It’s not that Amber Barrett was a stranger to highs and lows in her football career, she’d experienced plenty of both, but the extremes she went through in the season just ended tested her like never before. From her glorious goal on that magical night in Glasgow, to “the hardest six months I’ve ever had”.
She’s speaking after Irish training at UCD having been told her winner against Scotland in last October’s World Cup qualifying play-off had earned her the FAI’s international goal of the year award.
“I still think about it every few days, I was very lucky to have done it, it was a brilliant moment for everyone one there,” she says. “But I can’t hold myself to that one moment, you have to move on. Making the World Cup squad is the most important thing, and I want to be on that plane going to Australia.”
And after a miserable year with Turbine Potsdam, who she joined last summer after three years with another Bundesliga club, FC Köln, Barrett knew her place in the World Cup squad could be in jeopardy.
“People would say, ‘oh, you scored the goal that got Ireland to the World Cup’, but that didn’t matter to me when I went back to Germany and I was sitting on the bench every week.”
Bizarrely, she was regularly played at right-back by Potsdam in the first half of the season. “I played more games there than I did as a striker. As you can see, I can’t defend, I’m not very good at it. Stuff like that was happening, what do you want me to do?”
And when she returned from a shoulder injury after Christmas, she barely got any game time at all, despite the club lurching towards relegation, their fate sealed in May after 26 years in the top flight.
Barrett was at a loss to understand why she wasn’t given more chances in a struggling side, but she was none the wiser after conversations with her coach, Marco Gebhardt. “I got something different every week. Some coaches like you, some don’t, but I just didn’t get any guidance, there were definitely different things that went on that were a wee bit unfair on me.”
Vera Pauw was supportive through it all, though. “She’s brilliant with me, very reassuring from day one. It’s been good to have her on my side. We worked on a few things to manage the fact that I hadn’t been playing, and I think I’ve done that really well.”
“She just said, ‘at the end of the day Amber, you have to get back to enjoying it’. And that’s my plan. I just needed to get out because I need to be happy, I need to be playing football.”
And so, last week, she signed for Standard Liege, the Belgian club where another Donegal native, Fergal Harkin, is sporting director. “There are Donegal people everywhere,” she laughs.
“I’ve gone from Turbine where I didn’t feel I was valued or wanted to Liege who wanted me since December. They took me there a couple of weeks ago and showed me around, I got to meet a lot of very important people in the club who you don’t usually get to meet, I was made to feel so, so welcome.”
[ Ireland striker Amber Barrett secures move to Standard Liege in BelgiumOpens in new window ]
“I’m hoping I’ll get back to enjoying the game and loving what I do. Whether people think it’s a step down, it’s no good being in a top league and sitting on the bench. For me the most important thing is to be playing.”
With her club future sorted, her aim now is to convince Pauw that she’s lost none of the sharpness that helped her score that glorious goal on that magical night. And make that flight to Australia.
