Versatile Stapleton will play anywhere to book a World Cup ticket
STEPPING UP: Jessie Stapleton of Shelbourne in attendance during the EVOKE.ie FAI Women's Cup Semi-Finals media event at the FAI Headquarters in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
As one successful year closes, Jessie Stapleton has the English Women’s Super League and the World Cup in her gaze for the next one.
Nine months will pass between Ireland sealing their place at a first-ever major tournament and kicking a ball in Australia, an ideal window for the 17-year-old Shelbourne star to press her claims.
Vera Pauw can only bring 23 players with her but the teen who made her senior debut against the Philippines in June has the time, talent and showcase to become the squad’s bolter.
A central cog in the Shels side chasing a double in Sunday’s FAI Cup final against Athlone Town, the versatile playmaker will be aiming to provide the onlooking Ireland manager with supporting evidence for her case.
Stapleton, after all, is a maverick in every respect.
She earned a call-up for senior squad training at the age of 13 from Pauw’s predecessor Colin Bell, not long after becoming the first girl to break into the Dublin District Schoolboys/girls league representative team.
Her rise to prominence extended off the pitch, for she went public in calling out blatant sexism circulated online during the U17 national final she lined out in two years ago.
Anything she has touched, Stapleton has excelled at.
But the next steps promise to break new ground.
Once two personal milestones are surpassed, turning 18 in February and completion of her Leaving Certificate next June, a whole new world of possibilities emerges.
Her eligibility to move cross-channel won’t spring a sudden move, for English WSL clubs have been tracking her for several years.
West Ham United were in talks to recruit her as their latest Irish import after Jess Ziu and Izzy Atkinson, also both ex-Shelbourne stars, but Manchester City have moved to the front of the queue.
Former Ireland international Alan Mahon has been a constant on their first-team staff, serving a spell as interim manager along the way, and is keenly aware of how the tyro can fit into the international array of gems at City.
“I think everyone wants to get across the water to the big league so that will definitely be my goal,” the Dubliner asserts about her twin aims for 2023.
“Every season you have to keep working hard but I’m going to work as hard as I can to get a seat on the plane to Australia next July.”
Pauw allowed Stapleton to revert to the U19 squad while her team were overcoming Scotland in last month’s playoffs.
Another peer, Ellen Molloy, has been operating between the two squads too during the year but a serious knee injury rules out her prospects of travelling down under.
What Stapleton offers compared to rivals is an ability to seamlessly adapt.
Initially renowned in her mid-teens as a defender, her composure and passing from midfield has made her integral in that area for Shels.
It was her intuition and dash in anticipating the rebound off Alex Kavanagh’s shot that powered the Reds ahead in Saturday’s title-clinching trip to Wexford. They never looked back, racking up a 4-0 victory to retain their title.
“I don’t think I’ve scored a goal like that before but playing in different positions this year has helped me,” she explained.
“From being centre-back, midfield, even having a spell upfront, I’m learning lots of different things.
“Noel (King) prefers me in midfield whereas Vera probably prefers me at centre-back. They’re going to choose. If Vera wants to play me in goal, I’ll play in goal but I think the position I want to play is centre-back.”
Wherever she ends up on the pitch, and wherever the journey that this women’s team goes to, the one certainty is Stapleton featuring on our screens. Don’t discount that being beamed from the southern hemisphere next summer.
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