsenal's training ground last Tuesday where the plan was for them to meet up with the current squad ahead of their Champions League final against Barcelona on Saturday, when they will attempt to emulate that 2007 achievement. 'We only got the invite the Thursday before, but sure, most of us are working, so we couldn't make it. I think about four turned up. They made a big deal of the whole thing, and offered us all a ticket for the game in Lisbon. That was it. Make your own way. Get your own flights, your own accommodation, but we'll give you a ticket that you could buy for a tenner.' Arsenal team celebrates after winning the Womens UEFA Cup final. Photograph: Ian Walton/Getty The thing with Tracy, though, is that there's next to no rancour when she contrasts her playing days with how the women's game is now. A case in point. In the days before the second leg of Arsenal's Uefa Cup final against Sweden's Umea in 2007 (it's a one-off final these days), a gang of reporters arrived from Ireland at the club's training ground to talk to her, Byrne and Grant. While the men's squad rolled in and out of the car park in their Bugattis, Aston Martins, Bentleys and Ferraris, most with personalised number plates, she was working in the laundry at the ground, trying to top up her meagre wages so she could survive. You tell her that people back home were horrified by that. Did she ever feel the same? 'Not at all! Everyone has to ****ing earn a living, like. And we were all earning so little as players, we had to find work outside the game. That was just the reality, women's football was really only starting out. You couldn't turn your nose up at it – you were working, you were getting fed at the Arsenal training ground. You were rubbing shoulders with the men's team and you had Arsene Wenger coming in and having a chat with you. You were made to feel part of the Arsenal family. It was fine.' And having spent 14 years playing for the club, during which she won close to 30 major honours, as well as over 70 Irish caps along the way, she was happy to stay on for 'around another nine' after retiring. 'My job was to get the kit ready for training and games, wash the match gear, that kind of thing. It was good. But the hours were mad and the wages were shite, so I was like, 'I'm done. I've had enough of this'.' Coaching, she reckoned, was her route out of that grind, so after doing her Uefa B licence with the FAI back home, that's the route she took. She does her own 'one to one and group sessions' with players, and last year she was added to the staff at the Haverhill Football Academy in Suffolk, before being appointed head of their girls section last month. Yvonne Tracy, head of Haverhill Football Academy's girls section, talking with a group of young players at a training session earlier this month. Photograph: Haverhill Football Academy 'I absolutely love it because I just prefer working with kids. I work with a club too with under-18 boys and they asked me to move up with them when they reached the reserves, but I was like, 'nah, thanks'. I don't really want to be working with men who think they know everything, I want to stay with the kids and help develop them, and, most importantly, make sure they have fun and enjoy it.' 'It's funny, someone asked me if I had this kind of structure when I started out playing, and I was like, 'are you mad?' I was out in the green back in Limerick getting the s**te kicked out of me by all the boys. I said, you have to remember I'm 44 and there wasn't nothing like this in my time. Most of the coaches I work with are in their 20s and they're looking at me like, '****, she's from the Stone Age'.' 'But I was never coached until I played for Ireland at underage level, when I was around 15, everything was self-taught until then, from playing on that green. And now you have young girls going to academies and development centres and they have everything available for them, which is really, really good.' Yvonne Tracy at her unveiling as a new coach at Haverhill Football Academy last year. Photograph: Haverhill Football Academy 'The changes have been huge, and they went through the roof after England won the Euros in 2022. It just went bananas after that, the whole country was mad for it. There were thousands and thousands at games, but we have to be honest too, it's been hit and miss. Unlike England, or, say, Arsenal and Chelsea, Manchester City are lucky to get two or three thousand at a match, and then you have stories like the Blackburn and Wolves' women's teams being left high and dry by their clubs. Just like in the men's game, it's a case of the haves and have nots.' 'But it's always been a battle, so you just have to battle on. Back when we played Umea, Arsenal asked us if we wanted to play the second leg at the Emirates. We were, like, 'no' – not only because the pitch was bigger, but because we'd probably have got a maximum of 5,000 at the Emirates, a near empty stadium just rattling. It was a sell-out at Borehamwood, 3,500, it was our home. They're expecting 50,000 in Lisbon on Saturday, that's amazing.' Ciara Grant, Emma Byrne and Yvonne Tracy of Arsenal celebrate in 2007. Photograph: Ian Walton/Getty 'But we were lucky to get a couple of inches in the papers back then, if that, and I'm not sure the game was even on telly. The young girls back home didn't even know we were playing, there was hardly any coverage at all. Look at it now. At least one or two games on telly every week when the most we got was the FA Cup final. It's brilliant to see how it's grown. It's a different world for the young girls I'm coaching, there are so many possibilities for them in the game now. And I love that.' The possibilities seemed endless, too, when Tracy joined Arsenal in 2000. She was one of a sizeable gang of Irish players signed by the club back then. 'I went over with Caroline Thorpe and Susan Heapes, we were all playing for the Irish under-19s so they were really good pals. We were living with Emma, Ciara and Grainne Kierans, so we had great craic, you never felt home sick with that many Irish around you.' 'None of us could cook, it was all beans and spaghetti hoops on toast, but we'd eat at the training ground and that would set you up. We ended up in a three-bed flat with one bathroom, so we were living on top of each other, but then a few people left so it was grand. It was tough for some of the girls, either with homesickness or not getting their chances in the team, but myself, Emma and Ciara stuck it out. It's only now when you look back on it, it's like, yeah, we did do a bit, didn't we? We did okay.' While Byrne and Grant played in both legs of the 2027 final, Tracy remained on the bench, the latest in a series of knee injuries rendering her an onlooker. That was a heartbreaker for a player who had contributed so much to Arsenal becoming the dominant force in the English game. 'And to this day, my body is broken from playing football and having operations and injections. I'm actually waiting to get another operation done on my knee at the minute. I hurt it again when I was doing my Uefa B licence, tore my meniscus, so I'm on an NHS waiting list to have something done on it. I have an appointment for July, just to talk to a surgeon, but it's been cancelled three times already. We'll see how that goes.' She was made to feel part of it all, though, back in 2007, her memories of both legs vivid. 'We weren't given a hope. Umea were professional, we weren't. They were stacked with Swedish internationals, and had Brazil's Marta, the best player in the world.' 'Even when we won the first leg away, 1-0, I think they thought they were going to beat us by four or five at Borehamwood. But, Jesus, Emma was just unbelievable in goal. There were balls hitting her head, coming off the crossbar, she was phenomenal. And Ciara was Ciara – quality like.' The second leg finished 0-0, Arsenal were European champions, Tracy and her Irish comrades celebrating with the tricolour. 'And that's the best photo of the lot. My mother has it framed at home,' she says. A little like 2007, Arsenal will be the rank outsiders on Saturday against a three-in-a-row seeking Barcelona side. 'Ah jaysus, yeah,' says Tracy when you suggest Barca are half decent. 'But come here,' she says, 'it's a one-off game, anything can happen. Barcelona are brilliant, but Arsenal can be too. So ...' So ... Katie McCabe can become the fourth Irish player to conquer Europe? 'I bloody hope so! She's as good as gold, Kate, I love her passion. People say she's a bit arrogant and flashy on the pitch, but she's not, it's just her passion. She loves playing for her country and she loves playing for Arsenal. She has that fire, and you can't beat that.' 'I'll be cheering her on. I'll be in Spain with my parents, watching it in a bar somewhere. And honest to God, no one will be happier if Katie does it. Emma, Ciara and myself will be rooting for her. Big time. Go on Katie!'
