Caelan Bacon is full of hope for the New Year – particularly if it follows on from the success of 2023.
You see for some, 2023 was the ‘Year of the Rabbit, but for this soccer-mad ‘New Yorker’ it was the year she made her international debut.
That’s right. Caelan was called up to represent the Republic of Ireland thanks to some quick thinking on the part of the Irish FA.
They received a tip-off that Caelan has Irish grandparents and moved quickly to sign her up whilst US Soccer slept and the rest, as they say, is history.
“It was an amazing experience and certainly something I will never forget, but make no mistake it is something I hope to repeat going forward,” Caelan told NCE Soccer.
“It all came about thanks to my former DOC, Filippo Giovagnoli. He used to coach professionally in Ireland and recommended me to some of the coaches at the FAI.
“My maternal grandparents are from Ireland and I have dual citizenship and he knew I was Irish. He believed that I could succeed at that level.
“After reviewing video footage, they invited me to my 1st training session in Dublin last year and the rest was history.
“It was my first experience of playing at an International Level.
“I had been invited to train a few times with the U16 age group in Ireland, previously last year and then again earlier this year but this was the first Camp that I was invited to join.
“It was an amazing experience and we traveled together as a team from Dublin to Edinburgh and played two friendly matches against Scotland, with training sessions scheduled the days between the matches.
“It was an incredible experience and I was honored to play for Ireland. It was a very professional environment with high-level training. The coaches and the other players were also very friendly so that was nice.”
Caelan has been playing soccer since she could walk. Her older sister Bianca and brother Atticus were keen soccer players and it seemed inevitable she would follow in their footsteps.
And, aside from being fans of football, they all had talent and have all progressed through the NCE Soccer system.
“I always wanted to play/train whenever they were playing,” Caelan added.
“I started playing with boys in NYC at a club called NY Stars for several years. I played with their 08 & 09 Teams.
“After that, I played for Red Bulls with their Pre Academy 07 and 08 girls whilst simultaneously playing at Met Oval with their 08 & 09 boys teams for several years and then with their inaugural 2009 MLS Next team.
“I then played at TSF Academy in NJ with the MLS Next boys, and currently I’m playing at NYSC 09 MLS Next and 07 GA.”
“My older siblings competed with NCE so just like when I was very little, I wanted to do what they were doing!
“As soon as I could, I started training & competing with NCE.
“Another thing that I really like about NCE is that I have met a lot of players from different clubs through NCE.
“It’s always fun to head to a Tournament and see a lot of players from all of these other clubs that you don’t see regularly.”
Caelan plays as an attacking midfielder but has proved her versatility, playing up front as a traditional nine or even on the wing but she prefers to play in the middle.
She enjoys being able to dictate the play and believes her development has been fast-tracked thanks to the high-caliber coaching received by NCE Soccer.
Caelan has no doubts that NCE Soccer’s non-politic stance has helped her to maximize her own abilities.
And the opportunities provided by NCE Soccer to compete internationally at tournaments like the Gothia World Youth Cup in Sweden have added big-game experience to her repertoire.
“NCE has always been a big part of my development. Being able to compete in high-level tournaments and train with other strong players has really helped me as a player,” she added.
“NCE works hard to find & pull high-level players together in a way that doesn’t compete with their clubs but gives players more opportunities to challenge themselves with other players from other clubs.
“I think one of my favorite memories of playing with NCE was participating in the Gothia Cup in Sweden.
“It was such an amazing experience to compete against teams from different countries and the atmosphere was great.
“The competition was strong and spending all of that time with the rest of the team and the other teams, at the hotel, at the fields, etc was really memorable.
“The coaches were also awesome and completed the experience for me on and off the field during team bonding.”
The future for Caelan? Well, it can be whatever she wants it to be but her international call-up means this 14-year-old can afford to dream big.
“It’s always been my dream since as long as can remember to play for the USWNT. Now I can add playing for Ireland’s WNT to that wish list!” she added.
“Some of my other goals would be to play D1 College soccer and then play professionally in Europe or play professionally for an NWSL Club.
“I’m not entirely sure what the next steps will be for international soccer with Ireland, but I’m hoping there will be future opportunities.
“My goal is to always keep working hard and improving as a player and to never lose the love of the game.
“It’s important to appreciate and enjoy every opportunity. Through soccer, I have had the chance to travel to so many different places/ different countries.
“I have been able to travel to Spain, Sweden, Ireland & Scotland thanks to soccer. That is special and I cherish all of these moments.”
* Follow in Caelan’s footsteps and apply to be part of NCE Soccer Programming by clicking the following link to join our Programming – click here.
