The strike that will never get old.
Twelve months on from being nominated for a Puskas award and life is still as strange and as madcap as ever for Stephanie Roche.
The now Sunderland Ladies’s striker was trust into the global spotlight this time last year after her incredible strike for Peamount United was selected for the Puskas award.
She didn’t win the ultimate prize, beaten by James Rodriguez, but in the 12 months since she shot to global stardom, she’s become one of the most famous players on the planet.
In an interview on Fifa.com the Dublin woman admits that at times she’s found the fame hard to deal with, but also realises her importance as female sports role-model,
“I’ve tried to handle myself as best I can. There are some fantastic female players all over the world that people might not even know about, and I was thrown in there. People seemed to know a lot more about me than they would about anyone else, which was strange for me.”
“I could’ve easily said, ‘No, I’m not doing that’, and not really taken the opportunity to put women’s football in the spotlight. There were people from everywhere ringing me asking me to do things and I tried my best to do everything I could to talk about women’s football, to talk about how my goal wasn’t just a one-off, it wasn’t something that one girl scored and no other girl could ever do.”
“There’s been more goals scored like that all over the world, they just haven’t had the publicity that I was lucky enough to get.”
Roche’s fame brought her a high profile move to France to ASPTT Albi which didn’t work out, and then a switch to America to join Houston Dash.
The Irishwoman was a popular member of the first team, but due to some squad reshuffling, and the need for defensive reinforcements, her time in America was cut short.
She then took up on offer with Sunderland Ladies and the striker is pragmatic about her time on the pitch.
“I think over there it really is a business, there was no sensitivity. After everything that happened I didn’t hold any grudges, Randy [Waldrum, the coach] was a nice guy, he gave me the opportunity to go over.”
“I think I was really lucky that Sunderland came in as quick as they did because it gave me less time to dwell on it.“
“It was a difficult time for me. Anybody that’s been through that situation will know that it’s not something you want to be a part of, it makes you doubt yourself.”
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