Rhiannon Roberts is back in the WSL2. The experienced centre back signed for Sunderland this summer after two years playing overseas, and has taken on the skipper’s armband as well.
Her team are off to a great start, with four points from the six available so far, thanks to a thumping 4-0 win over Sheffield United and then a 1-1 draw with Birmingham City.
“I’m really happy with the start of the season,” she told SheKicks.net. “The girls have been brilliant throughout pre-season, and it was just a time now to ramp it up a little bit more and showcase what we’re about for the for the entire season this year. We’ve got high hopes and high aims for this year, so it’s just following that through.”
Current WSL2 leaders Charlton Athletic are the only side who haven’t dropped points so far after two games, and Roberts is satisfied with the results her team have secured.
“From those two fixtures, before they were played, you’d probably say, ‘I’d take four points from that.’ Birmingham, they’re going be right up there this this season. They’ve got a fantastic squad, real good strength and depth in their squad, and obviously they showcased that last year as well [when they finished second behind London City Lionesses].”
As captain, she says, she hasn’t changed her approach to the game.
“I’m just trying to be a leader on and off the pitch: just lead by example and be as professional as possible on and off the pitch. My experience from the years, take that on to the pitch, with the other girls.”
Rhiannon Roberts: “We’ve created a really good environment at Sunderland”
Roberts has a long roll of honour at the top level of the game, with spells at clubs including Doncaster Belles and Liverpool, and a decade-long international career with Wales, featuring in their first-ever major international tournament this summer at Euro 2025.
But she left Spanish club Real Betis at the end of last season without a confirmed destination. She reveals that she spoke to a few options as she sought the right one, picking Sunderland after conversations with head coach Melanie Reay and liking the way the club operated, its facilities, and its one-club philosophy.
“I wanted to be happy and I wanted to be settled. I wanted to be a little bit closer to home,” she explains.
“I didn’t want to go into the Euros without a club. I wanted to go into the Euros knowing that I’ve got a club, got that contract, got that security, that’s all finished, and then I could just focus purely on on the Euros after that.
“So I’d had the talks beforehand and then obviously it got announced while I was over there [in Switzerland].”
And she likes the atmosphere of the squad that’s coming together.
“We’ve created a really good environment, a really good set of girls, and that goes a long way. If you want to put yourselves up there winning titles, then you’ve got to have that first and foremost before bringing in really big names.”
“I’ll never forget it”
Roberts was part of the team that got Wales to the Euros in the first place as they won the play-off against Ireland in Dublin to secure their spot.
She was also part of the team that so narrowly missed out on the 2023 Women’s World Cup when they lost a play-off against Switzerland. She scored Wales’s goal in a 2-1 defeat, with Fabienne Humm scoring the winner in the final seconds of extra time.
That heartbreak made the summer’s achievement all the more special – particularly as she picked up a muscle tear in the groin in the international camp shortly before the squad was selected, and was unsure whether she would be fit in time.
“When we actually won the Ireland game I think I just felt like a relief of pressure, to be honest, because [there] had been so many near misses, and I was just like, ‘Oh, finally, we’re going there!’ That celebration just tops everything for me.
“I was really close to not going because I got this muscle tear [during] the camp before, so that was frustrating. I only had a few weeks to turn things over and just to even start that first game against the Netherlands, singing the anthem, with my family and friends in the stand, it was just an incredible moment for for me and my family really, one that I’ll never forget.”
Rhiannon Roberts: “It’s pretty incredible”
Artwork honouring players from the squad was unveiled over the course of the summer, with the intention of celebrating their achievement while simultaneously inspiring youngsters in their communities.
Roberts has not yet had chance to head to North Wales and see the mural of herself on a wall at Westwood Community Primary School in Buckley, but is looking forward to coinciding that future visit with catching up with her family in the area.
“That’s probably one of the biggest achievements from this. We’ve been able to get a huge, huge rise of girls playing football in Wales, and that’s credit to the girls. It’s credit to the FAW. It’s credit to our manager that came in [Rhian Wilkinson], and, obviously, our manager before that [Gemma Grainger]. They did a lot of work off the pitch going into schools, going into clubs, and really pushing it as much as we can, but the increases in the numbers have been absolutely through the roof.
“Hopefully we can continue that, and now the girls have players that they can look up to. My little cousin actually plays for Buckley, so I’ve been down there a couple of times to watch their training sessions. They’ve gone from having one team to [having teams for] every age group going, and the amount of girls that are coming through now and wanting to play football and have role models to look up to – it’s pretty incredible.”
And it’s not just about playing in leagues – Roberts is delighted to see the rise of fun football for girls and women, such as the FAW’s Huddle for those aged four to 11, BE.FC for 12 to 15-year-olds, and recreational sessions for adults.
“There’s so many social benefits. There’s so many things that come from playing sport and it’s not just the competitive side. It’s everything else that comes around it, all the teamwork and the social skills.
“As a group of players, our proudest moment is pushing the the girls’ game in Wales.”
