Mary Fowler

Mary Boio Fowler (born 14 February 2003) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays for English Women's Super League club Manchester City and the Australia national team.

Mainly a forward, she is also able to play as a midfielder.

After being selected for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup squad, Fowler scored the winning goal in a pre-World Cup friendly against France in July 2023.

Fowler was born on 14 February 2003 in Cairns, Queensland.

She is the third born of a family of five children.

Mary is her paternal grandmother's name, while Boio is that of her maternal grandmother.

Fowler's father, Kevin, is from Dublin, Ireland Her mother, Nido, is from Kira Kira, a village within greater Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where the couple met.

As a young child, Fowler attended Holy Cross Primary School in Cairns.

Her favourite school subject was maths.

Her parents chose not to have a television set at home, and so she and her siblings engaged in other forms of entertainment, such as kicking a football around at Trinity Beach near Cairns after school.

With parental encouragement, Fowler also followed interests in drawing and writing poetry amongst other artistic pursuits, including dressing up and acting in little shows for her parents.

In 2023, she told The Sydney Morning Herald:

""From a young age, I just really enjoyed being creative and being a bit wild and different in that sense.

And I would say with the creative side, I do try to be a creative footballer.

And I’m just being myself out there, even if that means being a bit different.""

Fowler began playing football at the age of seven.

While still at school, she was a member of boys teams for Saints FC as well as Leichhardt FC in the local Cairns league.

A prodigious talent, she was selected to play for the Queensland state under-12s team at 10 years of age.

A year later, she moved with her family to the Netherlands where they lived for three years, during which she was signed to BVV Barendrecht and learnt to speak Dutch fluently.

At age 14, Fowler returned to Australia with her family and began attending Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts.

Later, she played for Bankstown City in the NSW Women's National Premier League.

In 2018, she was added to the Australian squad for the Tournament of Nations.

She made her debut late in the game against Brazil, thus becoming the fifth youngest player for the Matildas at 15 years and 162 days.

At that early stage in her international career, Fowler received wide praise for her abilities as a player, with coach Alen Stajcic saying that she has "probably got the most weapons I've seen from a young player her age in women's football".

Fowler was again used as a substitute in Australia's friendlies against England and France later in the year, but was unavailable for the matches against Chile to attend trials with the first teams of Chelsea, West Ham and Manchester City, who all wanted to sign her.

She also attended sprint and power training sessions in Manchester with coach Mick Clegg.

In 2019, aged 16 years, Fowler signed her first professional contract with Adelaide United and relocated to South Australia to begin her football career.

Fowler made her W-League debut for Adelaide United in the first game of the 2019–20 season.

She scored her first goal in that game in a 2–1 loss against Western Sydney Wanderers.

Fowler was called up to the Australian squad for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

In January 2020, a month before she turned 17, Fowler signed for French Ligue 1 club Montpellier HSC on a three-year contract after an undisclosed transfer fee was paid.

She moved to Montpelier alone, and made her debut against Olympique Lyonnais in February 2020.

She was named to ESPN's 21 under 21, an international list of footballers representing the next generation of talent, in May 2021.

In June 2022, Fowler signed a four-year contract with English FA WSL club Manchester City.

On 26 October 2022, Fowler scored her first goal for the club, a penalty, in a 6-0 win over Blackburn Rovers before scoring her second of the match 29 minutes later.

During her first season at Manchester City, Fowler spent much time on the substitutes' bench.

She felt that joining the team had been "a step up", and that her football awareness had progressed under the influence of its players, staff and facilities.

"Your faults are far more apparent here because you’re at a much higher level and the players around you demand so much more," she told The Observer in April 2023.

Later in the year, Fowler was nominated for The Best FIFA Women's Player and The European Golden Girl Award after a positive season for both Manchester City and Australia.

As a teenager, Fowler resisted attempts by the Football Association of Ireland to poach her from Football Australia's youth system.