Julie's no Fleeting success

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Julie's no Fleeting success
Rory Tevlin:
Julie Fleeting has pretty much done all there is to do in women’s football with a career that has seen trophies, goals and awards. Julie is the current Scotland captain and having bagged a hundred goals for the national side few women in the history of the game can match her strike rate. She took time out to chat to Put A Kilt On it to discuss Scotland, Arsenal and playing football in the USA.
Put A Kilt On It: Was it difficult for you growing up to find a female team in Scotland of a high standard as you got older?

Julie Fleeting: I played for a boys club from the age of 9 till 12 and then had to find a girls team to join. It was easy with the boys club because the furthest you had to travel was 20 min for an away game but when I joined Prestwick girls I had to travel as far as Aberdeen to get a team to play against. Prestwick was a very good girls club at the time and it was also the closest one to me, even though they were 25 min away. I relied heavily on my parents to take me to training and games which was a big commitment from them.

Do you think women's football in Scotland is improving in terms of opportunities for girls and the standard of players being produced?

It is definitely improving. There are far more girl’s teams around and more opportunities at school for girls to play, there are also national development teams for a variety of levels. The SFA are working very hard to improve the opportunities that girls have and I think as a national side we are starting to see the benefits with so many talented young players coming through.

You played football professionally in the United States, what kind of an experience was that and why did that league fail?

It was a fantastic experience, one I was shocked to get. It came at a perfect time in my life, I was just graduating from Uni and hadn't started working yet. To get the opportunity to train every day in the sunshine alongside some of the best players in the world was an experience I will never forget and one I'm very grateful that came my way. The league folded due to funds and I don’t know enough about it to comment but they possibly envisaged more sponsorship than they actually got.

What kind of financial support does Arsenal provide their female players and do you have a career outside of football?
Arsenal Ladies are semi professional but in terms of the running of the club it is extremely professional. The ladies team are very well looked after in terms of kit, hotels, flights to European games, buses etc. These are things that Scottish teams struggle to help their ladies clubs with, I know from national team mates that the things I take for granted at Arsenal can cause Scottish based players to be out of pocket.

You once played in a FA Cup final the day after being injured playing for Scotland, does it annoy you listening to millionaire male footballers moaning about their busy playing schedule?

No it doesn't annoy me. This weekend will be my 4th FA Cup final and every one of them I have played after a national game the day before. It's poor planning but I would never want to miss out on it either. The FA cup final is a big game in women’s football and playing the day before was not going to stop me being a part of it.
Is it hard to keep your hunger and drive going at Arsenal when the team you are in have won absolutely everything going?

No it's not hard. Within the squad there is so much competition that everyone is fighting for their place so if you are not on top of your game every week then you don’t get to make the starting 11, that alone is an incentive. Everyone likes to win trophies and we are no different.
Do you ever get envious seeing so many of your club mates playing in international tournaments with England and do you think Scotland can ever reach those heights?

It would be amazing to get the opportunity to play in a championship with Scotland. It's something we are not too far away from and as a team I think we are ready to compete with the top teams.