When her parents separated again, Cooney-Cross and her three younger sisters moved to Ballarat, where Jessica’s brother lived and where she played for Ballarat City. By 13 she was well-accustomed to playing with older girls and boys, and started at the National Training Centre in Melbourne. At 14, she was trialling with the Junior Matildas (under-17s), and by 15 had signed for Melbourne Victory and was playing in the A-League Women.

And yes, by that point she had moved once more, this time to Torquay. And yes, so had the other usual suspects. “Dad followed us around everywhere as well,” she says. “So when Dad was in Torquay while my aunty and uncle were there as well, we used to have Friday night pizza night all together, and Saturday night fish and chips.

“Then I went to Sydney for the Future Matildas program for a couple of years, and then moved to Sweden and now I’m in London.”

Cooney-Cross estimates she attended “maybe six” schools all up, a relatively fuss-free transition in her younger years that “definitely got harder” during high school. But it has given her a unique knack for settling into new environments. Like that quick stint at Western Sydney Wanderers and the return to Victory (remember that 2020-21 grand final-winning olimpico?), before the pre-World Cup move to Hammarby and post-World Cup fight for her signature among English Women’s Super League clubs.

“I was tossing up between Tottenham and Chelsea,” she says. “Arsenal came in last minute and said, ‘We want you’. And I just had this feeling that it was the right decision, so I went for it and said yes straight away.”

It might have been written in the stars after Ian Wright’s high praise of her World Cup output alongside midfield partner Katrina Gorry. It helped, too, “knowing there’s Aussies around” in fellow Gunners Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord.

Still, Cooney-Cross had never been to London aside from the Matildas’ 4-1 friendly win over South Africa in late 2022, and wasn’t prepared for the level of football fandom that greeted her. At her starting debut in November, supporters chanted: “Nothing I’d rather do, than watch our [number] 32, Kyra Cooney-Cross. When she’s on the ball, she’s f----ing magical, Kyra Cooney-Cross.”

She describes the fans as “different” - in a good way. “Even Chelsea don’t even have the fans we have, especially no one does the chants,” she says. “Everyone was asking me how it was playing against Manchester United. I was like, ‘I played at the World Cup, where the crowd was bigger, but the crowd was nowhere near as loud as at the Emirates - everyone was just singing the chants for 90 minutes’.

Though she would like to be playing more than limited league cameos off the bench and cup games, Cooney-Cross is learning fast.

“It’s so much more professional and training is a lot faster,” she says. “I would say our second team could be a starting team in the league, that’s how stacked we are.

“It’s hard for me to tell if I’ve improved right now. But, for example, Steph [Catley] has noticed a lot of changes, and our [Matildas] assistant coach Jens [Fjellstrom] has seen a big change in a few things already. So I would say hopefully I am getting better every day.”

She is also gradually growing in confidence when speaking with the media - a big deal for the second-youngest Matilda only to 21-year-old Mary Fowler. Unlike Fowler, though, Cooney-Cross is publicly shy and at the mercy of nerves.

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“I would say I’m very introverted until I get comfortable. Sometimes, if I know I have to do an interview the next day, I won’t sleep. But having to play in front of 75,000 people tomorrow doesn’t stress me out. During the World Cup I definitely wasn’t stressed, I just played - the World Cup was the best experience.”

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