Legendary footballer Rose Reilly has told how she faced criticism from her teammates when she was forced to leave Scotland for Italy to play football professionally.
Rose was named the best female footballer in the world in 1984 when she won the then equivalent of the Women’s World Cup with Italy. It had been due to a lack of opportunities to play football at the top level in Scotland, that Rose left home at 17 for Europe to play.
Rose had been such a huge hit in Italy’s Serie A, the country’s president asked her to play for the Italian national team. The 67-year-old, who played in the first official international match against England in 1972, admitted she faced criticism from her Italian teammates over concerns she had taken the place of an Italian player.
Rose, of Stewarton, Ayrshire, said she had to rally the team and told the players “I want to help you win”.
She said: “I remember that at my first call there was a bit of tension in the air. I was a foreigner and I was probably pointed out as someone who wanted to take the place from an Italian.
“I had a lot of respect for my teammates and so I called them all around me and told them, ‘I’m proud to be here and I want to help you win without wanting to take the place of anyone.’
“Then the tension dissolved, they patted me on the back and started laughing while Paola Bonato started singing Italiano by Toto Cutugno which was a song that was out at the time and means you’re a true Italian.”
Rose, who is married to Argentinian husband Norberto Peralta and has a daughter Valentina added: “It wasn’t plain saying at first. I arrived at the hotel where the team was already there and I could feel the atmosphere.
“That’s when I decided I needed to say something. It wasn’t easy to stand up there myself but I did and told them I can better them and they can better me.
“They were all lovely and supportive and it worked out well in the end.”
Rose made the claims in a new book, Azzurre - Storia della Nazionale di calcio femminile, which traces over fifty years of feats accomplished by the Italian national women’s football team, which was released in June this year.
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