Ferns legend goes behind the scenes with the biggest names in game
Rebecca Smith went toe-to-toe with some of the world’s best female football players during a decorated 10-year professional career that saw her win the Champions League and captain New Zealand at two World Cup tournaments.
Now, the retired Football Ferns legend is shining a spotlight on the current stars in a bid to lift the profile of the women’s game.
For the past two years, Smith has been working with football media company Copa 90 as the global executive director of the women’s game, and they recently teamed up with BBC Sport to host a new podcast titled The Players.
As the name suggests, The Players hands the microphone over to the players to tell their own stories, covering topics such as determination, leadership, resilience and relationships.
It is available on the BBC Sounds app or via other mainstream podcast platforms.
‘‘It’s really important to support those players that are coming through now to make sure the game grows and continues to go from strength-tostrength. It’s been massively rewarding,’’ Smith said.
‘‘I wake up every day and I feel really thankful that I get to work in sports, especially in what I think is the biggest growth opportunity in sports today, which is women’s football.’’ Born in Los Angeles to Kiwi parents, Smith made 74 appearances during her international career and captained the Football Ferns at the 2007 and 2011 World Cup tournaments, and the 2012 Olympic Games before retiring in 2013.
Having played the game, Smith was inspired to give the current players a platform to tell their stories and was delighted to have the support of a major media organisation like the BBC.
‘‘The concept around The Players was rather than have a media lens on what the women’s game is, why don’t we just hand
‘‘It’s really important to support those players that are coming through now.. .’’ Rebecca Smith
the mic to the players and let them talk about the topics and the issues that they find interesting and that they care about, and with the power of BBC and Copa 90 behind it, we can help raise that visibility,’’ Smith said.
‘‘They really open up and are honest and vulnerable, and I think everyone can relate to that. You don’t to like football to appreciate how awesome these people are as characters.
‘‘You can relate to all those different topics and that’s what I see as the vision for the podcast, which is a lot more than just football.’’
Guests to appear on The Players include Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis from the World Cup-winning United States national team, Arsenal and the Netherlands goal machine Vivianne Miedema, and Australian forward Hayley Raso, who recovered from a broken back to feature at last year’s World Cup in France.
But perhaps the most fascinating player to be profiled is Paris SG striker Nadia Nadim, who fled war-torn Afghanistan as a child after her father was killed by the Taliban.
‘‘If you want to grow women’s football, women’s sport or any minority group that has been fighting for more equity in the game, I think you need to have that storytelling piece because as much as you can write documents and lobby at governance level, I think the thing that really changes hearts and minds is the storytelling,’’ Smith said.
‘‘Once you hear Nadia Nadim’s story you can’t help but want to watch her on the pitch and cheer for her.’’