Rose Reilly
During the 1960's and 1970's it was unheard of for a woman
to be a successful football player in Scotland, and despite getting
interested from scouts for footballing giants Celtic, the rules
concerning females becoming professional footballers seemed to
block her from ever progressing.
She represented Scotland in the Commonwealth games
Pentathlon but decided to follow her footballing dream, and move to
Europe where women's football was much more developed. After a
short spell at Reims in France she moved to A.C. Milan in Italy
where she helped win eight Seria A titles, four Italian cups, and
once scored 45 goals in a season with her team Alaska Lecce in
1981. She also represented Scotland at international
level.
Perhaps her greatest achievement was when she began to play
for Italy, captaining the side 13 times, and in 1983 she scored the
winning goal in the Women's World Cup final which gave Italy the
title over the United States of America.
