Stephen (@StephenJBaker) looks at another great Cymru star from the Rhondda, Gemma Evans, as she reaches 50 caps for Cymru.. And also how to better celebrate milestones in the womens game.
Last Saturday, 18th February 2023, Gemma Evans earned her 50th cap in a 0-0 draw vs Iceland in the Pinatar Cup in Portugal. At the age of 26 she is easily on course to reach 100+ caps. An amazing achievement by the Centre Back from Gelli in the Rhondda .How many great Cymru players were born in the Rhondda?
Embed from Getty ImagesEvans earned her first cap in a 2-0 defeat to Norway in the Euro 2017 qualifiers back in June 2016. I will come back to the other 49 caps.
With this current squad being so fan friendly and relatable to the young girls and boys out there, they are showing like never before that you can be playing for Cymru’s Women’s team in front of big crowds and live on TV. In the recent past neither of those happened and it’s all because of players like Gemma.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat a player Gemma is and maybe the best is yet to come being only 26. It’s because of players like her we can take on the top teams in the world without any fear. Children now look up to players like Gemma and see a path from playing for their age group team (here in the Valleys!) all the way to the national team.
Embed from Getty ImagesGemma played for Ton & Gelli aged 10, and now 16 years later she’s playing for Cymru for the 50th time. In between she played for Ferndale Fillies (aka Cambrian/Valleys United) when she was 13, then moved on to Port Talbot Town Ladies. In 2015 she joined Cardiff City where she earned her first cap for Cymru. After two season in Cardiff she then played for Yeovil Town (2017), Bristol City (2018-21) and is now playing for Reading in the Women’s Super League. There is a career for any young player to look up to.
Embed from Getty ImagesThere is still a long way to go but it’s the perfect time to start to really push the women’s game in Cymru. Here is one way we could start and it’s recognising the past players. Like I said in the first paragraph, I want to return to Evans’ other 49 caps.
Normally when writing an article I do a google search on the player that I’m going to mention and gather has much information as I can. Where and when they got their first cap, first goal and the teams they played against etc. If I’m writing about one of our male players this information is easy to find, it might take a while to collate but everything I could possible need is there at my finger tips.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen gathering the information for this article it was a different story. I was able to find out about Gemma’s first cap on a BBC report on her 50th cap. But looking for information on the games she played up until the more recent matches was impossible. I could not find anything; if there is a website with this information please let me know. We are missing a major opportunity to celebrate some of our greatest ever players and this record breaking team who are reaching highs we could never have imagined.
Embed from Getty ImagesYoung people love learning the stats of all the players. Every Monday morning the children in my class recite all the facts and figures from the weekend matches in the Premier League/Championship, then add in their own matches.
We need this information out there for the future Gemma Evans’ to read about, we need to celebrate the achievements of our national heroes. Now the teams have equal pay, let’s give the past and present Women players the credit that the men’s team have deservingly received. We should make the past and present players household names in Cymru.