The team’s leading scorer spends her weekdays in prison. The teenage midfielder washes dishes in a restaurant between practice sessions. And home games are played not in a stadium, but in a 19th century rock quarry just outside the town the team represents.
Women’s soccer in Wales is far from glamorous. Crowds are measured in the dozens or, on a really good day, hundreds. The fields are wet and bumpy, the officiating is often just as uneven and there are no million-dollar contracts. In fact, for most of the players, there are no contracts at all. Instead, the players pay the teams to play.