Take a deep breath: 11 league titles, ten FA Cups, five FA Premier League Cups, two League Cups and a UEFA Champions League.

Throw in five Community Shields and seven London FA County Cups (a big deal once upon a time), not to mention a record 134 caps for the Republic of Ireland on the international stage. It’s no ordinary haul from a playing career. But then Emma Byrne was no ordinary goalkeeper. 

In fact, at the start, she wasn’t a goalkeeper – or even a football player – at all. Born and raised in Leixlip, a small town outside Dublin, Byrne explored other sports in her formative years. 

“Football wasn’t my primary sport growing up because it wasn’t as accessible as Gaelic sports,” she says. “My mum was a badminton coach so I played badminton; my dad played golf so I played golf with him. Soccer wasn’t on the cards until I was 12 and I went to secondary school.” 

However, a grounding in badminton, golf and Gaelic football meant Byrne was developing her hand-eye coordination in a way that would later become very useful: “I had a friend whose mum was the manager...