There is barely a more credible witness to evolution and revolution within Scottish women’s football than Leanne Ross, the Glasgow City player who created history last month when she scored her 250th goal for the club. The 37-year-old modestly describes her journey from itinerant teenager to the forefront of the Scottish club scene [as well as an appearance at the European Championships], as something of a fluke. Ross emerged from an era in which chances for emerging players ranged between little-known and nonexistent.
“I still think there is vast room for improvement, in terms of investment,” she says. “But the opportunities available for girls now? Night and day compared to when I was growing up.”
At 16, Ross did not play in a formal league. School success triggered a happy coincidence, assisted of course by her talent. “The coach at Falkirk Girls came to see his daughter play in a school game. He couldn’t believe it when I said I didn’t play for a team. I played there for a year and scored 50 goals. It all kind of happened by accident. I had never chased football or had ambitions of playing for certain teams.
“I didn’t know anything about women’s football when I was growing up. It was just a hobby at that point, a chance to be out with my pals at the weekend kicking a ball about.”
Glasgow City, after several failed attempts, coaxed Ross from struggling Newburgh Ladies in 2007. Anna Signeul, at that point recently installed as the Scotland manager, was on a mission to raise the bar. The club became the dominant force in the Scottish women’s game and European regulars.
“Anna came in, had a vision for women’s football and was kind of ruthless in terms of what she expected from people,” Ross recalls. “If you didn’t meet those expectations, you weren’t part of it. She revolutionised the amount we trained and increased coach education. She should get a lot of credit but clubs like Glasgow City picked it up, believed in it and invested in it. The players started believing as well, we could see the chance to go and achieve things.
“At that time we trained two nights a week if we were lucky. Some players could only make one session. So you felt as though that was a big commitment at that point. We started being more successful, Eddie Wolecki Black came into Glasgow City and Anna was demanding more from the national team players.”
One of many remarkable aspects to Ross’s story is her versatility; she has played in every outfield position for club or country. Her stunning goals haul arrived despite playing for just a single season as a striker.
“I didn’t even know I was nearing that mark, to be honest,” Ross admits. “It was the club’s social media stuff on the morning of the game – ‘Can she get the 250th?’ – that told me.
“The only record I have known is that Suzanne Lappin was the club’s record scorer with 232, so there was a lot made of that when I got close, the pair of us had a bit of banter about it as well. But there hasn’t really been anything this time around.”
No trophy, no memento. Not that Ross seems remotely perturbed. “I’ve never had personal targets in terms of goals for the season or anything like that,” she explains. “If I can contribute to the team doing well, I’m happy.”
Ross is brilliantly candid regarding current challenges. She may yet sample them in another role, having recently completed her Uefa B Licence coaching studies. “I think women’s games can come and go and people wouldn’t know about them,” she says. And the solution? “I’m a great believer that if people have role models, people they can aspire to be, then they are likely to try and follow in their path. So for me, it’s about promoting those playing now to a high level. You can show young girls that the opportunity is there.”
Scotland’s key domestic issue is straightforward: a major talent drain to major clubs in England and abroad has an impact on the league. Ross says “it helps those individuals in terms of playing at a higher standard” but the knock-on effect at home is obvious.
“We need to keep looking at our league and how we can make that better,” Ross says. “Glasgow City have had the best players in Scotland, we have done well in the Champions League, so of course people have put themselves in the shop window. Why would they not move on if given the opportunity to be a professional elsewhere? We have had to restructure ourselves every year, bring in new players and improve them to get back to the standards we were at.”
One simple fix relates to simply paying wages to female players in Scotland, which has never been customary. “We have had to work all the time as well as play,” Ross says. “That is a difficult choice, it has never been easy to balance a job and football to the standard we have been trying to play at. The girls now deserve to be paid if they are going to be training as hard as a guy is training. Until that situation changes in Scotland, we are going to struggle to keep our players here.”
Ross has been there for the long haul. Scottish football should appreciate her more than has already been the case.
