Footballing star was wanted by Celtic... until scout was told she was a girl

ONE of Scotland’s greatest footballers has told how Celtic wanted to sign her as a child... until the club was told she was a girl.

Rose Reilly starred for European giant AC Milan and twice won the Serie A Golden Boot and was named the world’s best female footballer.

She is also the only Scot to have won the World Cup, after starring for Italy, and was the first woman inducted into Scottish football’s Hall of Fame – but as a child she idolised Celtic.

She said a scout from the club was desperate to sign her for the Hoops after watching her score eight goals for Ayrshire boys club Stewarton United – until the coach explained that “Ross” was really Rose.

Reilly, 65, recounts the tale on Noteworthy, a BBC Scotland documentary in which presenter Chris Mcqueer examines the life stories of some of Scotland’s lesser known heroes.

Reilly said: “The manager [of Stewarton United] at the time said to me, ‘Do you want to play for the boys’ team?’ I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

“He said, ‘You’ll need to get a short back and sides’, so I went to my local barber, and I changed my name to Ross.

“In one particular game I’d scored eight goals and there was a Celtic scout there. He said to the manager ‘I want to sign the wee number seven right away’.

“The manager said ‘nah, it’s a wee lassie’. He said ‘no no no, the one who scored eight goals’ but the manager said ‘it’s a wee lassie’.

“I spoke to him and I was gutted that I couldn’t play for Celtic. If I was good enough, why not?”

Speaking from her home in Stewarton yesterday, she added: “I was gutted. I think he was sorry but he wasn’t sorry for me – I think he was just sorry I wasn’t a wee boy.”

She joked: “It would have been around the same time as Dalglish but we were both number seven.

I’d have taken the jersey off him.”

With no professional women’s league in Scotland, Reilly would sign for Reims in France and later for AC Milan, starting a spell in which she won almost every accolade in the game, including the World Cup in 1984 – even scoring in the final against West Germany.

She said: “I won eight Serie A titles, four Italian Cups, two Golden Boots, played for Italy, won the World Cup, was named the world’s best female footballer, and I thought, ‘no bad for a wee lassie from Stewarton’.

“Winning the World Cup was like walking on air. For a week after it I was just smiling at everybody – folk I didn’t know on the street must have thought I was bonkers.

“But it was a Scottish heart beating under an Italian jersey. I lifted that cup up for Scotland as well, and for women.”

In his first documentary, author Mcqueer travels around Scotland discovering the lives of inspiring Scots such as missionary Mary Slessor and Dr Elsie Inglis, whose faces have appeared on the nation’s banknotes. l Noteworthy with Chris Mcqueer is on Tuesday, BBC Scotland, 10pm.