Ireland, England, the USA, France and Italy - as CVs go, there are few as culturally-varied as Stephanie Roche.

It is not just culturally that Stephanie has experienced a great deal - with career-threatening injuries, run-ins with the FAI and a Puskas goal of the year award; hers is a journey like no other.

Gareth Bale could certainly take a leaf out of her book - not only in the Puskas stakes - but in her desire to throw herself into the deep-end of both French and Italian language, with her experiences at ASPTT Albi and Florentia respectively.

Her time in France was, in fact, not as fruitful as her current adventure in Italy - in her own words.

"I jumped in. I signed my contract - it was my first professional contract - and I kind of saw 'professional' and thought that I would be training every day and could just go for it. Unfortunately, there was a lot of stuff that I was promised would happen that didn't happen, in terms of even just getting French lessons.

"From my experience now of being in Italy, I think in France that they are a little bit more reluctant to speak to you in English. In Italy, they try and help you a  little bit more, whereas in France they were just like 'We're not speaking English to you.'"

"That wasn't the only thing - I had a girl who played at Peamount with me who fell out with the manager after about a month and a half.

"She was my go-between in terms of talking to the manager so that messed up a lot of that stuff for me as well.

"Where I was was a place in the middle of nowhere, and I suppose you don't think of that when you're signing football contracts - so that is something that I've learned from.

"Now, I am in a lovely city [Florence] and have got a good contract where I am now and I'm quite happy with it."

Stephanie could be forgiven for thinking that a stint with Houston Dash in 2015 feels like a lifetime at this stage of a career that could reasonably be said at its peak.

"Even just the pre-season in the Houston heat - honest to god, you could barely breathe just normally, let alone doing your pre-season. Their pre-season was crazy compared to anything I had done.

"There was  girl there from England who had come through the college system in America - she said to me that it had taken her nearly a year and a half just to get used to the college schedule.

"It was just a different type of fitness and training regime that I wasn't used to.

"But in any of the small-sided games on the footballing side I showed that I had the ability to be there, and that is why I think the manager liked me."

Unfortunately, Stephanie's role in Houston was limited by rules around international players, but she is now the envy of most of the world with her life and time in Florence.

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