Welsh soccer player Gareth Bale, left, fights for control of the ball against Belgium's Axel Witsel at a June game in Cardiff. Bale will be one of the stars of the Welsh team at the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar.John Sibley/Action Images via Reuters
This article is also available in Welsh: Am fersiwn Gymraeg o’r stori hon, parhewch i ddarllen yma.
The previous time Wales qualified for the World Cup, the country was still ruled from London, Canada’s flag featured the Union Jack and Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House. Not only had Gareth Bale – the superstar winger who has helped drive Wales to recent glory – not been born, but neither had his mother.
For six decades, Wales fans endured hopelessness and heartbreak, occasionally coming close to entering a major tournament, but never quite making it. Then came 2015, when a stratospheric rise through the rankings took Wales to ninth in the world from 117th, and culminated in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship.
Four years later, Wales won entry to Euro 2020, and then, this past June 5, to the deafening sounds of a packed Cardiff crowd, Rob Page’s side qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1958.
“I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that this is the golden generation of Welsh football,” said Tom Coleman, a sportswriter for Wales Online. “It’s never been this good.”
A child waves a Welsh flag at Cardiff Castle before a visit by King Charles III.Molly Darlington/Reuters
Beyond the sheer joy, this soccer fortuity comes at a time when Wales is having something of a cultural moment. First there was Season 3 of Netflix’s The Crown, which featured several episodes set in Wales, including sections wholly in the Welsh language. Now there’s Welcome to Wrexham, the FX docuseries about the North Wales soccer club of the same name, which was bought during the pandemic by actors Rob McElhenny and Ryan Reynolds.
“They’ve both been trying to really elevate the language and just really reinforce the fact that, you know, Wales is not England, it’s a separate country, it’s a separate culture and there’s a separate language,” said Maxine Hughes, a Washington D.C.-based journalist who works as an interpreter and producer on the show.
This may seem like stating the obvious, but for nearly a century, the Welsh language was actively suppressed by the British government, and Welsh identity marginalized. This began to shift in the 1980s – after decades of organizing – and in 1997, Wales voted narrowly for a devolved parliament, the Senedd.
In the past 20 years, the number of Welsh speakers has risen from around 500,000 to close to a million today, a remarkable turnaround for a language once seen as headed toward extinction.
The Wales soccer team has embraced the growing importance of the Welsh language, tying themselves in the process to Welsh identity in a way the country’s rugby team – objectively far more successful, for far longer – never has.
Fans react at a rugby match between Wales and Argentina in Cardiff on Nov. 12. The Welsh football team has outpaced the national rugby sides in their use of the Welsh language.Rebecca Naden/Reuters
Hughes said a great deal of credit should go to Noel Mooney, head of the Welsh Football Association since 2021. “Noel is from Ireland and he speaks Irish, so he came into the job with a different type of view, with an appreciation for the language, the culture, the nationalism, in a way that Wales hadn’t seen before,” she said.
Under Mooney, Wales has switched to the Welsh name Cymru on its uniforms and adopted Yma O Hyd as the official song of the World Cup campaign. A nationalist anthem by legendary folk singer Dafydd Iwan, the song celebrates that “in spite of everyone and everything, we’re still here.”
As the lyrics of Iwan’s song suggest, Welsh identity has often embraced the country’s underdog status, but there’s nothing like winning to drive popular sentiment. And Team Cymru has brought victory in spades.
In August, 2011, Wales was ranked 117th in the world, behind Grenada, a country of just 125,000 people. It was a humiliation for Gary Speed, the former Welsh international who had taken over as coach a few months earlier, even though most of the losses occurred under his predecessors.
The ranking was also not a fair reflection of the changes Speed was bringing in, such as promoting Aaron Ramsey, then just 20, to captain. By December that year, Wales had climbed to 48th and earned a Best Mover award from FIFA. But Speed would not share in the glory: he was found dead in his home on Nov. 27, 2011. The cause of death has not been fully confirmed.
“Players from Gary Speed’s era and his influence on the team in terms of where we are now have been incredible,” said Paul Corkery, head of Football Supporters’ Association Cymru.
Joe Allen of Wales battles for the ball with Hungary's Adam Nagy during a 2020 match in Budapest.Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP
Success did not come immediately, but whereas Wales previously had one or two generational talents – Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush, Speed himself – it suddenly had a squad full of stars. Alongside Ramsey were Premier League soccer stars Joe Allen and Ben Davies, and Bale, widely considered one of the best wingers in the world.
Many players were first identified by Brian Flynn, a former manager of the Wales Under-21s, who Coleman credited with “really casting the net a lot wider in terms of talent,” finding players across Britain and even further afield who were eligible to represent Wales.
By September, 2015, after a flurry of victories, Wales had risen to its highest ranking in history, ninth in the world. As if this wasn’t sweet enough, archrival England came in at No. 10.
Success engenders success, and the confidence running through the squad could be palpable, with players showing a real pride in playing for Wales, rather than a sense of resigned duty some felt Giggs and others of his generation had. Bale even earned the ire of Real Madrid fans for seeming to prefer his international responsibilities over those for the La Liga side.
“Playing for Wales is seen as a pinnacle for a lot of these players, and it shows on the pitch,” Coleman said.
At Euro 2016, Team Cymru reached the semi-finals, losing 2-0 to Portugal but setting a high bar for Welsh soccer. This was followed by qualifying for Euro 2020 and then the 2022 World Cup, feats unthinkable only a few years earlier. “We didn’t get into a tournament for donkey’s years,” Corkery said. “Going to watch Wales used to be a bit of a joke, we’d lose 6-0 to Slovakia and laugh it off. Now we’re expecting to win.”
Banners of Gareth Bale loom over Doha on Nov. 13, a week before the World Cup begins.PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Just how far Wales will get in Qatar remains to be seen, and Coleman warned the country is likely facing a “lean period on the other side of the World Cup,” as players such as Bale and Ramsey retire from international duties.
But Welsh soccer is considerably richer than it was before – qualifying for the World Cup alone brought with it a bonus of $6.2-million to finance the grassroots game – and reforms to training and scouting that successive managers since Speed have brought in are already paying off.
“The Welsh set-up in general is a lot more professional than it was in the 1990s,” Coleman said. “There are some promising youngsters coming through, they might need some time to bed in, but if you’re talking about success in terms of the growth of Welsh football, that is only going to continue.”
For armchair fans who only started paying attention after Euro 2016, there may be disappointment to come, not least the looming threat of England v. Wales in Qatar. But Coleman said that “in many ways, it almost doesn’t really matter.”
“Obviously Welsh fans want success and they want their team at major tournaments, but particularly for the older generations, the very fact that we’re talking about Welsh football and it’s not a joke any more is significant,” he said. “Welsh football has been a huge factor in helping to strengthen Wales as a country with its own identity, its own culture and own voice.”
Foreign correspondent James Griffiths will be in Qatar reporting on the tournament, including how foreign fans are experiencing the World Cup. If you have a story and want to get in touch, email James at jgriffiths@globeandmail.com.
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