Helen Ward has no regrets ahead of reaching 100 caps for Wales
Helen Ward of Wales at full time. Wales v Greece in a FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifier at Parc y Scarlets on the 26th November 2021. Credit: Lewis Mitchell
Helen Ward says she has no regrets over her decision not to retire as she closes in on her 100th international cap for Wales.
Cymru’s record goalscorer will join Jess Fishlock, Loren Dykes, Sophie Ingle, Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale and Wayne Hennessey in the 100 club should she take to the field in either of this months’ World Cup qualifiers.
Despite being on the brink of becoming the seventh Welsh centurion the 35-year-old has revealed that she’s considered retirement on more than one occasion before reaching the milestone.
The most notable and public of those came in early January 2021 when Covid forced the third tier to shut down. At the time Ward’s Watford were in the third tier, meaning her career was put on hold.
A temporary move to Championship side London Bees allowed her to continue playing through the pandemic, but doubts about reaching 100 caps began to creep in.
“There’s been loads of times that I’ve thought I wasn’t getting to 100. Covid obviously delayed it even further but I’m just grateful that I managed to stick through it. I’m grateful to the people around me that have helped me during lockdowns.
“Finding time to go out and train to keep myself ticking over wasn’t easy, but I’m glad that I made the decision to keep going and not just chuck the towel in.
“If I was to look back and something like COVID had been the thing that forced me to retire, I’d have been really disappointed and I would have regretted it.”
When doubts about her future begin to emerge, Ward often leans on her teammates. Her international roommate Rhiannon Roberts has had to talk her out of retirement on more than one occasion.
“If you ask Razza about how many times I’ve retired in our room, it’s unbelievable,” Ward laughed. “I kept telling her that I can’t keep going, that I’m too old.
“She would tell me to shut up and get on with it because she needs me. If I retire, she has to retire. Obviously, I can’t do that to the team because she’s a massive part of our squad.
“She kind of puts that guilt on me. She’s the person that I lean on the most and certainly a big reason why I’m still here.”
After the disappointment of missing out on two major tournaments and the departure of Jayne Ludlow, stepping away from international football. With Wales entering the Gemma Grainger Ward believed that the sun may have been setting on her international career.
But conversations with the new boss inspired Ward to keep her international career going.
“Having to change manager after such a long time you wonder if they might come in and look at your date of birth and think ‘wow, okay, we’ll knock that one on the head’.
“But thankfully Gemma wasn’t like that. As soon as she came in I felt like she valued me as a person as much as a player.”
Having represented England at the youth level, she declared for Wales through a connection to her maternal grandfather. The former Arsenal and Chelsea forward made her debut in September 2008 against Luxembourg, scoring the second goal as Wales came from behind to win 6-1.
Thirteen and a half years later Ward still remembers what one of her teammates said to her when the final whistle blew: “We went one-nil down which wasn’t expected and then I managed to get a goal quite soon after.
“That kind of settled me down. After the game, Ludlow came up to me and said, ‘we’ve got a goalscorer, I like you,’ it was a special day.”
Ludlow was right about Ward being a goalscorer. She’s scored 44 times in her 99 caps to date, making her the record goalscorer across both the men’s and women’s national teams.
From netting six goals in Wales’ 15-0 thrashing of Kazakhstan in 2010 to bagging the winner against Belarus on her 50th cap in the first game at the Cardiff City Stadium, Ward has a long list of fond memories in a Welsh shirt.
“I honestly can say hand on heart, I’ve enjoyed pretty much every one of those 99 caps.
“A more recent memory that sticks out is the Russia game at Newport’s Spytty Park when we came out in the second half and won 3-0. It was a really good team performance and I think that propelled us into the frame of mind that we can compete with the first and second seeds.
During her career, Ward has seen the women’s game transform into the professional set-up that it is today. But, despite now being at the tail end of her career she harbours no jealousy towards the young crop of players who’ve entered a more lucrative game.
“I often get asked if I wish I was born 10 or 15 years later, to be part of this professional game. But, I think I’ve been really fortunate in the way that my career’s gone. I’m very grateful for every step that I’ve been able to see.
“It’s fantastic that there are 17 and 18-year-olds who can go into football and earn themselves a professional contract right off the bat. But for me, I think having to play in the conditions and with the circumstances I did helped me grow as a player.
“Perhaps without that, I wouldn’t have had the same career as I have.”
The achievement of reaching three figures in international appearances is even more impressive when you consider that Ward combines football with motherhood.
The mother-of-two admits that balancing both roles can be testing at times, but being able to share her career highlights with her family makes it all worth it.
“I always have to make sure that the kids are looked after first and foremost. It’s not only finding the time for myself to go out and train and have to find someone else’s time to be able to talk to the kids as well.
“It’s really nice having them at games, I think the older they’ve got, the more I’ve appreciated having them around. There was a video of a goal of scored at the weekend and in the corner of the picture, I could see my little boy jumping up and cheering.
“I’ve watched it over and over just to see his reaction more so than the goal itself. Those moments are amazing.”
Despite the possibility of making history, Ward is adamant that she’s focusing on helping Wales get the results they need this month.
Six games into the qualification campaign Wales sit in second place, five points behind Friday’s opponents France.
“It’s been lingering, I’ve been in the 90s for what feels like forever. I suppose the closer it’s got the more it comes into your mind as a player.
“But we’re in the middle of such an important campaign and that’s always been the priority. When you’re coming up against the likes of France, you don’t tend to think about what game is in your career. I’ve tried not to focus too much on it.”
