Chloe Mustaki: 'I’ll fight for my place until the last day but I need to remember the bigger picture'
PROUD: Chloe Mustaki during a Republic of Ireland women press conference at Tallaght Stadium. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
No two paths are the same. Katie McCabe and Chloe Mustaki were members of the same age-group growing up. One has been plying her trade professionally in England for years now, the other only made the same leap last summer.
Mustaki doesn’t regret one bit of that.
She looks back ten years now and still knows that it wasn’t “realistic” for her to jump into a full-time set-up. When she did, with Bristol City 12 months ago, she already had two third-level qualifications and a stint working in recruitment under her belt.
“The money wasn’t really there (before) and I just wanted stability. Now I have no regrets. It was a different situation for me from some of the girls doing their Leaving Cert now and the world is their oyster.
“They have so many opportunities but that just wasn’t on the table for me back then. You look at Katie McCabe, she was my year and she is a star now, but only such a small percentage of girls realised that potential. There wasn’t room for us all to do it.”
Last season was her first as a full-time player and if the loss of four or five months to a groin injury tested her then the ultimate reward was promotion up to the WSL next season and the signing of a new two-year contract at the start of this month.
Now 27, she would be open to playing through to her mid-thirties in the paid ranks but there was an addendum to that with her point that the competition for game time has shot through the roof in the women’s club game.
That holds for the international era too.
Mustaki only made her debut in February of last year but she started in the crucial 1-1 draw away to Sweden in qualifying and appeared off the bench at the back end of the equally important home win against Finland in Tallaght.
Qualification for the World Cup has accelerated the gains being made by the women’s game in Ireland. She has seen this on a daily basis in how the players are recognised and engaged by people when they go for a coffee or walk down the street.
She has one more week now, before Vera Pauw names her final squad, to be a part of that come Australia.
“It’s been a pretty intense 12 months. Twelve months ago I walked away from a full-time job, so a lot has happened. For me, personally, whatever happens in the next week or so, I can just be happy and proud with what I have achieved in the past 12 months.
“Having gone through a bit of a difficult time this season I’m just glad to be involved at the moment. I’ll fight for my place until the last day, of course, but I need to remember the bigger picture. I was out for quite a while, but it has been fantastic.”
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