{"id":209111,"date":"2025-06-24T01:26:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209111\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T01:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T01:26:05","slug":"wales-midfielder-josie-green-says-nasty-comments-dragging-womens-football-through-the-mud-are-constant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/209111\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales midfielder Josie Green says “nasty” comments ‘dragging women\u2019s football through the mud’ are “constant”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s football on TV,\u201d the Welsh international says. “Now I wonder why I didn\u2019t 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.”<\/p>\n

These are monumental times for Welsh women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s 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\u2019re super-proud.”<\/p>\n

For all that, not all voices are supportive. Where once the barracking for the women\u2019s game was limited to a few voices on the sidelines, now they throng on social media. “It\u2019s constant \u2014 nasty comments on videos, men or boys saying stuff to drag women\u2019s football through the mud. It\u2019s very hard to avoid it. Social media is important to drive visibility for our sport. But if you\u2019re not in a good place, social media can be very dark.”<\/p>\n

\"Josie<\/p>\n

Josie Green.\u00a0Warren Little\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 the men\u2019s game has far more financial stability.<\/p>\n

“I had just bought my first house. The contract was only for a year and wasn\u2019t as well paid as teaching, which also had a clear career pathway. I thought, \u2018If football doesn\u2019t work out, where does that leave me with my mortgage?\u2019 But I chose the game I love.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019s kit, which was hugely oversized on us. In 2023, the Football Association of Wales began paying the men\u2019s and women\u2019s national teams an equal match fee. That was a real milestone. It\u2019s no coincidence we\u2019ve now qualified for the Euros.”<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 all boys. “I\u2019d be out there for hours. It never fazed me playing only boys, and if I hadn\u2019t 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\u2019t want to do that.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s always with us. He would have absolutely loved what I\u2019ve achieved.”<\/p>\n

The latest issue of Radio Times<\/strong> is out now \u2013 subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Radio<\/p>\n

Radio Times.<\/p>\n

Check out more of our Sport<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a young girl, Josie Green says she had no visible female football role models to look up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-209111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114735742175265684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}