THERE has been coffee with Kevin De Bruyne and chats with Pep Guardiola. There have been two prestigious FIFA Puskas award nominations – and a strong likelihood of a third. Manchester City has been good to Caroline Weir.
Yet, with a contract coming to a close with City and substantial transfer chat in Spain linking the 26-year-old with Real Madrid, there is a feeling that there is another step still to come from Weir.
Reports that circulated in the Spanish press this week claimed that the elegant midfielder was ‘99%’ certain to be heading to Real Madrid this summer. That may appear a premature statement of where talks are but what is certain is that Weir is nowhere near out of place when linked with such a prestigious move.
Curiously, Weir herself was quoted last year in an affable podcast conversation about growing up and forcing a career as a football where she revealed that “I always dreamed of being a professional footballer...I thought I would play for Real Madrid one day.”
It may well come to fruition but for now she is playing her cards close to her chest.
“I want to win a league title, I want to be competing for a Champions League,” said the inaugural Glen’s SFWA Scottish Women’s Player of the Year. “They are team goals and then I have individual goals that I set myself every season to try and achieve. I feel I am in a good moment physically. I am not a young player any more. I have a bit of experience behind me and it is about pushing my level and constantly trying to improve. City has been a great platform for me to do that over the last few years and I want to keep pushing on.
“I’ve given it a little bit of thought because when you’re running out of contract it’s on your mind and you start to weigh up your options. There’s still a lot of important football to be played so my mind isn’t really thinking about off the pitch rumours. My head is just on City for the next few weeks and we’ll see what happens in the summer.
“It’s flattering [to be linked with Real Madrid] because they’re a massive club. That’s the way the game is, there’s lots of attention on it and people want to know what you’re thinking. But nothing has been decided, I’m happy here at City.”
City has not been without its perks either. The twice nominated FIFA Puskas midfielder has been able to pick the brains of the elite players and managers within the men’s game.
“It doesn’t quite happen like that [that you bump into one another in the corridor] but I have seen Kevin [De Bruyne], we’ve sat and had a coffee on the 3G pitch which separates the men’s and women’s side,” she said.
“He’s great and he’s interested in the women’s team. A lot of them are, they take a genuine interest. Pep [Guardiola] has spoken to a few of us and they’ve watched our training sessions because we’re on the pitch next door. They know exactly what’s going on with us. It’s a one club mentality which is good to be part of.”
Scotland has slowly started to play catch-up with other European countries who have heavily invested in the infrastructure of the women’s game over the last decade.
“There seems to be a shift in attitude to women’s football in Scotland, slowly anyways, and that is a positive thing. Going forward I think there are definitely more things that can be done but it seems to be going in the right direction,” she said.
“You need to be successful on the pitch and the more successful you are, the more people want to come and watch. A full Hampden would be the ultimate goal.”
