Without a club, but Wales' Roberts focuses on Euros

BBC News

7 hours ago

Wales defender Rhiannon Roberts says she will put her future to one side this summer as she gets set to head to the Euros without a club.Roberts, 34, has spent the past two seasons with Real Betis having joined the Spanish side in 2023 following a spell at Liverpool.But Roberts has left Betis at the end of her contract, making her one of three unattached players in Rhian Wilkinson's squad for Switzerland.Alice Griffiths is also without a club after finishing her deal at Southampton, while goalkeeper Poppy Soper is looking for her next move after leaving Blackburn.Elsewhere, the returning Sophie Ingle is leaving Chelsea after seven years this summer and Hannah Cain will leave Leicester City at the end of her deal.Roberts says the profile of Wales' first appearance at a women's major tournament will provide "a shop window" for players like her - but insists questions over what comes next at club level are not on her mind."I just want to give it everything and just focus on Euros - I don't want to be focusing on anything else," Roberts said."I just want to go and give it my all. I want to purely focus on being there with my team, for my nation, and just putting my body on the line. I don't want to think about anything else."
Sleepless nights from past Switzerland trip
Roberts won the first of her 79 caps 10 years ago.She says the wait for a first major finals appearance has been too long to let the lack of clarity on her future come into her thinking.Wales' journey to the European Championship has included qualification near-misses, one of which came in Switzerland. Roberts was a goalscorer as Wales led the Swiss in Zurich in a World Cup play-off in 2022, only for the hosts to triumph with seconds remaining in extra-time, denying Gemma Grainger's side in the cruellest of fashions."I've never felt heartbreak like that, to be honest," Roberts said. "I'd rather have lost on penalties. I didn't sleep for two weeks and had to get sleeping tablets by the end."I remember going on the next camp and we did a review and I thought 'oh, I can't see this again'."Happily, Roberts is one of 17 of the 23 players involved in that Switzerland defeat who eventually reached a major tournament under Rhian Wilkinson. "Everything shapes us to be the people we are. Maybe if that had gone differently, we wouldn't be in this moment now either," Roberts added. "It's like everything paved the way for this to be the year. Going back hasn't got anything to do with being there now and giving our best while we're there."
Roberts, a popular member of the Wales squad, hopes the wait to feature in a major tournament will be worth it.She was given news of her inclusion in the squad during a telephone call with head coach Wilkinson."I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I've been in squads for 10 years but you're still just waiting to hear that line of 'I'm taking you to the Euros, you're in the squad'," said.There were further concerns for Roberts when she picked up a groin problem when with Wales for the Nations League games against Denmark and Italy earlier this summer."I just thought 'oh no, not now'," said Roberts, who suffered a grade-two groin tear."But I'm on the plane! It was terrible timing because I've always been so good at looking after myself and I think maybe it was a case of back-to-back seasons for six years catching up with me."But I've been back in the training pitch with the physio and hopefully when we go to Portugal for our camp I'll be with the team doing everything that I can possible to get myself on the pitch."