FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Mary Fowler’s Matildas career path accelerated by Sam Kerr, Kyah Simon injuries
Mary Fowler is the Matildas’ future but fate has meant she is very much needed in the present, writes ADAM PEACOCK.
It is grossly unfair.
Mary Fowler is only 20 and the youngest Matildas player at the tournament. Her peak is a way off. Perhaps the 2031 World Cup? She’ll be 28 by then. Whenever it is, it is clear her best days lie ahead – and they promise to be plentiful.
All of which is exhilarating for the future of Australian football but an abrupt, immediate reality has bitten the Tillies and is threatening to upend the generally accepted timeline for Fowler’s career progression.
Sam Kerr’s left calf and Kyah Simon’s slow recovery from an ACL injury have left the Matildas with just 21 fit players for the second group game against Nigeria on Thursday and possibly beyond.
In Kerr and Simon, the team is missing 232 caps of attacking genius.
Fowler, the great hope for the future, is suddenly very much needed in the present.
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Fowler’s reputation matches her actual ability, which is not always the case in the Instagram age, where the aesthetic doesn’t always align with the athletic.
It’s all down to the first touch.
Fowler is at ease on the ball. Electronic signals flow swiftly from brain to feet, swivelling out of close attention with subtle shifts of weight and a deft understanding of where to move the ball.
That ability was seen only fleetingly last Thursday against the ultra-disciplined Irish, who restricted space through the middle. Still, a close eye on Fowler revealed she was getting into terrific positions to receive. Only the ball didn’t find her. Nigeria will offer more opportunities in this regard.
Fowler will relish the opportunity thanks to another commodity which acts as magic dust on a football pitch.
Poise.
Take the goal against France in the pre-tournament friendly. Fowler received a skidding, bullet of a cross from Hayley Raso and on the move, with a half-skip step, slowed the sphere of importance as if her left foot were a comfy cushion and slammed the ball past the French keeper.
It looked easy because Fowler made it look easy.
Her path to the World Cup, however, has been anything but.
Fowler’s backstory is unique. Raised in Cairns to an Irish father and Papua New Guinean mother, Mary was one of five children who fell deeply in love with football. The ‘Fowler Five’ moved around, all in pursuit of better opportunities.
At one point, they travelled up and down the east coast of Australia in a people mover, dubbed ‘Hotel Tarago’, with the family spending months living in the car while based in Wollongong.
“It was just part of our story, so … it’s probably another reason why our family is really close, because we had to go through all these things together,” Fowler told The Australian in 2019.
Fowler emerged as a 15 year-old straight into a tug-of-war about her international ambitions. Ireland chased hard, nearly stealing her from Australian football’s clutches, with her father Kevin in discussions with Irish FA types.
In the end, Fowler sided with Australia and went to the 2019 World Cup. She didn’t play a minute there although, just 16 at the time, the experience was hugely beneficial to her footballing evolution.
Meanwhile, her club career was planned delicately and meticulously. A few games with Adelaide in the A League Women’s preceded a move to Montpellier. Fowler could have gone to a bigger club right away, but it was felt the transition to Montpellier would work as an ideal introduction to life overseas.
Fowler has since signed a long-term deal with Manchester City. Arsenal, Chelsea and other big guns were all keen on securing her signature.
Fowler’s signature can also be found on a number of lucrative sponsorship contracts, including for an adidas commercial in which Lionel Messi passes her the ball (albeit thanks to the wonders of CGI). There are also deals with Calvin Klein, Rebel Sport and Cupra, the Spanish car marker.
Long gone are the days of the ‘Hotel Tarago’.
*****
In the rapidly evolving world of professional women’s football, the 2023 World Cup was always going to serve as a stage for young talent to take reputations global.
In just the last 24 hours, three emerging footballers playing their first game at a World Cup have left a giant mark: Jule Brand, 20, of Germany, Linda Caicedo, 18, of Colombia and Brazilian forward Aly Borges, who swept a hat-trick past the plucky Panamanians in Adelaide.
Australia’s best hope to join that list is Fowler.
Despite featuring in just 11 league games this season for City, all off the bench, the 38-cap ‘veteran’ has impressed Matildas observers since arriving in camp, with some remarking how settled she appears to be in the national team set-up.
Pre-tournament, Fowler spoke glowingly of the influence and guidance of Tony Gustavsson and the Swede, under instruction from Football Australia to build depth capable of eventually replacing senior Matildas, has placed Fowler at the strategy’s core.
That succession plan was designed to take effect over several years.
It might now need to play out over a matter of days.
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