Fara Williams: “Being homeless made me a stronger person”
Reading’s pass master went to seven major tournaments with the Lionesses, despite upheaval in her personal life
You’re England’s record appearance holder with 168 caps. What does that mean to you? It’s 170 actually! I don’t know why that hasn’t been updated online. I’ll update you now, it’s 170. [Laughs] I wish it could go on – you speak to people who are coming to the end of their career, and they wish they could play forever. I went to every big tournament with England and played every game at every tournament. When people ask me what it’s meant to play for England, it’s a difficult thing to explain, but I hope people who’ve followed the team over the years can look back at my career and see what it meant to me from my performances. You’re only six goals behind Kelly Smith’s goalscoring record. Was that ever a target? No, as I’ve always been a defensive holding midfielder for England. Although there were a few matches when I played a bit higher up as a No.8 or No.10, at least 150 of my caps have been as a holding midfielder. I’m proud to have scored 40 goals for England but Kelly deserves that record. She was an unbelievable player, and without her injuries I just wonder what she could have done. You were homeless for seven years at the start of your England career, after becoming estranged from your mum. Does that make your achievements all the greater? I feel lucky. Football was a platform to help me out of the situation I was in. It kept me on the straight and narrow and also kept me focused. I thank football for allowing me to achieve all the things I’ve done in my career – without it, I wonder where I’d be now.
You’d play for England one day and then go back to living at a hostel. Did it almost feel like you were living a double life? It was back to reality, yes. Many other players had homes to go back to, with their families or their own flat. My hostel was my home. Is it true you didn’t tell all your team-mates that you were homeless? Yes, because at the time it wasn’t something I was too proud of. But now I think about how strong it made me. It helped me grow up and taught me life skills. Rachel Brown helped me – she was my room-mate with England for so many years, she knew what was going on in my personal life and she was there for me. Given how women’s football has developed since you made your international debut in 2001, could that situation happen to an England player now? Maybe not, but homelessness can happen to anyone. Before I became homeless, I wouldn’t have given someone on the street the time of day, which was very ignorant of myself at the time. I was young then, so seeing a homeless person, I probably didn’t understand it. Now I look back at that differently. If I walked past someone now and had change, I’d stop and give it to them. The FA helped me out and the manager, Hope Powell, tried to support me as best she could, but the FA are now far better suited to preventing a player – particularly an international one – becoming homeless. And has the financial growth in the women’s game helped, too? Definitely – clubs are funded now. At Reading, they have a four or five bedroom club house where a few players can live, share a kitchen and bathroom. When I was homeless – 10, 12, 15 years ago – they would have been able to put me up, but back then there wasn’t enough money in the women’s game. If players now were to have a similar situation to mine, they would be housed more easily with the funding available in women’s football. Do you think you’re an example to homeless people, that you can still achieve things in your life from that situation? Yes. It depends – you have to be motivated to do it. I could have gone in two directions, and many people can slip down, especially when you’re in a hostel. It depends where you want to go – whether you want to go up or down. I chose to come out of it. I had football, I had a talent, so I went with it and was motivated to achieve as much as I could. Some people who become homeless don’t have that behind them, so it’s difficult to not spiral downwards. I was lucky that I had football and an inner determination. I grew up on an estate around lads, and if you wanted to fit in you had to be thick-skinned. It’s something I’ve always had. Are there other changes in women’s football that you’ve been encouraged by recently? Loads – mainly the standard of coaching. That was needed more than money. If you want to win something, it’s not about how much you earn. They could pay me £30,000 a day, but if I can’t play football and I don’t know how to get better, I’m not going to win anything. You have to be able to develop as a player, and the standard of coaching years ago wasn’t at the level it is now. Players are being coached and improving. I can’t remember getting coached growing up. I just played on the estate, trained a couple of times a week and taught myself for a long period of time. As a Chelsea fan I was able to go to games, and the more I watched, the more I understood. Who was your hero at Chelsea? That changed every week, depending on who scored! I’d come home and it would be John Spencer, then Dennis Wise, then Jody Morris. I first started watching them when they were rubbish, to be honest! I loved Gianfranco Zola, and I remember being buzzing when Chelsea signed Mark Hughes for £1.5 million. I used to think I was him for a little while, even though I wasn’t a striker! I used to aim for that towel in the side-netting. What was it like to receive an MBE in 2016? I got a letter with different stamps on it and thought I was in trouble, that I had to go to court or something. I was thinking, ‘What have I done? I haven’t done anything!’ But to open it and see I’d received an MBE was a massive honour. It was for the work I did with the FA for the homeless, and my contribution to the women’s game. The day at Buckingham Palace was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been. I only had to walk 10-15 metres but my feet were sweating and my hands were clammy. I stuttered a little bit when I spoke to Princess Anne but it was an unbelievable experience, and to share it with my mum was really nice.
“FOOTBALL WAS A PLATFORM TO HELP ME OUT OF THE SITUATION I WAS In”