Louise Quinn is closing in on a century of caps but would love to join the exclusive club with a World Cup ticket in her pocket.
The star centre-back sits on 91 appearances and will creep ever closer to the magical ton as Ireland face into their final four qualifiers this year.
Starved of a major tournament appearance up to now, the Girls in Green are currently well placed to land a playoff spot.
Heavyweights Sweden - who they travel to on April 12 - are romping to top spot in the group but second-placed Ireland will battle it out with Finland for the runners up.
And a coveted place at next year’s World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand is the ultimate objective for Quinn and her team-mates.
Quinn is on track to next year become the latest Ireland centurion and said: “It would be lovely and I’m pottering along. I’d love it, absolutely love it.”
Emma Byrne, Aine O’Gorman and Ciara Grant are the only players up to now to have reached 100 caps. And they will soon be joined by Quinn's current Ireland team-mate Niamh Fahey who is on 99.
But Quinn said: “It’s something I’d love to be part of, especially with the group that’s there with a hundred caps. They’re the best players that have come through.
“But for me it’s about getting through a campaign and staying healthy. If I’m still playing alright, and I still get picked, we’ll organise a party at a hundred!
“But for now, it’s about digging it out. The next few games are far too important to be thinking about different milestones.”
At club level, it has been a difficult season as Birmingham City sit rock bottom of the Women's Super League with one win and 10 defeats in their 12 games.
Saturday’s 5-0 defeat at Manchester United took the good out of their shock 2-0 win over league leaders Arsenal the week before.
Quinn insists all is not lost as the Blues look to reel in Leicester City, who are two points ahead of them.
And being under that relentless defensive pressure week in, week for Birmingham is actually paying off.
She said: “The Arsenal game was a 9/10 from our players. And if we can get most people at 7/10, instead of 3 or 4 or 5, it will help. We need consistency.
“But I’m still enjoying my football. I’m enjoying the challenge. It’s a lot of defending and I’m having to make myself better each week but I feel sharper than I did last year.”
And Quinn is striving for the same with Ireland as they chase down that World Cup playoff spot.
Sweden are ranked second in the world and nobody expects Ireland to get a result.
But Quinn said: “It was 1-0 to Sweden over here and a crap goal, deflecting off me. We showed that we can cope against those big teams.
“Even us beating Arsenal last week shows that anything can happen in football and if they’re having an off day and we’re on it, it’s there.
“We’re not expected to win and that takes the pressure off, but we love games like that. The experience playing those bigger games has done us the world of good.”
Quinn added: “There will be more expectation on the three matches after that one, but I absolutely love playing against the Olympic silver medallists.
“You could see in the last 10 minutes at Tallaght that they put on extra defenders to try to stop us from scoring. They saw us as a threat and we want to bring that again.”
The 2022 SPAR FAI Primary School 5s Programme was launched by Republic of Ireland women’s footballer Louise Quinn and former Republic of Ireland footballer David Meyler.
The pair were on hand at the FAI’s headquarters in Sport Ireland Campus, to provide a coaching masterclass to a number of students who will be participating in what is Ireland’s largest grassroots football programme.
The SPAR FAI Primary School 5s Programme is open to boys and girls from 4th, 5th and 6th class, and puts emphasis on fun and inclusivity. Register for the SPAR5s by March 4th at www.fai.ie/SPARPrimarySchool5s.
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