She may have won the hearts of Australians in the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup, but Queensland-born superstar Mary Fowler played her first game for the Matildas at just 16. The now 21-year-old reveals how she’s changed her approach to the game over time – and why’s she’s happier than ever.
Forbes Australia’s inaugural 30 Under 30 list is out now. Tap here to see the full list.
Mary Fowler shot to stardom in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, where she played an integral role in the Australian national team’s run to secure fourth place. The Cairns-born 16-year-old first signed with the Matildas in 2019 and became the youngest member of the squad.
Early in 2020, Fowler signed her first overseas contract with French Division 1 team Montpellier HSC. Fowler says she developed a new perspective on her profession while living in France.
“When I first started out and debuted for the national team, I was a super driven person and very focused on football, to the point where anything off the field was a distraction,” Fowler tells Forbes Australia in a phone call from Manchester, England.
“You feel bad if you eat ice cream, you don’t want to hang out with your friends too much because you should be focusing on your craft. Now, I have to be able to laugh on the field, and I have to be able to have balance off the field, and that actually makes me better,” says Fowler.
The turning point, she says, came when she started bonding with her new teammates in Montpellier.
“There were a couple of younger girls there that said ‘We should plan out some road trips and things that we should do together every week.’ And I replied, ‘I can come out with you guys once a month.’ In my head, I thought that was a good amount of time to spend being social with people and for most of the time be in your own zone and focus.”
The Montpellier players and French culture won out and Fowler began to relax more off-the-field, which translated into further success on-the-field.
Take her time with the Matildas: Fowler has achieved 56 caps and 15 goals and competed in five major tournaments, including this year’s Paris Olympics.
These days she says it is important to ‘go for coffees with people, do my own thing, not care about football’ in order to excel while playing. It’s an approach that is proving to be effective. Fowler’s performance for Manchester City this year has also been impressive, and recently culminated in a goal for the versatile forward. She also won the Professional Football Association (PFA) young women’s Footballer of the Year award for the second time.
“I’ve had moments where I thought, maybe I’m not focusing enough, maybe I should put more time into my football. But then I’ve done that and it just has the complete opposite effect, it just doesn’t work for me anymore,” Fowler says.
The future
Over the next 12 months, Fowler will be in Northern England playing professional soccer for Manchester City. Her four-year deal with the team was inked in 2022 and is said to be worth around $285,000 a year.
She will be also be traveling through Europe and returning to Australia for Matildas national team camps. Fowler’s also busy holding up her end of endorsement deals with Adidas, L’Oréal, and Weet-Bix.
But, when she looks ahead to her post-football life, Fowler has ambitions outside the realm of sports.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to open a café,” the athlete of Irish and Papua New Guinean ancestry says. “I can’t say I’m very good at making coffee yet, but I’ve always wanted to open a café for the people aspect. I love having a chat with people and I love kids, so I’d love to open a space that’s, very child-friendly and pet-friendly.”
In her downtime, she reads psychology books, autobiographies and crime thrillers. Like many women in their 20s, she also looks forward to a trip to the shopping centre.
“I really like fashion, I’d love to start my own brand one day. In my spare time, I love walking through the stores and seeing other people’s designs. I have a real connection to it because it’s such a big part of who people are and how they express themselves,” says Fowler.
She is conscious of the emotional impact fashion can have on self-image and how powerful that can be.
“There have been times where I felt less confident about myself and fashion is something that I’ve turned to, to help figure my stuff out and try to build myself back up again. I would love to share that feeling with someone else,” she says.
In addition to designing non-sporting clothes, the dynamic striker sees a post-retirement future surrounded by people, family, and soccer on the east coast of Australia.
“Hopefully I’ve got kids and I have my café, that would be a dream. My football is very much in line with the growth that I’ve had off the field, as a person. I’m happy in the mentality that I have right now, because it, allows me to enjoy the journey.”
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here.
Buy a copy of Forbes 30 under 30 Magazine or tap here to become a Forbes member.
