As one of the most capped England players of all time, Rachel Yankey OBE is a household name. Since she first put on her country’s shirt in 1997, Yankey has played a vital role in helping to establish and grow the women’s game in England.
Speaking exclusively to UCFB, she said: “I knew that I had responsibility. Playing for England, we all understood we had a part to play. We had to make sure that when we talked about football and moved on from football that we had to educate people on women’s football and get people to buy into it.”
From shaving her hair off and playing for a boys’ team as an eight-year-old, to winning the FA Women’s National Premier League and UEFA Women’s Cup in her senior career, the Arsenal legend experienced first-hand the changing attitudes towards women’s football.
But only when the FA Women’s Super League (WSL) burst onto the scene in 2011 as a semi-professional league, something Yankey feared would never happen, did women’s football in England start to gain global status and attract world-class players.
Yankey explained: “The WSL is thriving. Thankfully, there is a league now which has people backing it and has good sponsorship. Because of the investment that the league’s got, because of the professionalism, it’s attracting the best players in the world. You’re getting world champions and Olympic champions coming over to England and playing.”
While this has sparked temptations to compare the WSL – which turned fully professional in 2018 – to the prestigious Premier League, Yankey believes these comparisons only detract from and are damaging to the women’s game. Instead, it should be recognised and appreciated separately from men’s football as its own sporting entity.
Rachel Yankey appreciation tweet.
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 24, 2020
The streets will never forget 🐐 pic.twitter.com/hpswJOH7E5
She said: “Don’t compare it to the men’s [game]. Because once you hear people saying ‘it’s not as quick as men’s football’, that’s kind of an obvious. If we look at the fastest sprinter in the world, male or female, the guy’s going to be quicker because of the way our bodies are made. It’s just trying to speak to people and bring across that message.”
Yankey added: “Yes, it’s football. It will be played and looked at in a different way, but that’s ok.”
In fact, there are ways in which Yankey wants the WSL to continue to differ from professional men’s football. There are, she says, certain advantages to having less media attention and celebrity status within the game, which can benefit young girls interested in football.
She explained: “The beautiful thing about women’s football is you can go to the stadium and you can actually meet these players. You look at your Premier League footballers and they’re not touchable. You rarely get to actually meet them and talk to them and have a photo with them.”
Yankey added: “Women’s football is like that. [These are] some of the best players in the world and you can actually go and watch them. You can go there and meet these people and interview them, you can get a real deep insight. That’s one of the beauties of the women’s game which we don’t want to lose.”
