By Nathan WOTI               SportsTok Magazine | Issue #99, JUNE 2021
 
From just playing backyard football with her siblings to now representing Australia at the international level and already being called an Olympian, teenage football sensation Mary Fowler has done what many would only dream of accomplishing throughout their career.   
Born to Papua New Guinean mother, Nido Fowler, and dad Kevin Fowler Jnr from Ireland, the football world’s most talked about teen, Mary Fowler, is a star in the making.
Mary plays in the forward position for her national team, Australian Matildas, and in the France Division 1 Feminine competition for Montpellier Herault Sport Club.
Her remarkable rise to the spotlight of world football goes way back to Trinity beach in Cairns, Australia. Mary and her other four siblings would spend hours of the evening playing mini competitions while trying to perfect their individual skillset and techniques as if they were in an actual match.     
Mary is the third born of five siblings who are also playing top level football in their respective divisions in Australia. Her elder brother Quivi ‘Coahimin’, was a member of the Republic of Ireland under 17 national squad before making his way to several second-tier clubs in Dutch in the likes of Jong Vitesseagovv FC and FC Dordrecht in from 2016 to 2018, before moving back mid-season to Wollongong Wolves in 2018. Mary older sister Ciara also made her national representative debut for the Republic of Ireland. Ciara and Mary’s younger sister Louise play together in FNQ Premier League for Edge Hill Untied FC. And her younger brother Shamus had just recently made his debut for Leichardt Lions in the FNQ Premier League.
It is not a secret that the siblings have pushed themselves to the level that they are in right now in their career in football. But behind their success is their parents, Nido and Kevin Fowler. They both knew that they had to raise footballers in the house, which means there would be no sitting in front of television after school or technology, and more time spent outside, going over training and exercise drills with their big brother. That was where Mary started to understanding the concept and basics about what it takes to compete.
Their parents had always encourage them to have clear focus and dream to achieve and that has laid the platform for the kids to grow in the sport and have that athlete mindset.
Mary’s father Kevin lived and work up in Mt Hagen for four years and later in Port Moresby for a year that was when he met Nido (Mary’s mom) and they got married before the family moved to Ireland where Quivi was born. Kevind and Nido later move to Cairns, Australia where the girls were born.
When Mary was 11 years old her parents moved to the Netherlands while Quivi had several try-outs with the two Dutch clubs—Jong Vitesseagovv and Dordrecht. They lived there for three years and Mary went to school there, where she started to learn and speak Dutch, while her big brother Quivi pursued his dreams in hopes to make it into EPL.   

In an interview with the SportsTok Magazine, Mary’s mom Nido Fowler gave a brief insight into the life of the young footballer and what made her the superstar she is today.
“Mary developed the love for football at a very early age even before she started schooling”, she said.
“At the age of six years old she made it into her first team.  But she was kicking a soccer ball for a long time before that” said Mary’s Mum.