Sunderland Women’s Mel Reay and Megan Beer offered their heartfelt tributes to Abbey Joice, who announced her retirement from Sunderland Women and from football yesterday.
Joice spent nine seasons at the Club, exciting fans with her magic and expertise in the middle of the park.
The Lasses Head Coach, who has been with the 27-year-old all throughout her career, was the first to offer her praise.
“I’ve known and coached Abbey Joice for such a long time. I’ve coached her since she was 14 in the old Centre of Excellence days. She came under my wing at Gateshead College for two years and won lots of national titles for the college programme.
“She obviously played in the Super League for Sunderland so she’s a player that’s been there and done it. She’s had international caps as a youth player.
“She’s such a wonderful football player and someone who’s contributed so much to the football club. We cannot thank her enough for her services.
“I’m disappointed and sad that it’s her last game and I’ve had numerous conversations over the past few months convincing her to stay but I think it’s time.
“She was going to retire last summer but she decided to give it one more year and I now have to respect her decision to hang her boots up.
“She’s been such a huge player for us this season, she’s contributed so much on the pitch. She’s a big role model, leads by example, really good trainer, good tactician, and someone who excites the fans when she gets on the ball so she’s going to be hard to replace but hopefully she’s left a legacy behind her and we wish her well in her career outside of football.
“She’s a very humble person, she’ll not like any attention, she’ll want to drift off slowly off the radar but unfortunately everyone wants to talk about her because she’s been that good for us.
“She’s probably irreplaceable but you can always use her as good examples for players to show what kind of a professional person she was on the pitch but also off the pitch.”
Megan Beer shared her sadness at not having Joice around the Club, but insists their friendship outside of football will still be there.
“I get quite emotional at the thought of her not being here next year.
“I couldn’t imagine playing for Sunderland without her because she’s such a big character, I think everyone would say she brings a lot of character to the team and a lot of good vibes.
“She’s so talented, she just sees things that other players don’t see. She always seems to be one step ahead of everyone so she’ll be a massive miss.
“I actually sent her a text last week and I was getting emotional in case we don’t stay best friends, sisters, everything but she text me back saying ‘don’t be silly, we’ll always be close.
“We do spend a lot of time outside of football together walking the dogs and we speak to each other every day so I’m sure that won’t change.”
Best of luck for the future, Abbey!