By Rob Harris
London: Steph Catley was mid-sentence, mid-glow, mid-Champions League triumph when she saw it. A lone Australian flag hanging, above the crowds, from a window. Thousands of Arsenal fans had flooded the streets in red and white. But this? This was home.
“Can I take a photo of that?” the Matildas star asks mid-interview, pulling out her phone and squinting into the distance. “Zoom in...” she said, pausing everything to capture the moment. “Sorry, what were you saying?” she asked, returning to chat, still visibly moved.
Arsenal lift the UEFA Women’s Cup during the trophy lift celebrations at Emirates Stadium.Credit: Getty Images
In a week when she became a European champion with Arsenal, the flag was a reminder of how far she’d come – from the Aussie rules-dominated suburbs of Melbourne to the pinnacle of world soccer.
“It’s overwhelming,” Catley, 31, said. “We say it to each other, a bit like: ‘We won the Champions League.’ And then it kind of sinks in for a second… Honestly, it’s hard to put into words... the best moment of my career.”
Catley has known packed stadiums before – at the World Cup with the Matildas, at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium – but the weekend’s Champions League final at Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, was a moment frozen in time. On Monday, the Gooner fans, as they are affectionately known, flooded the streets outside their home, singing “North London for forever” as red confetti billowed into the sky.
Arsenal’s 1–0 victory over Barcelona wasn’t just a win – it was historic. The club became the first English team since 2007 to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League, and is still the only one to ever lift the trophy. That alone elevated the scenes outside the Emirates into something rarely witnessed in English domestic women’s soccer.
Arsenal’s Leah Williamson and Steph Catley holding the winner trophy defeating FC Barcelona on Saturday.Credit: AP
It was the kind of moment Nick Hornby might have imagined in Fever Pitch, if he’d dared to dream bigger – beyond Highbury, beyond the men’s league titles, to a future where the Arsenal women, playing “the Arsenal way,” were conquering Europe. From the training grounds at Colney to matchdays at Borehamwood and the Emirates, this team had built something special.
”This club’s special,” Catley said. “And the way that they promote us and the way that they lift us up every single day, it’s obviously attractive for fans to join that.”
“I feel like Arsenal reaches all points of the globe. This time last year we were in Melbourne... and the amount of Arsenal shirts that were in the crowd, it was almost more than the support that was there for the Aussies.”
Now, not only has she fulfilled that dream – she’s redefined what’s possible for Australians in the global game. The Matildas trio of Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross now join their national teammate Ellie Carpenter - a previous winner with French giants Lyon - as the only Aussie women to lift the Champions League trophy. Foord was a dominant figure.
Arsenal’s Australian contingent of Kyra Cooney-Cross, Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley celebrate their Champions League final win.Credit: AP
Catley paused to reflect on far the women’s game had travelled with her.
“From the very start, we were sort of just playing in front of family and friends with a couple of other people,” Catley said. “And now we’re here. It’s just going from strength to strength… Sky’s the limit, really.”
“It’s hard to think that, you know, back then playing in Australia, I was an AFL nut. I lived in Melbourne, so football wasn’t ever really spoken about. It wasn’t in the papers, it wasn’t in the news. But yeah, in my heart, I always knew I wanted to be a footballer.”
Arsenal’s victory also sends a message to the global game, she says.
Arsenal’s Steph Catley, front, duels with Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor.Credit: AP
“If you’re a female footballer, you want to come and play at Arsenal just because of everything the club stands for – the fans, the way we play,” Catley said. “But I think now obviously Champions League winners is a very attractive thing for a player that wants to come and play here.”
But international soccer never rests. Catley, along with her fellow Aussies were meant to fly out the day of the celebrations to return home for a two-match series against Argentina starting on Friday night in Melbourne.
“We got our flight pushed,” she said. “I was supposed to be on a flight today – us three – but we’re on tomorrow morning, so we’ll get in, I think, Wednesday morning. But straight back into camp. That’s football. It just keeps moving.”
Still, among all the chaos of parades, press and planning for Matildas camp, that lone Aussie flag stayed with her. Because while Europe might now call her a champion, Melbourne will always call her one of their own.
“You know, I’m far from home, but I feel my roots very deeply,” Catley said. “And I’m very proud of my story and where I’ve come from.”
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