When England midfielder Alessia Russo broke the internet with her backheel goal at the end of July, Sophie Ingle was there.
The Wales captain was, again, present when England’s Keira Walsh offered the footballing world a free clinic in how-to-pass-like-a-bad-boss . And, too, when Chloe Kelly ripped off her shirt – and more than 20 years of women’s footballing taboos with it – in front of a record 87,192 crowd inside Wembley Stadium, and another 17.4 million elsewhere via BBC One.
The Wales centurion and Chelsea favourite was there for it all.
The problem, of course, is that Ingle was there – in a hospitality box courtesy of her agent and some Chelsea team-mates – and not there – in and amongst the on-pitch action for Euro 2022. Wales failed to qualify for the tournament after falling painstakingly short to Northern Ireland on head-to-head goals two years earlier. It meant Ingle – and by extension, Wales – were spectators at another elusive major tournament.
Read more: Wales Women break ticket sales record for crucial World Cup qualifier as interest explodes
Ingle is not bitter, though one wouldn’t blame her if she was. Ingle has stood at the vanguard of women’s football for what risks feeling like forever, challenging status quos which can now be filed under 'obsolete'. That she was not one of the women who felt Euro 2022’s success from the pitch itself feels like, if not a grade-A jilt, a perfectly reasonable opportunity to feel fractionally bitter. Instead, Ingle is refreshingly candid.
“When I was watching the group stages, we played a lot of those teams [previously], whether it be in friendlies or in our own campaigns over the last couple of years,” the 30-year-old holding midfielder tells WalesOnline. “Against those teams, we were so close. France, for example, this campaign we lost 2-1 to them, and I’m watching them do so well in the tournament. On our day, we could 100% beat them.”
The sentiment is neither brash nor blasé, not that anyone could ever accuse Ingle of being either, particularly on the pitch where her copybook poise and percipience have cut her a certain legend. Since manager Gemma Grainger’s appointment last March, Wales Women have harnessed a new energy and swagger, going toe-to-toe with the very world-beating sides that shone at Euro 2022 and redressing Wales’ position on the international stage.
The redressing has cast Wales second in their Women’s World Cup qualifying group, eight points behind runaway leaders France, where they battle third-placed Slovenia and fourth-placed Greece for a play-off berth. The potential is dizzying. Wales travel to Greece on September 2 before taking on Slovenia at home four days later on Tuesday, September 6. A mere two points separate Grainger’s side from Slovenia, three from Greece. Wales' play-off destiny rests firmly in their own hands.
Yet, it is not only the points which have Ingle eagerly anticipating September's clashes. The promise purring for women’s football after Euro 2022 is palpable, and Ingle is adamant that Wales can harness that momentum themselves as fuel for an already swiftly-burning fire.
The micro goal? Host a record 10,000 home fans for Wales’ clash with Slovenia and secure a play-off position, courtesy of a second-place finish in the group. The macro goal? Bring women’s football in Wales into the competitive reckoning.
Barry native Ingle smiles at the thought of 10,000 fans at Cardiff City Stadium. A record 6,800 tickets have been sold at the time of writing. It's not 87,192, or even 49,094, the crowd Ingle entertained as she and her Chelsea team-mates lifted last season’s FA Cup trophy over Manchester City.
But through the prism of women’s football in Wales, 10,000 might as well be.
“It’s mad to think that a year or two ago that wouldn’t have even been in our sights to get 10,000,” Ingle says. “We were just happy to get 3-4,000. And this campaign, we’ve consistently got 4-5,000 every game.”
Another mad thought Ingle has? That only three years ago she and her team-mates saw their names printed on the back of their Wales shirts for the first time.
Or that less than a decade ago, they were wearing pre-worn men’s shirts, with Wales centurion Jess Fishlock infamously and unapologetically taking scissors to a long-sleeved one in some 30-odd degree heat.
Or that, as recently as the last Euro qualifying campaign, Wales Women had no real headquarters (Hensol was for the men’s side only). They trained at University of South Wales. Then-manager Jayne Ludlow oversaw the senior and development ranks as her role was split. The squad took commercial flights for international matches, the disruption of layovers and multi-city trips viewed as little more than subliminal factors.
“We’re always playing catch-up to other nations,” Ingle says. “I suppose that’s always going to be the case when you’re a small nation but the FAW have backed us the last couple of years, have really pushed for the women’s team.”
That push is manifested in the speed at which women’s football has evolved in Wales in the last few years. It is not a revolution, Ingle makes clear. The building blocks were established, but the recent growth has been exponential, the result of myriad factors feeding off each other, from greater visibility to greater buy-in from the FAW to a standard of respect on and off the pitch demanded by the players themselves.
Now, full-time manager Grainger oversees only the senior side, with women’s development ranks following the same structure as the men’s set-up. Across Wales, youth clubs are installing girls teams with licenced coaches rather than having young girls play on boys’ teams until it is deemed inappropriate. In the bowels of Hensol, Fishlock’s neon boots hang on a hook, grass and mud comfortably residing in the spikes. Charter planes are a must.
“It’s all about development, about putting those foundations in place and it takes time unfortunately, especially in the women’s game,” Ingle explains. “We have had to fight for a lot of things, on and off the pitch, just the basic standards that we think we deserve. We do have that now in place, and that’s why results are going our way and you can see the team improving.
“[The recent support] shows credit to us, credit to women’s football but also Welsh football that we’re doing the right things,” Ingle says. “We’re pulling in the crowds, and obviously it helps when you win.”
Ingle hopes the post-Euro 2022 bedlam will help pull larger crowds and larger support to Wales’ matches and continue the evolution of women’s football in the country. A do-or-die home match, she says, is as good a place to start as any.
“When we play at home, we play more exciting football," she says. "We’ve got a little bit more freedom at home, the home advantage, the crowd. You can hear them screaming, shouting, singing. When we go for an attack, there’s a kind of uproar and everyone’s excited that we’re getting into the opposition box. It’s that atmosphere. It’s more than it ever was, really.”
The results alone stand as evidence. It was at home that Wales opened their qualifying campaign with the coolest of 6-0 demolition jobs over Kazakhstan, followed by a 4-0 walloping of Estonia and 5-0 against Greece, only to slip up in a 2-1 defeat to France. That Wales were emphatically disappointed not to have beaten France only stresses Ingle’s point.
“It helps with a bigger crowd. We’re always excited to play for Wales, but now we know that we’re pulling in those crowds. We want to play for them as well as us. As a team, we’ve gone through everything we could have. We’ve been so close and obviously we’re so close again, just two games away.”
Ingle and her team-mates know more intimately than most what being on the wrong side of the brink feels like, and Ingle’s earlier sentiments of Wales being right amongst the richest of competitors risks ringing hollow if they get to know that position even more intimately come September 6.
Yet, this time around, the brink looms less like a painful déjà vu as it does a conquerable horizon. Grainger has rung in a new-look Wales, one unfettered by the constraints of passive, reactive football, instead playing on individual quality while combining a cadre of experience with youthful vigour. The change has not been without steep learning curves, but Wales don’t sit second in Group I with a tight grip on the play-offs on dumb luck.
All of which poses an interesting question. Women’s football might have nothing more to prove after such an unprecedented summer, but do Wales?
Ingle considers the question carefully before shaking her head. “I wouldn’t say necessarily to prove, but I would say we have to believe that we are good enough to get to those tournaments and I do believe we are,” she says. “We were so close against the top, top nations. It is exciting, so I wouldn’t say it’s something to prove but I would say we need to believe that we’re meant to be there, that we can be there, because we’re good enough.”
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