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Kristy Moore a pioneer for the game

Roar Guru
17th January, 2012
8

When the time comes to look back on her soccer career, former Trinity College student Kristy Moore will realise how much of a pioneer she has been in the game.

In the 1990s, men’s players such as Paul Okon, Robbie Slater, John Aloisi, Ned Zelic and Mark Viduka made a beeline for Europe, showing the rest of the world that Australia could produce top talent, easing the path for future generations to embark on a continental career.

For the past decade, Moore has been treading a similar path in the women’s game.

Despite only intending to head overseas for a year, she has enjoyed a career that has seen her play firstly for Barnet and then English Premier League club Fulham, before transferring to Norway’s top flight where she has represented IF Floya and Stabaek in the Toppserien.

She is on the cusp of becoming the all time leading scorer in the history of the Norwegian league.

Moore has also gained international caps with both Australia and England (including a match against the Matildas), where her mother Germaine was born.

However, while the global profile of the women’s game has grown significantly in recent years, she is still one of the very few Aussie females plying their trade in Europe.

The changing profile of the women’s game has amazed Moore, whose current club has as vocal and passionate a supporter group as any across the Continent.

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“I’ve sort of watched it grow and even when I come back now and see all the opportunities for the girls now… then there was nothing and now there are so many opportunities,” she said.

“Even over there in Europe you can see how much it’s grown in the time since I’ve been there.”

Not bad for a girl who took up the sport because she couldn’t get a game with her local Aussie Rules club.

Living near the Arctic Circle in Oslo, where sunlight is at a premium, does have its challenges and for Moore, who returns to sunny Australia every Christmas to visit her close-knit family, the siren call of home is growing stronger every year.

Later this month, the winger/striker turns 35, a birthday she will celebrate away from home as she has for over a decade.

In that time, Moore has been named Premier League Southern Division player of the year, while playing with Barnet, and had the distinction of winning two FA Cups and a premiership league title double with Fulham in 2002-03.

Wearing the Fulham shirt provided much joy on the field (despite Moore being an avid Manchester United supporter), along with many surreal moments off of it.

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The club is owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed and the women’s team was feted by the wealthy magnate, with Moore meeting him several times.

“He was right into it,” Moore laughed.

Al-Fayed’s involvement with the club, along with Fulham being the only professional women’s team in Europe at the time, generated much publicity, including photo shoots in horse drawn carriages outside of the famed Harrod’s emporium.

Fayed bankrolled the side for a number of seasons, providing a forerunner to the current professional era now being enjoyed by players in England.

However, the collapse of Al-Fayed’s initial investment in the side prompted Moore to look for further opportunities, taking her to a highly regarded career in Norway.

In the Norwegian season just past Moore jammed home 20 goals to take her into the top 10 all time scorers and her club won the FA Cup, having been defeated in the previous season’s decider, in front of a television audience of half a million people.

Also featuring on the highlights reel is an appearance at the 2011 Champions League, where Stabaek lost on aggregate to the powerful German outfit FFC Frankfurt, with Moore scoring her side’s goal in the first leg of the two-match tie.

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This coming season, which she concedes may be her last in Norway, sees Moore aiming for the Toppserien goalscoring record, along with preparing for another Champions League tilt, where she hopes her side can progress deeper into the draw.

“There’s a few of us over 30 and that’s the good thing, we’ve got a pretty strong squad and our youngest is 16, a really talented player, up to us six or seven players over 30,” she said.

“We’ve got a good mix and can go far this season.”

At the completion of the next season, Moore will reflect on her achievements and decide if it is time to head back Down Under permanently.

“I’ve said it so many times before to my family that I’m coming back and then decided to give it one more year,” Moore laughs.

“So I’ve given up saying when but I do miss my family being on the other side of the world.”

She has aims of playing at least one season in the Australian W-League, her broad experience would prove a boon for Adelaide United, which has had a hard time of it during its short existence.

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A move to the Lady Reds, a side that didn’t exist when she left for Europe, would allow Moore’s family to see her play at a senior level for the first time.

Importantly though, her return would provide an inspiration to other young Australians keen to pursue their footballing dreams in Europe.

* This article first appeared in The Bunyip newspaper, South Australia.

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