Athlone Town's Maddison Gibson has had an intriguing career, starting off playing college soccer with Monmouth University before taking a sharp turn into the unknown when she joined Lithuania's strongest club FC Gintra.
It was a brave move, but one driven by a clear ambition: Gibson wanted to play Champions League football.
That's exactly what she did with the perennial Lithuanian champions despite being unfortunate enough to join just as the Covid-19 pandemic escalated and then later suffering an ACL injury.
When she returned to the States earlier this year she got chatting to her old Monmouth University room-mate Dana Scheriff, who had a spell at Athlone that had just been cut short by a bad injury.
Scheriff told Gibson that Athlone needed a forward. She took the plunge and the rest is history.
"I don’t like the weather that much but I’m getting used to it," she joked ahead of Sunday’s EVOKE.ie FAI Women’s Cup final against Shelbourne.
"[Dana] told me what to expect [of the Women’s National League] and it was exactly that – a super physical league and very competitive.
"That was all I really wanted to play in because it was like our college league. Each game was physical and coming here has brought me back to those college days. Every game is hard; we’re winning 2-1 and there’s draws all over the table. It’s exciting to play in."
Gibson is studying for a Masters in Digital Marketing at the Technological University of the Shannon.
Her hat-trick against Wexford Youths in the semi-finals fired Athlone into a first ever cup final after what’s been a brilliant campaign for them.
Tommy Hewitt’s team are only in their third year of existence, yet they pushed Shels right to the bitter end in the title race and they have every chance of lifting the cup at Tallaght Stadium this weekend.
"I didn’t really know what to expect coming here but I’m glad I did," Gibson added.
"We’ve a great group of girls who work so hard for each other and I’m really happy with what we accomplished so far.
"It was funny when I first came here, our home matches had about 50 fans of just family members and friends. Now it's grown, with younger girls wanting to come to see us which is really cool. Watching it grow has been amazing and it will only get bigger.
"To see it get this big in only Athlone’s third year, I can only imagine what’s going to happen in the future."
Sunday also provides Gibson with a chance to square up to one of her idols: Heather O’Reilly [above].
The ex-USA international is back with Shels having returned to America to resume coaching commitments for the last two months. She will bring with her an abundance of big-game experience.
"I’m really excited to play against Heather because growing up in the US, every girl’s dream is to become a US national team player," said Gibson.
"I grew up watching her and it’s really cool that she’s putting the Irish league on the map in the US. To see her playing at her age is really inspiring.
"All my friends back home are messaging me saying 'oh my God, you’re playing against Heather O’Reilly’, and I’m saying ‘yeah, this league is actually good!’
"Our manager says there’s no swapping of jerseys but I’ve said that I might sneak it!"
Watch the Women's FAI Cup final, Athlone Town v Shelbourne, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Sunday from 2.30pm with live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 and follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app
