‘Just a phenomenal win’ for Arsenal hero Katie

As Arsenal won the Women’s Champions League at the weekend, there are a family and a community who couldn’t be prouder of team captain Katie McCabe, a Kilnamanagh native, for her “phenomenal win”.

“She has always been a good leader, good at rallying the troops,” said Katie’s father, Gary, speaking to The Echo on Tuesday.

“We are so delighted. It was fabulous, just a phenomenal win.”

Katie’s family were with her at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, where the team beat Barcelona 1-0 in the 2025 UEFA Women’s Champions League final on Saturday, May 24.

After the win, they met her on the pitch and kicked off the big celebration together.

With this win, Katie has made history, as she is only the fourth Irish woman to win the Champions League.

“Barcelona threw absolutely everything at us and we… kept it together, we rode it out, we rode the storm,” she said in interviews following the match.

“It’s been an unbelievable day for the club.”

In a previous interview for DAZN, Katie said that she knew “the weight she was carrying” wearing the Arsenal shirt and talked about the higher levels of concentration she would need in the Champions League.

What she achieved on Saturday had “always been at the top of her list,” said dad Gary, who believes it was “an overall good team performance” that led to victory.

He praised the motivational skills Katie showed since when she started playing as a little girl.

“She has the ability to bring the team on, an abundance of motivational skills. And you need that from a player, even more so from a captain. She always had that.”

As mentioned by Katie in several media interviews, she “grew up in a football family.”

“It was always a big thing in our house, my son and I used to play locally before she played, and we have about six players in the house,” said Gary.

“At the time, she was only four or five, but she would watch us play and it was just part of our life, every week and weekend, and always on television.”

A player with Kilnamanagh AFC, where she first honed her skills, Katie was always supported along the way, even when being the only girl in the team.

“I was always around the corner, with her at every step of the way until she was 16 and started going to trainings on her own,” said Gary.

“I remember a match she played with boys in Crumlin once, she was well ahead of them,” he laughed.

According to Gary, after a full-on weekend of celebration, Katie is now getting ready to fly to Istanbul, where Ireland will play Turkey in the UEFA Women’s Nations League on Friday, May 30.

Meanwhile in Kilnamanagh, Gary gets compliments and congratulations everywhere he goes.

“At the local school, at the shops. It’s constant at the moment. Everyone is telling me that Katie has done really well.”