Wales Women Football Team PROFILE

Wales women’s senior national football team represent the country at the highest level of international competition.

Administered by the Football Association of Wales (FAW), they play in UEFA and FIFA competitions, including the Women’s World Cup, the Women’s European Championship and the UEFA Women’s Nations League, which replaced the previous international friendlies.

Wales have played competitive matches since 1973, although they were run independently of the FAW until 1993.

Their most notable period of success has come in very recent years, but they have had significant players in the past, including Michelle Adams, Laura McAllister, Jayne Ludlow – who also went on to become national team manager - Loren Dykes, Natasha Harding and Helen Ward.

Wales’ greatest female player has been Jess Fishlock, who has spent two decades in the national team.

Fishlock is not only the team’s most capped player of all time (158 caps at the end of 2024) but also their record goalscorer with 45 goals (2024).

The Cardiff-born midfielder turned 38 in January 2025 and is preparing for her first major international tournament finals appearance – as well as Wales’ first – when she plays at the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 in Switzerland.

Increasingly, Wales have drawn most of their players from English-based clubs, playing in either the Women’s Super League or Women’s Championship.

A few – such as Fishlock and current captain Angharad James – have also been selected whilst playing overseas in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the USA.

A small group, that has included goalkeeper Laura O’Sullivan-Jones, have been based with Welsh clubs.

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It was not until 2010 that the FAW appointed a full-time Wales manager in Jarmo Matikainen and from that point onwards results started to improve.

The Finnish coach helped develop a more professional structure around the national squad and its preparation and training for matches.

 Mataikainen was followed by his successor, Ludlow – a hugely decorated and successful player with Arsenal - who slowly started to improve results and tournament campaigns.

Under Ludlow, Wales moved up into the top 30 of the FIFA world rankings and in 2019 they came close to qualifying for the 2019 World Cup – what would have been their first tournament finals.

A magnificent battling 0-0 draw away to England put Wales in a healthy position to qualify, but a 3-0 home defeat to the old enemy at Newport’s Rodney Parade finally ended the dream.

Another very close qualification campaign followed for Euro 2022, but two draws against Northern Ireland eventually meant Wales missed out on goal difference.

Grainger left the job and was replaced by English coach, Gemma Grainger. Once again, Wales were ably guided to the brink of tournament qualification – this time for the 2023 World Cup – but lost out agonisingly in the play-offs.

Grainger left her role abruptly in January 2024 to become the new manager of Norway and Wales replaced her with Canadian Rhian Wilkinson.

After three near-misses to reach tournament finals, Wales finally made it at Wilkinson’s first attempt when they reached the finals of Euro 2025.

They needed to do it via the play-offs, but showed composure and resilience to overcome Slovakia and then the Republic of Ireland over successive two-leg ties.

Both were won 3-2 on aggregate, with Carrie Jones scoring the vital second-goal in Dublin against the Republic of Ireland that saw Wales go through.

Wales were then drawn in the same group as England, France and the Netherlands for the finals in Switzerland, which is scheduled for July 2025.