Wales midfielder Josie Green says "nasty" comments 'dragging women’s football through the mud' are "constant"

As a young girl, Josie Green says she had no visible female football role models to look up to. "There was no one I could picture myself becoming, because I could only see men’s football on TV,” the Welsh international says. "Now I wonder why I didn’t question it. These days, knowing that young girls and boys can see professional female players like me on television is a big driver in what I do. What the women before us did was amazing, to get it to the place we are now."

These are monumental times for Welsh women’s football. A memorable play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland last December saw the team earn a place at Euro 2025, their first ever major international tournament.

"It’s so exciting and fantastic," says Green, who grew up in Hertfordshire but qualified to represent Wales through her grandfather. "Making history for our country like this was a massive goal, which has taken many years of effort, especially after falling at the final hurdle last time. You think it will never happen. We’re super-proud."

For all that, not all voices are supportive. Where once the barracking for the women’s game was limited to a few voices on the sidelines, now they throng on social media. "It’s constant — nasty comments on videos, men or boys saying stuff to drag women’s football through the mud. It’s very hard to avoid it. Social media is important to drive visibility for our sport. But if you’re not in a good place, social media can be very dark."

For Green, turning professional at 25, just as a teaching career beckoned, was a big decision. "I was newly qualified as a PE and geography teacher, doing my first year of teacher training, when I was offered a football contract. I had a crisis in my head about the insecurity of it — the men’s game has far more financial stability.

"I had just bought my first house. The contract was only for a year and wasn’t as well paid as teaching, which also had a clear career pathway. I thought, ‘If football doesn’t work out, where does that leave me with my mortgage?’ But I chose the game I love."

Now she feels it was one of the best decisions she ever made, and is proud that the number of girls playing football in Wales has tripled since 2016. "When I was first called up in 2010, we wore cast-off men’s kit, which was hugely oversized on us. In 2023, the Football Association of Wales began paying the men’s and women’s national teams an equal match fee. That was a real milestone. It’s no coincidence we’ve now qualified for the Euros."

Green, who plays as both a defender and a midfielder, started playing football at the age of six, kicking a ball about with her brother and their friends — all boys. "I’d be out there for hours. It never fazed me playing only boys, and if I hadn’t felt so comfortable it could all have turned out differently. I saw other girls making daisy chains in the playground and I knew I didn’t want to do that."

Fundamental to it all was the support of her family, particularly her late father Clive. She began her senior career at Watford and enjoyed successful spells at Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City before joining her current club, Crystal Palace, last August.

Soon after earning her first Wales cap at the age of 16, her father contracted pancreatic cancer. For the next five years, until after his death, she found it difficult to engage with football. "Family was more important," she says. "It’s a horrible disease to see someone go through. I remember him being pitch side on a very cold day in the latter stages, determined to be there watching me. I know he’s always with us. He would have absolutely loved what I’ve achieved."

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