Kingsley hoping to make impact with Waterford

“Obviously after four years in America, I was just trying to go abroad and stay abroad. Coming back home was not on the cards, but it is now,” said Blessing Kingsley as she signed for Waterford after a nightmare couple of years for her.

After winning the Women’s FAI Cup with Wexford in 2019, the talented youngster set her sights on America, and in the summer of 2020, she won a full scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi. However, injury derailed her final year. When she finally got back to fitness and finished university, she went to Italy to become a Professional Footballer but an achilles injury derailed that and she returned home in a wheelchair. Back in April she shared her story with our reporter, Harry Shorthose when the announcement was made that she was signing for Waterford.

Blessing’s talent was obvious from a young age. Her career started at Hanover Harps underage. Such was her talent, she was picked up by Wexford Youths and she joined the U17’s team there. It wasn’t long before Kingsley made the step up to the senior team and took part in the Champions League and then went on to win the Cup in 2018 and 2019, coming off the bench to play a part at the end. She was also called up to the Ireland U17’s team where she made seven appearances before heading abroad to the States after Covid.

“I was playing for the University of Southern Mississippi, which is a Division 1 school. I would have been playing in the Conference USA. I came a semester late because of COVID. So January 2021 is when I came and we would have played the season which was supposed to be played at the end of 2020. In 2021 we had won our first ever conference championship, we won the West Championship,” said Kingsley In her Freshman year she started eight out of nine games and got named on the C-USA All-Freshman Team. In her Sophomore year, she started 15 out of 17 games and accumulated 14 points (6 goals, 2 assists, which saw her ranked 10th amongst all C-USA players. She was also named on the United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-South Region.

“It was an experience to get to play in America and get to live the American dream, let's say. America's crazy, it was definitely a big culture shock going from only ever being in Europe and actually going to the States. It was a whole different experience,” Kingsley said of her time at Southern Miss, the University made so famous by the movie, The Hurt Locker.

“The facilities and the gear and all the other things we had in America were unreal. I grew a lot, I was there from ages 18 to 22 so I definitely developed a lot and it opened my eyes to a whole different world.” However, after such a promising start, disaster struck for Blessing and she was set for an extended period on the sidelines.

“In September ‘24, I tore my hamstring tendon off the bone. I hyperextended my knee, I was just running and it just bent back when I was trying to stop a D-cell and tore my hamstring tendon and partially tore my LCL.” After she recovered, she had made the decision that she didn’t want to return home, so she mulled over a few ideas from different clubs across Europe before settling on Matera in Italy.

“I would have had an agent that was helping me just find different connections. And I was either looking to go to Italy, Sweden, Spain or Iceland. I've never been to Italy. The other three countries I have been to and the team were contending for promotion from the Serie C to Serie B, so the opportunity to fight for a promotion was definitely appealing as well,” Kingsley explained.

However, once again things unravelled for Blessing once she moved to Italy as she once again suffered an injury.

“That was 2025 last year, January. I would have stayed there until March, April. I signed a five month contract but I had ruptured my Achilles while I was playing in Italy.I probably played like four or five games. I scored my first goal for them, which was a header, two weeks before I got the injury. So it was a little disappointing that it got cut short, but it just means that I've been back home in Ireland since about April last year.

“It's quite a terrible injury to get really. I came home in a wheelchair with crutches and a boot. So for a good bit of last year, I wasn't able to walk fully without the help of a walking boot. The rehab can be tough because some days you have great days with the Achilles and other days it just really is achy and sore. It's really just getting the confidence back up as well as important because you don't want to be worrying about doing something again. You want to make sure that you can back the recovery you've done. So I'm just tipping away at it and just making sure that I can do as much as I can.” 

Being injured was tough for Blessing who has had to spend an extended period on the touchline for the first time in her career. For somebody who has always been soccer mad like Kingsley, this was tough, because all she’s ever known is soccer.

“It is tough mentally to take any injury. The main thing I worked on while I was injured was trying to figure out who I am without sport. For a long time, football was everything — it’s all people knew me for and a huge part of my identity.

“Being injured made me reconnect with other things I love, like writing, music and photography. It gave me the chance to explore those and enjoy them when I couldn’t play.

“Mentally, it was about committing fully to my rehab while also finding other parts of myself without football. That’s why I feel so whole coming back now — it’s not like it was taken away from me without developing in other areas.

“More recently I’ve been doing a bit of modelling and acting as well, including a short film that’s coming out soon, so it’s allowed me to explore other avenues and really understand who I am beyond football.” “For so long I really didn't even want to think about who I would be after football ended. But in the meantime, I've been able to actually ask myself those questions while still working to get back to football. So yeah, it definitely helped me become a more whole person and really ask myself those questions that I might have been avoiding while being fully fit.” 

In April, it was announced that Blessing had signed back in the League of Ireland with Waterford. Being home and around friends and family again helped her to decide that staying was what she wanted.

“I think I knew about halfway through last year that I would like to go back and play in the League of Ireland. I'm really trying to stay home at the moment. I had a long time abroad and I'm really just trying to pick up where I left off and see because the league has improved in a whole ton of ways since I've left.

“So coming back and playing for Waterford was definitely something that I had my eyes on for a while. I felt like my chapter in Wexford is closed and Wexford is a completely different team than what I would have left it at so that was kind of where the decision came around.

“It was kind of a two-way. Gary Hunt [Waterford manager] had contacted me and I'd been in conversation with him for quite a while. So we would have just, you know, met up every couple of months. And then when it got closer to the season starting, I just met the team and just started doing stuff with the physio.”

 Where is her fitness at now and how far away is she from getting back onto the pitch again?

“I'm closer than ever at the moment. We're really just trying to work on loading as much weight onto the calf and really getting used to changing direction, kicking. I'm doing that at the moment, but not full contact yet. So at the moment, it's just stuff off to the side. We're hoping that soon in the next couple of weeks, I'll be back playing full contact and being able to come on in games and really make a difference.”