Jess Fishlock: Wales bids farewell to a true trailblazer
Cymru's record goalscorer brings down the curtain on her international career this month – and what a career it has been
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
When William Shakespeare wrote these words, he assumed everyone fell into one of these categories. It’s rare that an individual is born great, achieves greatness and has it thrust upon them, but Jess Fishlock has without a doubt achieved all three stages of greatness for Wales.
This week saw Wales’ all-time appearance maker and record goalscorer announce her international retirement. Cymru’s friendly against Australia at Cardiff City Stadium will be the last time the world gets to see Fishlock don the red of her country.
To try and summarise her international career in a few paragraphs would be doing Fishlock the ultimate disservice. The Seattle Reign icon has dedicated almost 20 years to her nation. Often, she comes from halfway across the globe to run out onto the pitch for her country, whether in a friendly, a qualifier or – finally this summer – at a major tournament.
Fishlock made her Wales debut in 2006 against Switzerland, meaning she entered the world of international women’s football at a time when conditions and perceptions were very different to what they are now. Back then, the Welsh team’s training gear and shirts were all hand-me-downs from the men’s team. They played in tiny stadiums that have now become second-tier grounds in the Welsh domestic league.
The Football Association of Wales in the mid-2000s still felt amateurish in its approach to the women’s game. It was only three years before Fishlock’s debut that the FAW pulled the women’s team out of Euro 2005 qualifiers because they deemed it “too expensive” to travel to play Belarus, Kazakhstan, Estonia and Israel. Part-time managers came and went, but in 2012 Arsenal’s Champions League-winning captain Jayne Ludlow took over.
Midfield linchpin
By that time, Fishlock was already establishing herself as Wales’ linchpin and had just dragged her nation to their best qualification campaign yet, in 2014. Now, under Ludlow, Fishlock and her team were looking competitive. The famous 0-0 draw with England in Southampton was a sign that the team was growing, as were two narrow defeats to Norway. But, once again, Wales were the bridesmaids and not the bride, as Fishlock and her compatriots missed out on another major tournament.
Ludlow departed after too many near-misses, and in her place came Gemma Grainger. Grainger-ball was something Wales had never seen before, and under her tenure Fishlock began to become a generator of special moments: scoring a crucial equaliser to draw with Denmark, bagging the winning goal in a World Cup playoff semi-final against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and playing some of the best all-round football of her career. Wales, for the first time, were playing an attacking, possession-based game, and Fishlock was thriving.
Once again, though, it was a case of so close but yet so far. An extra-time defeat to Switzerland in the playoff final was heartbreaking. Plenty of players thought about their international futures, including Fishlock, but eventually she came back to take on a new challenge under Rhian Wilkinson, and boy what a decision that proved to be.
Under the Canadian, Fishlock continued to dazzle. Against Kosovo she broke Helen Ward’s record to become Wales’ all-time leading goalscorer, ahead of the likes of Gareth Bale and Ian Rush. In qualification, she scored against every opponent. In a tough semi-final against Slovakia, she assisted away from home and scored in the home leg. Then in the final against Ireland, our midfield maestro assisted Lily Woodham in Cardiff. Fishlock would hobble off in Dublin, but when the final whistle went, she could finally celebrate. The only thing missing from her remarkable CV was a major tournament appearance with Wales, and now she had done it.
Historic moment in Switzerland
Expectations for Wales in Switzerland were low, and we saw why across all three group-stage games. What fans really wanted to see, more than anything, was a goal. Our first goal in a major competition. We had waited so long, and in reality there was only going to be one person who would score it. Against France, Fishlock was at her best – right place at the right time, making sure she finished the job. She became the oldest player to score at a European Championships – a fitting way to elevate a captivating and inspirational international career.
Over the last three years, there have been a lot of newer fans to women’s football, and plenty might not be aware of Fishlock’s exploits, mainly because most of her career has taken place abroad. The only stints she’s had in the UK were at the start of her career with Cardiff City Ladies (now Gwalia United), Bristol Academy, and a one-season loan spell with Reading at the start of this decade.
Fishlock did reach an FA Cup final with Bristol, but – make no mistake – the record-breaker is a serial trophy winner: two Eredivisie titles with AZ Alkmaar, an A-League with Melbourne Victory, a Champions League winner at both FFC Frankfurt and Lyon, a three-time NWSL Shield winner with Seattle Reign, an NWSL MVP, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, an A-League trophy as a player-manager with Melbourne City. Her haul is simply staggering.
But it’s her Wales chapter that ends next weekend. On the pitch, Fishlock has provided so many memories, while off it she has been a champion for so many in this country. She has been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and was awarded an MBE in 2018 for her services to football and the LGBTQ+ community. Ahead of the 2022 men’s World Cup, Fishlock did not shy away from voicing concerns over Qatar’s record on gay rights. The midfielder knows the platform she has, and she hasn’t been afraid to use it to speak up on behalf of others.
For so long, Jess Fishlock has been women’s football in Wales and women’s football in Wales has been Jess Fishlock. The two have been intertwined for decades, and they will continue to be. Her legacy will live on in the Cardiff suburb where she grew up, as a striking mural of her has been painted on a football pitch, and there’s no doubt she will continue to be one of the greatest sporting ambassadors this nation has ever had long after she retires.
When she hangs the Wales shirt up for the final time, Fishlock can look back and say she’s really done it all. She’s seen the women’s game in this country develop from an amateur sport to a significantly more professional one, she has helped guide Wales to new heights, and she leaves the shirt in a far better place than where she found it.
Now, Wales as a nation has one final opportunity to pay its respects to a true trailblazer on and off the pitch, and a player who means so much to so many far beyond the hallowed turf. One big “DIOLCH” will never be enough to express our gratitude for what Jess Fishlock has done for Cymru.
Jessica Anne Fishlock MBE. Record-breaker. History-maker. Simply, the greatest ever to wear a Welsh shirt.
 | A guest post by
|