Athlone's Maddison Gibson living the American dream

Born in New Jersey, made in Athlone?

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 rooted in practicality: Gibson wanted to play Champions League football. That's exactly what she did 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