Jacynta Galabadaarachchi is winning trophies and plaudits, including being voted the first ever PFA Scotland Women’s Young Player of the Year and also Celtic Women’s own player of the year. But her international future is uncertain, writes Andrew Southwick in Glasgow.
You might think you know the story of the Australian who moved to Celtic last year and is helping to engineer the start of a shift in the balance of power – winning one trophy, and tantilisingly close to another. That Australian even has a surname the locals struggle with… but it’s not Postecoglou.
Having already played for Perth, Melbourne City, Napoli and West Ham at just 20, Jacynta Galabadaarachchi has taken to playing for Celtic Women with gusto and no little success. So well, in fact, that in the inagural Scottish players’ union player of the year awards, she was voted young player of the year, as well as being award Celtic’s Women’s own player of the year trophy.
She has already had some reward for her performances. In December, three Australians celebrated League Cup success in Scotland but for Galabadaarachchi – who goes by Jacynta on the back of her shirt for obvious reasons – the gold medal in her hand was much more significant.
Ange Postecoglou and Tom Rogic’s Hampden success against Hibernian was expected once Glasgow rivals Rangers were out of the way.
However, two weeks before that, Melbourne-born Galabadaarachchi was lifting the Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup high after her side’s 1-0 win over Glasgow City. It was more than just a trophy: it was the end of a long journey for Celtic in women’s football, and it may well be the beginning of a new age in Scotland.
Three years before, Celtic were humiliated 9-0 in the final of the same competition by Hibernian. As big a name as the club are, they were routinely swatted aside by smaller names.
Glasgow City’s dominance appeared to be never ending, with 14 league titles in a row. Then Rangers responded with a big budget and big dreams. The two are fighting it out for the championship this season with Celtic struggling to compete. Manager Fran Alonso calls his side the underdogs of the battle for supremacy in Glasgow and Scotland. However, under the Spanish coach, they defeated current SWPL leaders Rangers and deposed the holders Hibs during their cup run, before getting the better of champions Glasgow City to win their first trophy in 11 years.
“It was amazing,” said 20-year-old Galabadaarachchi.
“From the get go, as a team we knew we were going to win because we had been telling ourselves, ‘We’re going to win this game, we’re going to win it.’ Obviously both teams wanted to win but I really felt like we wanted it the most, we wanted it more than them. We had prepared. From the start our mentality was, ‘We’re going to win this game’.
“We dominated the game, I think we deserved it and it was amazing to win a cup. As soon as the final whistle blew all of the girls were going crazy, including me, we were so happy, we had worked so hard for it. Even the pitch – it was rough conditions, the pitch was a little icy, it was really cold – but the atmosphere, we had quite a big crowd that day, it was amazing.”
In the west of Scotland, being number one is everything. Celtic have now knocked Rangers out of both domestic cups, and on Sunday defeated Hearts to reach the final of the Scottish Women’s Cup – a trophy that Celtic have never won, and no-one outside of Glasgow City or Hibs have been able to get their hands on since 2002.
The cups have brought out the best in Celtic. In the league they are a long way off the pace set by the top two, but they have suffered their fair share of bad luck with Alonso’s side forced to play almost a whole game without a goalkeeper recently against Glasgow City.
“That’s true,” says Galabadaarachchi. “It seems that when it comes to the cups we step it up. We always play our best games in the cups.
“But in the next game against City our main goalkeeper got injured, our second keeper was injured, we were playing our third keeper – she got injured within like five minutes of the game. So we had to put our captain in goal and that’s just really bad luck.
“I felt like we played well, especially against Glasgow City we had more possession than them, sometimes we just don’t get any luck in front of goal, we don’t take our chances, but I still feel like we play good football. And against Rangers it’s always a good game, it’s always a battle, and the cup games we seem to win.”
Celtic Park and the Old Firm derby
Galabadaarachchi’s rise to prominence began at a young age. She first kicked a ball at five simply as a reason to hang out with her brother. She played in boys teams up to the age of 16, by which time she had already flown to the other side of the world to train with Manchester United.
“Obviously the boys were sceptical at first when they saw a girl come into the team,” recalls Galabadaarachchi. “But after 10 minutes of training you earn their respect, put a couple of hard tackles in, dribble past them, and then they’re okay, they’re happy.
“When I was nine, at the time my auntie lived in Manchester so we just stayed with her, I’d go train with the girls’ team, I was going constantly back and forth training with them. And I trained with Manchester City as well a few years later, so it was really good experiences.
“My parents always encouraged me to take every opportunity that I could get and do the best that I could. I had the backing of my family always so I always felt confident.”
After stints with Perth and Melbourne City, three years ago she made the move back to England to sign for West Ham United, then had a loan spell in Italy with Napoli, which was like a second home for midfielder, who holds an Italian passport as well as an Australian one.
“If you ask anyone, my dream since I was very little was to play in overseas, play in Europe somewhere,” she says.
“Italy is beautiful. The weather is better than Scotland. I enjoyed it. The league is very different there, the professionalism is different as well, but it was a good experience. I liked it.
“I loved it at West Ham. It was a great first professional experience, it was amazing to be around a team like that. It’s a big club, being able to see the men’s team, we were in the same environment as them. I learned a lot from that club and enjoyed my time there.”
After making the move north to Scotland last year she has enjoyed what she feels is the best spell of her career, with four league goals to her name this season and social media going wild after a player of the match display at Celtic Park last month as they beat Hibs 4-0 at the 60,000 capacity stadium.
Although it wasn’t full like it is every week when the men’s side are at home, it was an experience she was determined to take with both hands after previous disappointments.
She said: “Last time we played there I wasn’t in the squad because I was injured, and it was really disappointing that I couldn’t play. This time everyone was buzzing, everyone was looking forward to the game a lot. It was amazing. It was a good turnout, a good atmosphere, and we got the win.
“Hopefully we impressed them and it encourages people to come to our games a little bit more.
“When Ange moved over a lot of the Australian fans starting watching more of Celtic. And he’s doing such a good job with the boys.
“It would be amazing to walk out there with so many people cheering you on. The atmosphere is amazing. I’ve been to a couple of the men’s games and it’s always packed out, the fans are so passionate.
“I love it. Everyone knows they play with aggression, a lot of heart, before I even came here I knew about the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic – it’s amazing to play in games like that when you can feel how much the girls want to win.”
Tough time
Despite her success on the pitch, with Covid restrictions and her family at the other side of the world, the last two years have been especially hard on her.
“It’s tough,” she admits. “I went almost two years without seeing any of my family because they couldn’t visit and I couldn’t go home. So that was really tough, but I’ve just learned to grow and adjust to being alone and doing everything alone. But luckily I got to go home for Christmas because the restrictions in Australia eased a little bit so that was good – I really enjoyed going home.
“When I first came to Celtic it took me a bit of time to adjust. But once I got the feel for how we play and everything, I adjusted to living in Scotland, I got closer with a lot of the girls, it became a lot easier for me.
“And when I understood what Fran wanted from me I gelled with the team. I’ve been performing the last couple of months, I think all the coaches are happy with me, the girls respect me as a player and a person so it’s going well so far.
“I’m happy at Celtic at the moment. I don’t know where I see myself in five years. I just try and take every season at it comes. I’m just happy playing football wherever it is. But I do miss my family quite a lot.”
Undecided on international future
Galabadaarachchi has yet to be capped at full international level, and has a number of options over who to represent.
Though she was born and raised in Australia, her mother is Italian and Argentinian, while her father is Sri Lankan. She has been taught Spanish by her mother who is keen to see her play for La Albiceleste.
She explains: “When I was younger I was with the Australian national squad a little bit. Under 20s, under 17s, I’ve been to a couple of camps with the first team as well.
“But I can also represent Italy and I can also represent Argentina so at the moment I’m not sure who I want to represent.
“I like playing for Australia, I’ve enjoyed it so far, but at the moment I’m not sure who I want to play for. My mum would really love me to play for Argentina, she’s really passionate and patriotic about her country and I am too. So at the moment I’m just deciding what I can do.
“It’s football reasons and what my heart wants. I’ve seen Argentina women play and I really like the style of their play as well. I like the tiki-taka football, the passing, I like dribbling a lot, and I’m quite creative the way that I play. So I think playing for the Argentine squad might actually suit me a little bit more than playing for the Australian squad.
“But at this point I’m still not sure, I don’t know which one I’ll pick. But, either way, I love both countries.”
