Still just 22, Ireland's Tyler Toland has already experienced so much
Tyler Toland speaks to media during a Republic of Ireland media day at Castleknock Hotel in Dublin. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Tyler Toland is plotting the opposite career path of her mentor and once the world’s most expensive player, Keira Walsh.
The pair of midfielders were teammates at Manchester City, where Irish coach Alan Mahon acclaimed Walsh for taking his compatriot under her wing.
They’ve diverged from those days at City, Walsh becoming a Champions League winner since Barcelona met the asking price of £400,000.
Toland, four years her junior, also moved on from Manchester, initially to Glasgow with City and Celtic and then Spain to line out for Levante.
That journey was overshadowed by her travails with the Irish team, demoted from 16-year-old debutant under Colin Bell to enforced exile by Vera Pauw.
The past year has been a rehabilitation of sorts, as England has come calling on the club circuit and she’s been restored to the Irish fold and side seamlessly.
All of this has unravelled and the Donegal native is still only 22.
Toland remains unified with Walsh through the Blackburn Rovers connection.
That’s where England’s playmaker emerged from and is the platform Toland has used to reemerge from.
She’s been a mainstay of a club that placed additional importance on their women’s section this year.
Seventh in a competitive Championship table, ahead of London City Lionesses, Reading and Watford is admirable but it’s during the second year of her contract that Toland foresees them mounting a serious push for promotion.
“Speaking to Blackburn before I signed, I asked them honestly ‘what is club’s ambitions?’,” she recalls about considering her options.
“They did say genuinely that we are looking to make a name for ourselves this year as a team that is hard to beat with the intention the following year of looking for promotion to the WSL.
“This year was just about getting consistent game-time and to be fair, that is exactly what I have got so far.
“Playing every week was what I needed to achieve my ambition of getting back into the Ireland squad too.”
Hence, she’s known as the player who made two debuts against Northern Ireland – the second at Lansdowne Road last September six years after the first.
Toland’s maiden start was another landmark, harnessing the midfield against European champions Netherlands. The teen’s endeavours in Nijmegen were integral to a stalemate to silence the Dutch homecoming celebrations.
She can expect to face another hostile atmosphere if selected for Friday’s Euro qualification opener at the 30,000-capacity Stade Saint-Symphorien in Metz against France.
“I was 16 back then and this will probably be something similar,” she said, dismissing any thoughts that her rite of passage as a youth renders this routine.
“I wouldn’t say it is going to be a doddle - definitely something new. Personally, I am nervous going into any game, no matter if it is club or international.
“That is just my football mentality because you want to perform at your best. I get pre-game nerves whomever I’m playing against.”
One of the squad’s calming influences won’t be around this occasion, nor next Tuesday’s visit of England to Lansdowne Road in the second element of the double-header.
Ireland travel to France today (Wednesday) but the flight will be missing Niamh Fahey.
The experienced centre-back hasn’t recovered from the torn calf muscle she sustained while captaining Liverpool last week. Her withdrawal from the defensive ranks makes it all but guaranteed that the latest English-born recruit Anna Patten will go straight into the team for her debut.
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