‘I wanted to be like Damien Duff’ - How it all began as Katie McCabe prepares for 100th cap
Ireland star Katie McCabe will win her 100th cap in Tuesday’s Nations League play-off against Belgium.
Katie McCabe has given an insight into how her life in football began - and how she has still to meet her childhood hero Damien Duff.
McCabe will win her 100th senior Ireland cap when she leads the team out on Tuesday night in their Nations League play-off second-leg against Belgium in Leuven.
It’s an incredible achievement by the Kilnamanagh native, considering she is still only 30 years of age and has plenty of football left in her.
One of 11 children, she grew up in a sports-mad house, including brother Gary who was a successful player with Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers and Bray Wanderers.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Tony O’Donoghue in Leuven ahead of Tuesday’s game, she revealed how she grew up wanting to be like her childhood hero Duff.
“Back then there wasn’t women’s football on, I didn’t know any women footballers, so I would always put on the men’s games or watch the Premier League and Champions League,” McCabe said.
“I remember one Christmas I asked Santa Claus for a long-sleeved Damien Duff Ireland jersey with number 11 on the back.
“I manifested that I wanted to be like that, I wanted to be like Damien Duff. I loved his game, loved his workrate, how positive he was on the ball and the goals he scored.
“I just loved everything about him. I’m still yet to meet him. I need to meet him. He was a massive role model for me growing up.”
McCabe was into football from a very early age, and joined in with her brothers and their friends on the roads and local greens in Kilnamanagh.
“It’s a very competitive household,” she said. “My mam and dad were both into football, my mam was athletics and football, and my dad was obviously a footballer too.
“So I think we’ve definitely got that competitive nature from them.
“Literally all sports; basketball, handball, athletics, football - you name it, we were playing it.
“Some of my sisters were into dancing and stuff like that, but I was never quite the dancer, so I just stayed with the football.
“We had some great fun growing up, a really, really supportive bunch. Even on Friday night they were all there cheering me on, always there to support me in the highs and in difficult moments as well.
“I’m very grateful for my whole family. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without them.”
McCabe was rarely seen during her childhood years without a football at her feet.
“[We’d play] a bit on the road, yeah,” she said. “We’d have different games, kicking the ball off the wall. I’d be out practicing my one-touch, two-touch off the wall if my mates weren’t out.
“But usually you’d be gone to school, finish school, drop the bags off, skip the homework and I’d go out with my younger brother and all his friends, and the makeshift goals on the local pitch and we’d be playing for hours.
“That was really my childhood, it’s what I loved doing. I’d always try to encourage my mates, the girls from my school to come and play, get active and get involved.
“I always wanted everyone included, because I just had so much enjoyment out of it, so I was always saying, come and play.
“That’s how it really started off, my local club Kilnamanagh, playing with the boys’ team there. It’s crazy to think back all those years, where I’m at now.”