Cardiff City forward Phoebie Poole delighted to be part of Wales squad

Cardiff City’s Phoebie Poole has expressed her delight at being part of Wales’ senior development squad this week.

Poole along with Reading’s Bethan Roberts, Brighton’s Josie Longhurst, the University of Colorado’s Ellen Jones, and Arsenal’s Beth McGowan are some of the under-19 players called up to the development squad by manager Gemma Grainger.

Poole is the only representative in the squad who currently plays in the Adran Premier, but she couldn’t hide her excitement and joy at being part of the squad.

‘I couldn’t describe my feelings to you to be honest. I’m honoured and it’s a proud moment for me and my family’

‘It’s an honour to be part of this development camp. Learning loads of different things in a short period of time and I’m really excited’

‘Even just to be around top, top players is amazing, top manager, it’s really good.’

The Cardiff youngster was also very quick to acknowledge the Bluebirds and the success of the Adran Premier in helping her to get where she is now.

‘Shout out to Cardiff City. Their platform, it just shows that any player from the Adran leagues can make it’

‘Cardiff is getting bigger and better; it’s going from strength to strength. This is going to be a very good improvement to the league and Cardiff City, and I’m just really excited for the league to start’

The Bluebirds ended the season by winning the Welsh Cup, and their togetherness as a group is something to admire, and once again they’ve rallied around Poole to congratulate her on her call-up.

‘They’re all really chuffed for me, they’re all proud. I’ve had messages from all the girls and Iain’s messaged me, and they’re really all happy for me’

‘I’m going to take whatever I can from this camp back to Cardiff City and hopefully give the girls from Cardiff City something to learn’

Poole has had a lot of goalscoring success for club and country this past season, which undoubtedly help get her selected for this developmental camp.

When asked if she could lead the line for the senior squad, she was keen to acknowledge the wealth of talent within the squad already.

‘I’ve got good competition! You’ve got your likes of Elise and Greeny. They’re both amazing players and on this development camp I’m learning from Elise and she’s just amazing’

‘She’s already giving me feedback as I ask’

‘It’s my job, I score goals, but I can only do that with amazing players which I do at all levels’

Wales under-19 coaches, Nicola Anderson and Nia Davies, are also a part of the development camp, and Poole thinks this not only is good for them, but good for the system as a whole.

‘For them it’s amazing, they get to learn from Gemma Grainger and hopefully take it into our camps’

‘Then the under-19 camps will be more like the senior camps and that would be good for us as players, because as we go up, there won’t be much change for us, and it will be really comfortable’

Wales will play New Zealand in an international friendly in Pinatar (Spain) on the 28th of June, with kick off at 18:00.