From working in a prison to playing at Euro 2025

BBC News

03-07-2025

From working in a prison to playing in Switzerland.There will not be many players at Euro 2025 with a journey to the tournament quite like that of Wales' Rachel Rowe.Lucerne, where Wales's women will make their major championship bow against the Netherlands on Saturday, is a long way from HMP Swansea, where Rowe used to earn a living.During the early, aspirational days of her playing career, Rowe combined football with a role in operational support within the walls of the 160-year-old Victorian prison which sits on Swansea Bay."I had multiple jobs," says Rowe, who was still semi-pro when she won the first of her 76 caps in 2015. "I came out of college and had to work. I worked in B&M, then went to the prison service. "There are different generations in our group who have had different experiences. There are those who go to college and become full-time footballers from that."My journey was completely different, but it's moulded me into the person I am today."Rowe will have a big role to play in Switzerland, having been a key part of Wales' side during their growth over the last decade.But even after she left the prison cells behind, the path to the pinnacle that is a major tournament with her country was hardly straight and narrow.
Rowe was an apprentice in business administration with the Welsh government when she had the chance to go semi-pro with Reading.Three times a week, Rowe used to make the 300-mile round trip from Swansea to Berkshire on the back of a full day's work. She would eventually get home after midnight, and has previously described how she would wake up on top of her bed in her kit ready to do it all again."I did it for a year and I was exhausted," she says. "Fortunately, we won the league which meant we went up to the WSL."The offer of a professional contract was life-changing, even if the salary involved was nothing like those paid to male top-flight players. Before the full-time deal came, Rowe had considered giving up on her footballing ambitions."It's been 10 years since [turning fully professional] which really seems strange," she adds. "It's been a decade and now this happens and we're at the Euros."
'Don't get too teary'
Rowe spent eight years at Reading, before a spell with Rangers preceded a move to Southampton in 2024.Along the way she has won silverware in Glasgow, had new experiences at Saints and dealt with serious injury.But the one constant has been her influence with Wales.After being named in Rhian Wilkinson's European Championship squad, the bubbly Rowe posted a social media video of her in a series of Wales shirts. It emphasised her status as a Wales mainstay who, along with the likes of Jess Fishlock, Sophie Ingle and Angharad James, has gone from fighting for recognition to front and centre of the nation's sporting summer.Little wonder, then, that it is now emotions that the former prison worker wants to keep locked down."When we arrived here and saw the bus with all the Euros logos on it, it hit home," she says. "It was a case of gulp it down and don't get too teary because it really did feel real."There will surely be a similar feeling on Saturday, when Wilkinson's players line up for the anthems before facing the Dutch.Rowe concedes it might be difficult to keep eyes dry."I think every game is going to be like that because it's such a precious moment for us all to be part of," she says."But that doesn't mean we're not going to be composed. "It hasn't been easy getting to this position. You stand on the shoulders of many people who put in a lot of effort for two or three decades to get us to this position – and we bring them with us."We're building towards Saturday, keeping this nerves at bay. We'd be doing ourselves an injustice if we come here, feel all of the pressure and not enjoy being here."That may be especially true for someone whose journey to this point has been more unusual than most, given that she has gone from Swansea prison to Swiss pinnacle."I've got some amazing memories throughout that time to get here and I don't think it would feel quite as special if I had not have gone through all of that," Rowe says.