As colourful characters go, Owain Fôn Williams takes some beating. This is a man who sat on the substitutes’ bench for six years before making his Wales debut, strums the guitar for everyone to sing along to at the team hotel, and plans to open an art exhibition with his own oil paintings when he returns from the European Championship finals in France.
Humble and talented, it is easy to see why the Inverness Caledonian Thistle goalkeeper is such a popular figure in the Wales squad. Gareth Bale has warmed to his renditions of Johnny Cash songs – there was a lovely scene in Haifa after victory over Israel during qualifying – and Wayne Hennessey, the Wales No1, has commissioned a piece of art that strays slightly away from the slate-mining theme of Williams’ current work.
“Every time I see Wayne, he says to me: ‘You’ve promised me a painting. Any chance of you doing it?’ Williams says, laughing. “He’s asked me for a painting of the goalies’ union, as he describes it. When Wayne last asked me, the other day, I said I’ll paint him, but it will have to be like what Leonardo DiCaprio did of Kate Winslet on the Titanic – what a sight that would be!”
A gifted artist at school, Williams gave the hobby up when he put all his focus into football after joining Crewe Alexandra as a scholar at the age of 16 but he decided to return to the canvas a couple of years ago, as a way of relaxing away from football, and has since sold several pieces for £500 each in a gallery in Cardiff.
“But I don’t do it for the money,” Williams says. “I’m not throwing these paintings out, selling them for the sake of selling them. I’m doing them because it means something to me. With a lot of artists it’s like a conveyer belt, they just paint and paint. It doesn’t happen like that with me. I literally do it for enjoyment and what I get out of it, which is making sure the Welsh history is still there.”
The paintings in the exhibition that will soon go on show in the village of Penygroes, where Williams was brought up, have a deep resonance for him. “I’m doing a collection of quarrymen at the minute because my grandad used to cut the slates in north Wales,” he says. “It’s important for Welsh history that we still remember the work these guys did because it was a massive industry in that part of Wales, just like the coal-mining down south.
“Obviously the slate quarrying isn’t going any more. But the work these men did hundreds of years ago is still there, because wherever you turn back home you see the slate on every roof of every house – that’s Welsh history. And that’s what I’m doing with my painting, recording Welsh history.
“A lot of galleries wanted my work but I’ve decided to [exhibit] it in a small framing shop, called Llun Mewn Ffrâm, in Penygroes, because I just felt the work belonged to the area. Around the village is where the slate quarrying was at its highest. My grandad was working on the rock, so for me it’s about more than just painting, it comes from the heart and it really means a lot for the family.”
Whether Williams gets round to painting that “goalies’ union” portrait or not, he is sure to be playing the guitar at some point in France. At the Crowne Plaza in Haifa in March last year, the third-choice keeper in Chris Coleman’s squad took centre stage as a small group of fans mingled with the staff and players in the hotel bar in the wake of the 3-0 win over Israel. Williams played a couple of Johnny Cash songs, Ring of Fire and Folsom Prison Blues, as well as Elton John’s Your Song, with Bale capturing everything on his phone.
“There is a bond here, there’s something quite special, and when results go our way you do get that togetherness,” he says. “No one escapes, no one goes to their room, no one goes and does their own thing, we all stay together. You saw what it was like in Haifa, that’s what we’re like, get the guitar out and have a few songs. It’s a bit like a brotherhood relationship here in a way, it’s kind of like a big family where you can rely and depend on one another.”
Williams is not alone in playing the guitar that Dai Griffiths, the kitman, bought for the team to help lighten the mood when the players get chance to enjoy some downtime. “Ginge [James Collins] is learning it, Hal [Robson-Kanu] can play a couple of songs, Joe Allen was learning, and the gaffer is not bad either,” he says, smiling. “So the guitar comes out every now and again, it’s nice for everyone to gather round and have a little sing-song.”
Eight months after the win in Israel came the moment that Williams had been waiting for ever since he was first called up in 2009. With 16 minutes remaining against Holland, Coleman brought on the former Stockport, Rochdale and Tranmere goalkeeper to a fantastic ovation from the Wales supporters. After 29 games on the bench, his dream had come true.
“It was unbelievable to be on the pitch, and the reaction I got … I can’t actually put into words what that meant,” Williams says. “You’d do anything for your country. You’d go through brick walls, walk around the earth, whether it was football or anything else. So to put that shirt on and be on the pitch was so special.
“If I wasn’t here as a player I’d be out there as a fan supporting the team, 100%. I used to do that when I was in school. I was brought up in west Wales, in a little area called Dyffryn Nantlle. I used to leave school early, go on the bus or in the car with my Dad and hammer it down the road to Cardiff to support Wales. So I know exactly what the fans are going through and I know they’ll make the most of it out in France. And so they should do because we as a nation have waited so long for this.”
For more information on Owain Fon Williams’ paintings, please visit: owainfonwilliams.com
