Wales football centurion Angharad James hopes more players from the Welsh domestic game can one day comprise the bulk of the women's national team, but said big strides must continue to be made in making women’s football in Wales professional for that to happen.
The Spurs midfielder is one of many Wales stars plying their trade across the border in the top flights of the England pyramid. At 15 years old, James moved from her home in Pembrokeshire to London to chase her dream of becoming a footballer via Arsenal's academy.
James’ path to Wales’ senior set-up is well-trodden, with a number of younger players in Gemma Grainger’s squad for the upcoming Pinatar Cup currently developing within top-flight Women's Super League or second-tier Championship clubs, like goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel and attacking midfielder Carrie Jones emerging from Manchester United and Ella Powell within Bristol City’s development ranks.
Indeed, the dearth of domestic representation in the senior squad is all the more marked when contrasted to Wales’ under-17s and under-19s squad, which boasts 11 call-ups from the Adran Premier League, Wales' top women's football competition, and a further nine call-ups from the FAW Academy North and South teams.
While James recognised the positive influence that exposure within the WSL and Championship academy system breeds in terms of short-term success on the international stage, the 28-year-old hopes the future of Welsh football won’t rely on professional careers built across the border.
“It’s great that so many are coming through WSL academies, but the women’s game has a long way to go in terms of growing grassroots football in Wales,” James said. “We’re doing a lot away from the scenes to try to help that and the FAW are really pushing for that.
“But the more that we can have homegrown players in Wales, obviously that’s a great thing in the long term. However, right now, we’re not at that stage, it’s not professional enough within Wales to keep the best players here, which is a shame.”
The comments arrive shortly after Wrexham AFC’s announcement that promotion to the Adran Premier would see the women’s team become semi-professional, representing a major milestone for professionalising the women’s game in Wales. Top-flight giants Cardiff City Women and Swansea City Women pay their players' expenses but have yet to offer semi-professional or professional contracts.
“These are teams that are really growing in Wales and hopefully we can continue that growth, and hopefully one day women’s football will be a professional sport in Wales,” James said.
The FAW recently announced its landmark decision over equal pay for the organisation’s senior cohorts following long talks with the squads’ respective leadership teams. The decision places Wales amid a growing number of national governing bodies offering equal pay at the top level, but James maintained that compensation is only part of achieving genuine equity in Welsh football.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction, but it’s not only about equal pay, it’s about the opportunities we get when we put on the Welsh jersey,” James said. “It’s about facilities that we get to use, the stadiums that we’re now playing in. It’s a collective, and it just shows how far women’s football has come. I think it should have happened a long time throughout all the nations but we’re here now, we’ve seen that change and it’s important that we maintain that. We’ve taken big strides and together we created change which was important.”
James’ sentiments were echoed by Wales captain and Chelsea midfielder Sophie Ingle, who said the principle behind the announcement weighs more than any fiscal gain.
“We couldn’t ask for any more, we’re making huge strides in Wales,” Ingle said. “We’ve got equal pay. It did take a while, but it’s not about the money and it never has been. It’s about the principle. We always wanted little girls and boys to be able to grow up and think if they want to play for Wales, they can have the same equal opportunity as a male or a female, and that was why we pushed it towards the FAW. We’re delighted that it’s over the line now.”
Wales are set to take on the Philippines on Wednesday, February 15, in the first round of the 2023 Pinatar Cup, the team’s first competitive campaign since their agonising extra-time defeat to Switzerland in their World Cup qualifying play-off final last October.
James admitted the squad will need to adopt a new level if they want to qualify for Euro 2024, with the Pinatar Cup poised as the first step in moving beyond last October’s heartbreak.
“We’re going to have to go up another level to ensure that we make a major tournament,” James said. “We’ll see changes. It’s given everyone a new opportunity. It’s a new campaign, new year. We all have to earn our jerseys at the end of the day. The last campaign was the last campaign and now we’re moving forward.”
Wales take on the Philippines on Wednesday, followed by Iceland on Saturday, February 18, and Scotland on Thursday, February 23.
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