“It was such a thing that I didn’t know was going to be part of this journey when I was coming back to play soccer, and it wasn’t really in my mind at the time,” she said. “So it just feels like this extra bonus. It makes me think about when you’re thinking about your dreams and what you want to accomplish, and I always say: ‘And also be open to even bigger things happening than that.’”

Four months later, Farrelly played the last 33 minutes of Gotham’s triumph in the NWSL championship game.

“Also did not see that coming, or think that was possible either,” she said. “Everything was better than I ever imagined, and I feel so lucky and I don’t know how that all happened. … These two years have been so potent, and that’s so rare. So I don’t take any of it for granted, and I just feel like it was such a whirlwind, such an adventure, and I’m so happy that I decided to get on the ride and just say yes.”

On being a role model

An outsider might read Farrelly’s words and say such strength comes from inside oneself. And an aspiring young soccer player out there — such as the many who’ve watched Farrelly in her career — might call her a role model.

“I am able to see this more now than I could even last year, or definitely when I was playing before,” she said. “Just the impact of seeing someone follow their dreams, or do what you want to do — just seeing someone do what you thought was impossible, or whatever it is — it is life-changing. I never imagined that I would even be in a position where someone would look up to me that way.”

She called it “a position of privilege, and really responsibility, we have in these roles to be a role model” for young people.

“If I could have impacted one person, it is everything to me,” she said. “I’m just really grateful that I got to do that by doing the thing that I love.”

What’s next?

Farrelly hasn’t decided yet what she’ll do in her post-playing days. She might go into an off-the-field soccer job, or she might not. She said she definitely has “big aspirations outside of the sport world,” including a desire to to share her life experiences with other people.

“I just think I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life — as, I mean, I’m sure all we all have,” she said. “But I’m definitely the type of person that wants to go to every single edge and leave no stone unturned. And I think part of that process for me is being able to help people not have to do that, and feel the scorch of the fire or the edge of the Earth, and help them to live an easier life than I feel like maybe the path that I’ve chosen.”

She doesn’t know “exactly how that will look,” but she’s pretty sure soccer will stay part of it some form.

“I want to just keep following my calling and where that takes me to next,” she said. “Soccer in this world has been such a big part of my life, and I don’t know how I exist for the rest of my life without that being a part of me. … It’s going to be part of my future whether I’m actually doing a job in it, or I’m just living through the lessons, and principles, and everything, the values that I’ve learned here.”

____

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.