Latest news with #JohnCharles
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wales' greatest female footballer Fishlock completes career dream
When it comes to Welsh women's football there is no question that Jess Fishlock is the greatest of all time. Debates would rage over the greatest men's player, it is easy to make the case for John Charles or Gareth Bale, perhaps you preferred Cliff Jones or Ian Rush or maybe you were a Neville Southall enthusiast. Advertisement However, any conversation over Wales' greatest female footballer would be a short one. Fishlock has won it all at club level, lifting league title trophies in six different countries, twice winning the Champions League and she has also starred in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) for Seattle Reign over a prolonged period, winning the NWSL most valuable player award in 2022. Yet despite clocking up more air miles as a player than many pilots, Fishlock has always remained available for her country, having represented Wales 162 times since her debut in, of all places, Switzerland, in 2006. Fishlock has been there for Wales for 19 years, always available, always setting the standards, always trying with all her heart to drag Wales with her onto football's biggest stage. Advertisement Sometimes, getting closer to a dream that you cannot obtain, makes things harder. So it was for Fishlock and for Wales. Three near misses for major finals qualification in succession. It seemed highly possible, probable even, that Fishlock would join the list of the greatest players never to play at a major international tournament, a list already brimming with Welsh players such as Gary Speed, Ryan Giggs, Rush and Southall. However, after a glittering club career, Fishlock, now 38 and one of the greatest female footballers in history, will finally play international football on the biggest stage. The dream is to become a reality for a trailblazer of women's football who has represented Wales with distinction for over two decades, smashing records and raising her teammates, as she has done throughout her trophy-laden club career. Advertisement "You don't play for this long unless it means so much to you," Fishlock told BBC Sport Wales. "I don't think I can put into words how much playing for Wales means to me. "We have had some times when we should have qualified for a major tournament, but we didn't. "A big narrative around my entire career internationally has been 'can I get to a major tournament? Can we get to a major tournament?' We've been so close so many times. "When you want to achieve something and you get to do it with some of your very closest friends, there's really no comparison to that feeling." Born to play for Wales Fishlock's journey to professional football would be a familiar one, if at the time a pathway had existed for a football-mad girl from Cardiff to play the game professionally. Advertisement "She was a very little girl who grew up in Llanrumney just kicking a ball about with her brothers in the garden, that is where it all started," brother James recalls. Her love for football developed further at a soccer camp in Cardiff during the summer holidays. "My older sister wanted to go to the camp and my mum said for me to go along with her," Fishlock recalls. "From that moment that was what I wanted to do." "Jess would be up and she would want to be in the garden, she'd be over here, over there, wouldn't matter if it was a mud pile, Jess would be out in it," Fishlock's mother Sharon remembers. Advertisement When Fishlock wasn't playing football, she was dreaming about it. "Jessica was the one who used to go bed with a football, she was dedicated from an early stage," her father Kevyn said. With her talent increasingly clear, Cardiff City Ladies fast-tracked Fishlock, who joined the club aged seven, making her first team debut at 15. "When she was a 14-year old girl she used to say she wanted to be a professional footballer and I used to mock her, as older sisters do, because there was no such thing as a female professional footballer at that time," sister Kathyrn remembers. Fishlock's Wales career began when she was an amateur, before a move to the Netherlands to play for AZ Alkmaar in 2008, becoming the first overseas player in the Eredivisie. Advertisement Back-to-back titles followed, but it was far from easy for a young woman who had never been away from her family. "She went to AZ Alkmaar and when she wasn't playing she was washing dishes in the stadium," sister Kathryn said. "The things she's had to do to reach where she has got to, you can't even put it into words, how hard she has worked to create and carve out this life that she has." Success everywhere… except with Wales Fishlock has won it all in her career, playing across the world to achieve her ambitions. In 2011 she swapped the Netherlands for Bristol, helping them to an FA Cup final appearance and ending her second season with the club as the Women's Super League's players' player of the season. Advertisement Fishlock then joined Melbourne Victory in Australia, leading the team to two Grand Finals, including the club's first title in 2013, with Fishlock named player of the match in the final. Since joining Seattle in 2013, Fishlock has helped Reign to three NWSL Shield titles, as well as winning honours across the world during loan moves when the NWSL has been out of competition. Fishlock won the Scottish title with Glasgow in 2014, the German league and Champions League with Frankfurt in 2015, before again winning the Australian league in 2016, 2017 and 2018 with Melbourne City. In 2019 Fishlock helped Lyon win both the first division title and the Champions League, meaning she won league titles for seven successive seasons. Advertisement "As a football fan, I think she is the best player I have ever seen play the game," her brother James says. The constant for Fishlock at club level has been her semi-permanent home for over a decade, Seattle, the place where she met her now wife, ex-teammate Tziarra King. Fishlock and King were married in 2023 and LGBTQ+ advocacy has always been a big priority for Fishlock, who says she was bullied at school because of her sexuality. Fishlock was appointed an MBE in 2018 for services to women's football and the LGBT community, while she was honoured with a Fellowship of Aberystwyth University in 2024. Advertisement Only last week, a mural of Fishlock was unveiled on a pitch in Splott. "You are proud. Proud of her for achieving what she's achieved, nobody else has done it. I'm more proud that she's now able to be her true authentic self no matter where she is," sister Francessca says. "You can't really ask for more." However, while Fishlock should be at national treasure status, former Wales captain and Uefa executive committee member Laura McAllister says she has been celebrated less than she deserves. "I've tested this with my friends who are football fans and not all of them know who Jess Fishlock is and that tells you a lot about the invisibility of the women's game for the past two decades," she said. The dream becomes a reality Fishlock's desire to compete at the top with Wales has seemed like less of a fantasy in the past decade with increased spending from the Football Association of Wales leading to steady progress for the international side. Advertisement Twice, under manager Jayne Ludlow, they almost qualified, first for a World Cup and then for a European Championship. The latter disappointment, where Wales missed out to Northern Ireland on away goals scored, despite an identical points tally and a vastly superior goal difference, still hurts. It was a similar story in 2022, Wales beaten in a World Cup play-off final in (again) Switzerland, losing 2-1 to the Swiss in the final seconds of extra time, with a penalty shoot-out looming. At each failure, Fishlock has pondered, often publicly, retiring from international football. "After Switzerland I didn't know what to do. Can I do two more years? Can I deal with anymore heartache? It took a long time to get over that defeat, it was a bit soul-destroying to be honest." Advertisement Yet she continued, never stopped chasing the dream and eventually, it came to fruition. Wales won their Nations League B group and qualified for the Euro 2025 play-offs, drawing Slovakia in the semi-finals. Disaster struck with Fishlock sidelined for a month leading into the match with a calf injury, fit enough only to start as a sub in the away leg. With Wales 2-0 down and facing a crisis, Fishlock entered the fray and created a goal for Ffion Morgan. It was Fishlock - of course - who scored the goal that levelled the tie in Cardiff, playing 120 minutes as Wales eventually triumphed 2-0, with Fishlock creating Ceri Holland's injury time winner. Advertisement Fishlock also provided the assist for Lily Woodham in the first leg of the play-off final as Wales drew 1-1 with Republic of Ireland, before the dramatic second leg in Dublin where a 2-1 Welsh win saw them finally make history and qualify for a major tournament for the first time. After the match Fishlock told the pitchside BBC reporter that it was "the proudest moment," of her career. With the benefit of hindsight, another emotion has been added to the euphoria. A feeling of relief. "There was a big element of, you know, oh my god, finally," Fishlock said. "Finally this has happened. And there was relief which I wasn't expecting. Maybe I just hadn't realised how kind of big it had been weighing on me for all these years until that moment happened. And so there was obviously joy and euphoria but there was also relief for me specifically. Advertisement "I can't believe that we have done it. Finally the greatest female footballer Wales has ever produced will represent her country on the biggest stage. The dream has become reality.
New York Times
02-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Elland Road redevelopment: When will work start? When will it finish? Seats in each stand?
Leeds United's plans to increase the capacity of Elland Road up to 56,500 are beginning to take shape. The newly promoted Championship side, who will be returning to the Premier League in 2025-26, were given the green light by Leeds City Council to add nearly 20,000 seats to Elland Road. The Athletic has seen the planned outline — which will be submitted as a hybrid planning application for Leeds' Elland Road redevelopment — and can reveal that work is set to begin in September. Although the club were given planning permission to increase Elland Road to a capacity of up to 56,500 people, the document clarifies that the maximum capacity will be 53,000. This means, upon completion, that Leeds United will be able to host more supporters than Everton's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock (52,888) and Newcastle United's St James' Park (52,305). KSS, the architects overseeing the Elland Road development, were behind the Main Stand expansion at Anfield, Liverpool's stadium, as well as Leicester City's state-of-the-art training facility. The Athletic has analysed their expansion plans, of which the North Stand is currently at an outline stage, and has broken down what you need to know… On April 23, Leeds City Council approved two key recommendations to ensure the expansion plans can become a reality. The first recommendation they signed off on will see them negotiate the sale of the council-owned land behind Elland Road's Don Revie (North) and John Charles (West) stands. This means Leeds United can now buy the land from the council at a price that is independently valued and one that will reflect the going market price. The second recommendation approved by the council will see them enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU), a non-binding agreement between two or more parties, to collaborate with the Lowy Family Group (LFG), the club's development partner. This agreement between the council and LFG enables them to work together on a regeneration strategy for the council-owned land around Elland Road, which includes the park and ride next to Fullerton Park, Lowfields Road and the car parks on either side of Wesley Street. This is where Leeds United may seek full planning permission for one part of the Elland Road redevelopment, while outlining planning permission for another part of the same site under the same application. The plan is for Leeds to do this, seeking full planning permission for the West Stand and outlining their plans for the North Stand, with a detailed design to be submitted at a later date. They are common when it comes to major developments as it enables work to begin sooner on one phase of the site before the final plans for the other part of the site are known. The plans for the West Stand are set to see it expanded from 8,000 to 17,750, while the North Stand — if they settle on the plans detailed in their outline — is due to be increased from 10,401 to 15,300. The proposed reconstruction of the West Stand will see it extend into Fullerton Car Park and is going to include, as the expansion plans document states, a 'broader range of facilities and experiences for both matchday and non-matchday use'. As part of the plans, phase one will see the construction of new tiers, a new roof and internal spaces before the north-west corner is demolished, with the erection of a new facade at the same time. Advertisement The builders will then demolish and fit out the West and South-West corners, along with the construction of the roof, before works are carried out to the retained lower tier of the West Stand and the North-West corner. The document notes that it 'will be similar in scale to the existing East Stand', which has an existing capacity of 14,900, and it will have three tiers. Advanced site works are set to begin in September, but the West Stand construction is not expected to begin until May 2026 and is due to last until the fourth quarter of 2028. The construction plans for the North Stand are yet to be finalised and are still in an outline stage, which means how they appear in their plans is not what it may look like once the redevelopment has been completed. The hybrid planning application notes that the North Stand forms phase two of the redevelopment plans and is due to run in parallel with the West Stand construction, although it will not be completed until two years after the West Stand. As part of the hybrid plans, which are not final, the North Stand will retain its lower tier, as well as see a new upper tier constructed along with internal spaces. The plans highlight that the full renovation will not be ready until the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2030, which is when the North Stand is due to open. This is, of course, dependent on the eventual final design of the North Stand. A phased approach for both stands is being adopted to ensure Elland Road can continue to operate with minimal disruption and no loss of seating capacity during the redevelopment. As with many stadium redevelopments, you can expect there to be new hospitality areas — and Elland Road is no different. Early renderings suggest they will offer a wider range of food and drink than currently available in Elland Road. The plan is to also create a 'diverse range of spaces and experiences' that will 'encourage early arrivals and extended stays', while also creating the opportunity for the facilities to be used on non-matchdays. Leeds United are exploring the possibility of also making improvements to the South Stand, which could result in an increase in general admission. These plans, however, do not appear in the outline. A consultation process for the South Stand has begun, with the club seeking feedback from supporters. Advertisement The plans also suggests that the redevelopment will ensure Elland Road is 'capable of hosting tournaments for sustained growth', pointing to the potential of international matches for both the men's and women's England teams. Other events include FIFA and UEFA tournaments, international Rugby League fixtures, boxing matches, concerts and festivals. A social and economic section in the document notes that '120 to 205 new permanent jobs' at the club and its foundation will be created as a result of the redevelopment, while it is predicted two million visitors will attend Elland Road every year, up from 1.4million. The overall gross value added estimate predicts between £22million to £29m ($29.3m to $38.6m) as a result of direct economic benefits, indirect tourism benefits and indirect supply chain and induced benefits.
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Leeds United's Elland Road expansion takes step forward as two recommendations get council approval
Plans to increase Elland Road's capacity up to 56,500 seats have taken a step forward for Leeds United after two key recommendations were approved by the council. The first recommendation agreed to negotiate the sale of council-owned land behind the stadium's Don Revie and John Charles stands to the club for the purpose of stadium expansion. United would, in theory, buy the land from the council at an independently valued rate that reflects the wider market. Advertisement The second recommendation agrees to negotiate and enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU), a non-binding agreement between two or more parties that outlines their shared understanding and intentions to collaborate with Lowy Family Group (LFG), United's development partner. This agreement between the council and LFG would see them work together on a regeneration strategy for the council-owned land around Elland Road. These parcels of land include the park and ride adjacent to Fullerton Park, Lowfields Road and the car parks on either side of Wesley Street. The recommendations were approved at a meeting of Leeds City Council's executive board on April 23, moving the process of Elland Road expansion forward. Council documents indicate 'detailed legal agreements for the sale of land will be completed prior to any works starting on council land in the 2025 calendar year and the detailed legal agreement for the MoU with LFG will be completed later in spring 2025.' Elland Road will play host to Premier League football next season after Leeds secured their return to the top flight on Monday following Sheffield United's defeat to Burnley. A promotion parade in Leeds is being planned and public notices have appeared in the city which indicate it will take place on Monday, May 5, two days after the final game of the season against Plymouth Argyle. While the finer details are still being ironed out, the event will take place whether United finish first or second in the Championship. The club hopes, if it does miss out on the title, this parade can still be a celebration of what was lost in 2020's title win. ()
