Matildas star-in-the-making Mary Fowler was born in Cairns and flirted with representing Ireland, but it's the Netherlands that Australians must thank for helping the 16-year-old commit to football.

Fowler spent three formative years in the Netherlands, playing until she was called inside, all the while falling for the sport.

"It was so great being here. The whole football culture, it's so much," she said. "It's where my love for the game really grew because the game is everywhere.

"It's on the street. The sun doesn't go down until late so you think it's four o'clock but it's already nine. And I would be still playing.

"I would go home eventually and they would say 'where have you been?'"

Fowler moved to Holland when she was 11, living in Rotterdam and Arnhem with her footballing family.

It's why she's feeling right at home in Eindhoven this week as the Matildas prepare for a final friendly before the World Cup by playing the Netherlands on Sunday morning (AEST).

"I can speak a bit of Dutch. I can understand it," she says. "But we went back to Australia and Sydney because the opportunities were there."

Fowler will become the youngest Matilda to play at a World Cup if she takes the field in France this month.

There's tremendous hype around the forward, who caught attention by declaring her intention to become the best player in the world.

After 10 days of a hot-weather Matildas training camp in Antalya, Turkey, she speaks with great deference to her more experienced teammates.

"There's still a gap between us but I feel like I'm in the right place," she said. "Obviously I'm going to stuff up sometimes and I will learn from that.

"I know I will definitely be a better player if I keep training with them."

Fowler, who is unsigned at club level, said she was eager to avoid discussions about her future after the World Cup, when she would sit down with her father to pick a first top-level club.

"I don't need all these things going on in my head right now. I don't know if will playing W-League or going to Europe," she said.

"(My father is) trying to make those decisions in the best interest of our footballing career. I put all my trust into him and I mean, I'm here now aren't I?"