Madie Gibson spoke to The Halfway Line about having tea with the President, celebrating titles in the chippie and Athlone Town’s European odyssey.
Madie Gibson is a taliswomanic presence for Athlone Town. The Town have just become back to back champions of Ireland for the first time and Gibson has been right at the heart of that success. Over the American’s three years in the midlands, she has cemented her place as one of the greatest players ever to lace up their boots in the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division.
Yet even after six trophies in three years, Athlone Town’s first six trophies in their history mind, Gibson is eying up more success and more silverware…
‘That’s when Dana called me’ Gibson recalls her move to The Town
Athlone Town fans have a lot to thank Dana Scheriff for. When it comes to their pride and joy, Madie Gibson, Scheriff, Gibson’s former Monmouth University room-mate had a pivotal part to play in her arrival in the midlands.
Scheriff had moved to Athlone Town in 2022 where she became an instant favourite, a status immortalised when she picked up the phone to her old friend, just as Gibson was pondering her next adventure,
“I’d torn my ACL twice, so I was just kind of recovering from that, doing what I could to get back on the pitch.
“And then that’s when Dana called me to come to Ireland. She had already been here [at Athlone Town].
“She actually lied to me” Gibson recalls with a mischievous grin spreading across her face,
“She said: ‘Yo, you know you should come to Ireland like I really want to play with you.’ And then I get here, and she knew she was injured and was going to be out for the rest of the season, so she didn’t tell me that at first to get me here!
“And then when I got here and couldn’t go back!” Gibson laughed.
“So we always joke about that but when she finally was fit again we got to play together, and then she ended up leaving, and I ended up staying, and this has been like my second home ever since.”
The two will play alongside one another again this season after Scheriff re-joined Athlone this summer,
“I tried to get her to come back last season, and she decided not to. And now this season, I finally got her to come so I’m super excited to play with her again!” Gibson beamed.
“She’s a great player and a great friend of mine, so we’re lucky to have her.”
Madie Gibson on having ‘some tea’ and ‘a nice chat’ with the President
Twenty four hours before Gibson sat down to speak with The Halfway Line, it is fair to say she had been rubbing shoulders with rather more esteemed company.
As her Athlone side are set to compete in the final of the President’s Cup, Gibson was invited to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the newly elected President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly,
“If you would have told me three years ago that I’d be meeting the President of Ireland, I would not have believed you… at all!” Gibson exclaimed.
“She was lovely, it was really nice. We got a few pictures and then we sat around a table, had some tea and and just had a nice chat.
“She seemed really interested in women’s sports which was cool to hear. She seems like a lovely person. So it was really, really cool for me to go there to the President’s house and meet her, really.”
Winning back to back titles was ‘so satisfying’ says Madie Gibson
Athlone Town have enjoyed a period of unprecedented success topped off by their first ever league and cup double last term. When Gibson joined the club just three years ago they were yet to win a trophy, now they reign as the dominant force in Irish women’s club football.
Gibson explained the feeling of winning back to back titles,
“Oh my gosh, so satisfying” Gibson declared.
“It was an amazing season, like, we couldn’t have asked for a better season. Maybe we could have gone unbeaten, but, you know, that’s hard to do in a season, especially if you’re playing in Champions League!
“But the way we just carried on all season and just had a winning mentality, I think that’s what had a lot to do with it. And then the prior season we overcame so much as a group, and I think that was a big thing for us, so many injuries within the group and people having to step up and and fill those roles.
“So it was like two completely different seasons, but kind of like [achieving] the same outcome, [achieving] the same goal. So it was really cool to be a part of.”
‘This is because of all the chips you fed us!’ jokes Gibson
After being crowned champions of Ireland once again, Gibson and former team mate Kelly Brady participated in one of the most iconic celebrations you’re ever likely to see from a football team. And that was not a celebration done on the pitch…
“Me and Kelly, we became friends with these guys in the chipper” Gibson smiled.
“We would go there, like after a match or something if we were feeling like eating the food that isn’t the best for you, but we felt like we deserved it, you know, we just came off of a win.
“So we just headed to the chipper to get a nice like, Coke and chicken burger, and we became friendly with the guys in there. So we were like: Oh, if we win the league, we have to bring them the trophy and say, this is because of you. This is all the chips you guys fed us!”
Gibson and Brady made good on that promise, bringing the trophy in after claiming a second title in October last year,
“It was a really, really wholesome moment and they were loving it” Gibson recalls with a fond smile.
When The Halfway Line asked if Gibson had her photo on the wall of the chipper as yet, her eyes lit up,
“Oh my gosh, I’ll have to print it out and frame it for them” Gibson said in a tone of playful determination.
“They would definitely hang it up. I never sent them the picture so they probably don’t even know it exists. So I’ll have to go back in there and give them it framed. That’d be too funny.”
Scoring is ‘never my first thought’ says prolific Gibson
Gibson’s consistency in the league over the past three years has been nothing short of astonishing. The winger has been named in the PFA Ireland Team of the Season after each campaign and last term topped the charts for assists in the league accompanied by 17 goal contributions.
Sofa Score, who rate players performances out of 10 on a statistical basis in every match take a particular interest in the League of Ireland. Last term Sofa Score only gave out seven perfect 10s all season and Gibson accounted for three of them. In fact the winger from Cape May was the only player in the league to have an average rating higher than 8, comfortably so in fact at 8.14. But what does Gibson herself put her consistency down to?
“I honestly have no idea” Gibson answered honestly.
“I just try to contribute as best as I can to the team. I also take all the corners, so that probably has something to do with it. I take a lot of the free kicks, and every time I’m on the wing and I get the ball, my first thought is getting it into the box, finding a teammate.
“If I have the opportunity to score, obviously I’ll take it but that’s never my first thought. It’s always, where’s my teammate going to be in the box?
“Like, I know this girl is going to be making the front post run, but where is this other girl going to be?
“So I’m constantly thinking of ways that we can attack. Like, I’m so attacking minded. I hate coming back defensively, that’s like every winger anyway!
“I just have always been attacking minded, like since I started playing from a young age. So I think that’s helped me in my career now. I just want to do as much as I can to contribute to the goals and the winning and the league titles and all that.”
‘For my Mom it was like project Messi in the house!’ quips Gibson
Gibson’s fascinating journey in football has led her across the world, to far flung reaches of Europe both east and west. The Halfway Line asked the New Jersey native how she got started in football,
“I started playing football when I could walk, probably” Gibson said.
“So my older sister played football and my younger sister played football as well, my mom played football.
“So for my mom, it was like project Messi in the house!” Gibson laughed.
“Like as soon as we could walk she was making us kick a ball. She was all of our coaches growing up. So we just were like a soccer household. Like that was our sport.
“So growing up around, you know, sisters who are kind of close in age and constantly wanting to play soccer together, it was really cool.
“I would go and guest play on my older sister’s team when they would go to tournaments, my younger sister would do the same. We all went to college to play soccer.
“So it was just the environment that I was a part of my entire life, and I didn’t know anything else really.”
The Athlone Town number 17 credits her inspiration in football to be her mother Anne,
“I think probably, my mom [is my inspiration] I think she kind of lives lives through me, because she had kids at a young age. And she played in college, and then after college, she played I think it was semi professional” Gibson explained.
“So I think if she didn’t have us, she probably would have done more with football. So I think she kind of lives through me. And you know she’s my biggest critic but also she’s my biggest fan.
“So before every game, she’ll text me, and then after every game she’ll text me. She’s like: Oh, you need to run faster. But it’s like, it’s not the Mom where you’re like you don’t know what you’re talking about, she knows what she’s talking about!
“So it’s even worse because I’m like I have to actually listen to you. But yeah, just probably her living through me is like, who I get my most inspiration from really.”
UWCL success can ‘catapult the league to another level’ Gibson contends
While this season was Athlone Town’s first steps into the unknown of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, they were not Gibson’s first in the competition. Prior to her move to Ireland she played for Lithuanian side FC Gintra on Europe’s biggest stage.
The Town captured hearts on their way to the initial rounds of the first ever UEFA Europa Cup, Gibson reflected on that journey,
“Playing in Champions League is unreal” Gibson smiled.
“I feel like it’s what every football player dreams of. Like that is the biggest tournament, obviously, besides the national team and the World Cup and all that, but like, the biggest club team tournament in the world.
“It’s so cool to be a part of and also, you never know who you’re going to draw. So you could be playing against these big clubs that you probably would never play, but you get the chance to play against.
“For this season, I think our goal is to try to get a bit further. We did well, very well [especially as] that was probably the first time most of the girls on the team had ever played in Champions League.
“So for them, I think that was an amazing experience and a learning experience as well. So now that we have that under our belt, I think this year, we’ll kind of know what to expect. Come out a bit stronger and have a bit more confidence in ourselves and back ourselves when we get on the pitch against some of these bigger clubs.
“And also the main difference between the teams, like when we played Glasgow [City], the big difference was they’re full time. And we’re not, you could tell. You could tell that they played together every day. You know, they knew where each other were going to be on the pitch. They moved the ball very well.
“For us, the first match anyways, like we did hold our own which we were proud of, for a club that only trains three times a week. So yeah, I think for this season, [our aim] is to go into every every game having that confidence and try to get that that much further, and hopefully help catapult the league to another level.”
‘Sell out’ crowd ‘helped’ Athlone to history lauds Madie Gibson
On Athlone’s European adventure they dispatched of the Croatian champions, the Welsh champions and the Serbian champions. Gibson had four goal involvements in four matches in the UWCL last term, evidencing the level she is operating at. Gibson recalled the first round of qualifiers, hosted in Athlone,
“The first round playing in front of a sold out crowd in our own stadium was like, unreal” Gibson gleefully recalls.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to come out of those matches and a better result from both the matches. So I think, like having the sell out really helped us to work even harder than we would have just having all those people there to support us.
“Because you don’t really see that in women’s football, that might happen in men’s football, but it was really, really cool to see all those people come out for a women’s match.”
‘Every American says that they’re a little bit Irish, but who wouldn’t want to claim that?’ says Gibson
For the avoidance of doubt, The Halfway Line had to ask Madie Gibson if she had any Irish grandparents Carla Ward could look into…
“No nothing. I wish!” Gibson replied.
“I really thought Gibson was Irish but I think it’s Scots Irish. All my grandparents were born in the US. I have a family book that’s like this thick [Gibson moves her thumb and index finger wide apart] and it dates like back to the 1800s in Texas!
“So my family been in the US for a while. I don’t think I was getting any type of European passport. But no, I wish, because the Irish passport is like the best! Like every American says that they’re a little bit Irish, but who wouldn’t want to claim that?”
Madie Gibson’s Athlone Town side will kick off their campaign by welcoming rivals Shelbourne to Lios Uí Mhulláin in the President’s Cup final on Sunday, March 8th 2026.
