'Maddy Cusack was a beacon for women's football - she's a massive loss for many'
Maddy Cusack’s success came as no surprise to her older brother.
The second of four siblings, Maddy’s diligence, passion and natural ability meant it was almost inevitable she would one day carve out a career as a footballer. Her childhood was one of kickabouts in the park with friends and hours spent poring over the football boots in the back of FourFourTwo magazine.
She would go on to represent an array of elite clubs, from Aston Villa to Sheffield United, becoming the first female player to register more than 100 appearances for the latter. Her commitment to the Blades earned her the proud epithet ‘Miss Sheffield United’, and her standing in the women’s game was such that her death last September, at the age of just 27, sent shockwaves throughout the entire footballing community.
“We were all massive football fans,” brother Richard tells Mirror Football, reflecting on when Maddy’s love affair with the game first began. “We supported our local club Derby County but we also loved watching all the games on TV. We’d go out and play football and then come home and watch games on Sky.
“We used to love watching our uncle play too, because he played for Swansea City while we were growing up. We were a football mad family and it was fairly obvious from the start that Maddy had a gift.”
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Like many aspiring female footballers, Maddy started out playing alongside the boys. But, far from being daunted by the prospect of being one of the only girls on the team, she relished the chance to show exactly what she could do with a ball at her feet.
“Football was her life,” Richard says. “I was the year above Maddy at school and she would sometimes come and play with my team.
“We had some good players but she was better than all of us and, when she passed away, a lot of the people we played with got in touch to share memories of how talented she was. She used to run rings around all of us. She was one of the best around.”
Of course, like any elite athlete, Maddy’s success was, in part, born from her remarkable work ethic. She enjoyed stints with both Nottingham Forest and Leicester City in her youth career before moving to Aston Villa at the age of 15.
Tributes were paid to Maddy Cusack at Bramall Lane (George Wood/Getty Images)And Richard admits that, even then, her dedication to the sport was irrefutable. “Maddy was so talented that, quite rightly, mum and dad put a lot of time into making sure she got to training and to games and things like that,” he recalls.
“When she went to play for Villa at the age of 15, she was travelling to Birmingham - which is a 50 minute drive from Derby - three times a week so it was a big commitment and it required a lot of graft from both Maddy and my parents. It was so worth it, though, because she was such a good footballer.”
At Villa, Maddy quickly established herself as part of the first-team set-up. She won plenty of admirers with her tough-tackling approach and became one of the faces of the women’s team, fronting kit launches alongside the likes of men’s first-team stars Jack Grealish and Micah Richards. Spells at Birmingham City and Leicester followed before Maddy joined Sheffield United in 2019.
It was there that Maddy found her footballing home. She became a regular fixture at the heart of the Blades’ midfield, with Neil Redfearn, manager of the women’s team from 2020 until 2022, describing her as “a real asset of the club”.
In addition to cementing her status as a fan favourite on the pitch, Maddy also made a huge impact off it. She balanced her football career with her job as a marketing executive at the club and would devote time after matches to signing autographs and posing for photographs with young fans.
“She was really part of the fabric of the club,” Richard says. “The local paper once described her as a Sheffield United legend which is really high praise indeed. She made such an impact there and gave everything to the club.”
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It is no surprise, then, that Maddy’s death was a hammerblow to all of those who knew her at Bramall Lane. In the months leading up to her death, she had penned a one-year contract extension with the club and had been named vice-captain.
Ahead of Sheffield United’s Premier League fixture with Newcastle United on September 24, supporters observed a minute’s silence in Maddy’s honour. The players walked out in shirts with ‘Cusack 8’ on the back and wreaths were laid on the pitch by the Cusack family, club captain Sophie Brown and former player Tony Currie.
For Richard, though, the most powerful encapsulation of Maddy’s impact at Bramall Lane came in the eighth minute, when the crowd rose to their feet to applaud a player they had come to regard as one of their own. “I’m never ever going to have 30,000 people stand up and applaud my memory,” Richard admits. “To have such an influence that you move people in that way is remarkable.
Maddy Cusack starred for Sheffield United (Getty)“That’s her impact laid bare. She never would have expected it either. Even Real Madrid tweeted about her which she would have been stunned by. She was a really accomplished person. She had a first-class degree and a professional career as well as being a footballer. I obviously knew her as a sister, someone who was always around growing up who could be a bit of a pain in the backside at times.
“But there’s a lot of people out there who will be struggling because they knew her as a friend and a colleague and have now lost someone who they used as a sounding board and who helped them. It’s a massive loss for so many people.”
The FA has launched an investigation into Maddy's death after her family alleged the behaviour of Blades manager Jonathan Morgan contributed to her deteriorating mental health. Morgan has strongly refuted these claims and an external inquiry commissioned by Sheffield United concluded that there was no evidence of bullying or inappropriate behaviour towards Maddy or any other player.
English football's governing body are now looking into the matter directly, with the assistance of both the club and Cusack's family.
For Richard, his parents and siblings, grief at Maddy’s passing is only matched by a desire to keep her legacy alive and ensure she continues to be a force for good in the women’s game. In the weeks after her death, they set up the Maddy Cusack Foundation which, while still in its infancy, will help provide aspiring female footballers with the kind of opportunities that Maddy herself had access to growing up.
“It’s still obviously early days in terms of the Foundation but as a family we’re really keen to continue Maddy’s impact on young female footballers,” Richard says.
“We were really fortunate growing up because mum and dad had the time and the ability to take us to training and buy us football boots. Everything is so expensive now so it’s about giving young people who want to play football the same opportunities Maddy had.
“The Foundation for me is a continuation of her legacy. It’s about keeping Maddy’s name out there and helping others. She was such a beacon for women’s football and an example of how to behave and how to train and we want to keep that light shining.”
You can find out more about The Maddy Cusack Foundation here.
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