Italians’ marriage proposal in bid to keep Scots star player
SCOTLAND’S most successful female footballer has revealed Italian officials wanted to set her up in an arranged marriage so she could keep playing for the country.
Rose Reilly told how it was suggested to her that she marry an elderly Italian man in a nursing home, allowing her to secure citizenship.
The striker moved from Stewarton, Ayrshire, to Europe aged just 17 to play club football. After winning the league with Reims in France, she moved to AC Milan and picked up two titles. She was later selected to play for the national side.
The move led to her winning the 1984 version of the women’s World Cup, being named female world footballer of the year, and becoming a household name in her new home.
She was only able to play for Italy as women’s football had yet to come under the official umbrella of football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA at the time.
However, when they took over a few years later and introduced citizenship eligibility rules to the women’s game, the president of the Italian women’s football federation came up with a plan to keep their star player.
Ms Reilly, 65, said she turned down the offer because of her Catholic upbringing and out of fear of what her mother would say.
She said: “In those days every nation had their own federations.
“But then FIFA and UEFA decided they would take over women’s football with their rules and regulations. So with their rules and regulations I still hadn’t been naturalised as Italian so I didn’t get banned, but I wasn’t allowed to play.
“Actually the president in Italy said ‘how do you fancy marrying some old guy in a nursing home?’.
“I said ‘God, I’m from a Catholic family’. My mother would have bloody killed me.”
Speaking on the Blethered podcast, Ms Reilly joked: “Nowadays I think ‘see if he was a millionaire I should have done it’.”