The rain cascading down on the Vale of Glamorgan is so heavy, so incessant, that the hotel\u2019s reception has run out of umbrellas for guests to borrow and frustrated golfers crowd the lobby. Only two sets of residents seem oblivious to the weather; those heading to the spa and the Wales Women squad. It is late May and with Rhian Wilkinson\u2019s players flying to Switzerland for Euro 2025 at the end of June far too much is at stake for anyone wearing a national tracksuit to be at a loose end.<\/p>\n
Charlie Estcourt has travelled to the sprawling Vale Resort from the US where she plays for Washington\u2019s DC Power, but the midfielder is not about to succumb to jet lag. Instead, she is focused on impressing Wilkinson as the team trains at the Welsh\u2019s FA\u2019s centre of excellence within the hotel\u2019s verdant grounds. \u201cWe have a no-excuses culture now,\u201d says Estcourt. \u201cIt\u2019s something Rhian\u2019s brought in and it\u2019s really helped us get to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
That change enabled Wales to qualify for their first major tournament<\/a> while opening a window to social change. \u201cA really big thing for us as a collective is that we want to leave a legacy for Welsh women,\u201d says Estcourt. \u201cTo create the sort of opportunities for girls growing up in Wales today that we never had.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Estcourt warms up at the Welsh FA\u2019s Vale Resort. Photograph: Ashley Crowden\/FAW\/Alamy<\/p>\n The squad\u2019s Euro 2025 slogan is \u201cFor us. For them. For her\u201d. They are entering a formidable group containing England, France and the Netherlands motivated by a desire to reach the knockout phase for not just themselves and their families but every aspiring female footballer in Wales.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to show how empowering women\u2019s football can be,\u201d says Estcourt, speaking with the assured fluency of having completed a sports broadcasting degree. \u201cOne of the most amazing things about the game is all the people you meet, the places you visit, the connections you make. So we\u2019re trying to do our bit to grow women\u2019s football here. We go out to schools and when you talk to the young girls in their replica kits they\u2019re so excited. We don\u2019t want them to lose that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Wales\u2019s largest youth organisation, with players Rhiannon Roberts and Olivia Clark at the summit of Yr Wyddfa, or Snowdon, after the Euro 2025 announcement. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n To place this in context, it is only recently that Wales Women acquired parity with the men\u2019s team in terms of not merely equal pay but training facilities and support staff. The squad did not acquire their first full-time manager until 2010 and wore shirts with numbers but no names on the back until 2019. Dave Adams, the Football Association of Wales\u2019s technical director, says \u201cWe\u2019re doing a lot of catch-up. You\u2019d hope your daughter would be afforded the same opportunities as your son.\u201d<\/p>\n In Wilkinson\u2019s case, the personal and the political are inseparable. Although the Wales head coach was born and brought up in Quebec her mother is Welsh and her late father was English. Between 1989 and 1991, the family relocated from Montreal to their beloved south Wales. Y Bont Faen primary school in Cowbridge is six miles from the Vale Resort, but it is where the move soured when it barred Wilkinson and her sister from playing football, a sport they had enjoyed in Canada.<\/p>\n Although her parents, in Wilkinson\u2019s words, \u201cwent into battle for us and took on the governors\u201d only minimal changes were made and the family, reluctantly, returned to Quebec because the girls \u201cweren\u2019t going to get the same opportunities here\u201d.<\/p>\n Rhian Wilkinson views the Wales job as more akin to a crusade. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n For Wilkinson, that parental sacrifice paid dividends in the form of 183 caps for Canada, two Olympic bronze medals and the foundation of a coaching career that peaked in 2022 when Portland Thorns won the US\u2019s National Women\u2019s Soccer League title.<\/p>\n It also dictates that she views the Wales job as more akin to a crusade than a mere entry on a CV that briefly became clouded when she and a senior Portland player informed the club they shared a mutual attraction but had done nothing inappropriate. Although an investigation cleared the manager of any wrongdoing while exonerating her conduct, Wilkinson resigned during a sanctimonious social media storm.<\/p>\n \u201cI was completely vindicated, but I was very hurt. I was made an example of,\u201d she said when becoming Wales coach in February 2024. \u201cIt was very public and very painful. Safeguarding is critical but when anyone\u2019s investigated people assume they\u2019ve done something wrong because there\u2019s so much wrongdoing in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Returning to Wales has proved restorative. \u201cThis is a special team,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re strong and don\u2019t quit on each other. I\u2019ve never been prouder. But my arrival maybe came just at the right time to ask these players to do things that in the past they weren\u2019t ready for.\u201d<\/p>\n After a morning on the training pitches, her squad return to the Vale Resort for lunch before disappearing into a series of conference suites repurposed as video analysis studios and media rooms. When Jess Fishlock emerges from one meeting and walks down a staircase into a public lounge a couple of guests sitting in the lobby quietly nudge each other.<\/p>\n Fishlock remains the team\u2019s most recognisable face and her enduring presence is at the centre of preparations for Switzerland where she is convinced Wales will escape their group of death.<\/p>\n At 38, the Seattle Reign midfielder remains world-class, with her on-field partnerships alongside the Wales captain, Angharad James, a Reign teammate, and the former Chelsea enforcer Sophie Ingle key to shocking Europe\u2019s elite. \u201cJess is so important,\u201d says Estcourt. \u201cShe\u2019s so experienced, so knowledgable. On the pitch she\u2019s invaluable; she controls the tempo, she brings goals, she brings assists. She also brings that calm head when things get a bit chaotic.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Wales arrive in Switzerland as the lowest-ranked team but they rarely lose games by more than a single goal and are awkward opponents. \u201cWe\u2019re used to being underdogs, but we\u2019re not going to the Euros to make up numbers,\u201d Estcourt says.<\/p>\n Jess Fishlock during a training session at the Vale Resort in Cardiff. Photograph: Ashley Crowden\/FAW\/Alamy<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve shown we can compete. Rhian\u2019s made us very adaptable; we can change our style depending on who we\u2019re playing and we understand all the different systems so well. We\u2019re such a tight\u2011knit group. We chat all the time; that closeness definitely pushes us on.\u201d<\/p>\n