Hayley Raso remembers a time when she used to play purely for the love of football. Her passion for the game still burns, but it wasn’t that long ago when Australia’s female footballers had to travel far to train on some makeshift field – sometimes an archery range – to prepare for a W-League match that would ultimately be played in front of a just smattering of fans.
“When I look back at where I used to train, how far I used to travel and what I used to do to be able to play, you were not really getting much out of it except for your love for the game,” Raso says on a Zoom call towards the end of her season – and contract – with Women’s Super League side Manchester City.
The midfielder, who is reportedly poised to join Real Madrid, is now one of many Matildas sprinkled across the best clubs in the world and, in just a few weeks, they will take to the field in front of sellout home crowds when the World Cup comes to town. It has been some journey.
“To see how many people we’ve inspired, selling out crowds, having a World Cup in your own back yard – it’s incredible and it’s just amazing to see how women’s football has progressed over the years,” Raso says.
Her own football journey began when she was eight and was pushed to fill in for her brother’s team. From playing for a bit of fun, it soon became apparent that football was something Raso was actually quite good at.
“My parents used to drive me up to Brisbane from New South Wales, where I was at the time, to the Queensland Academy of Sport, where I was training as a young kid,” she says. “They were always supportive. I obviously love the game still and I loved the game back then, but I also think I was quite good at it, so I think they probably knew that I was going to achieve something.
“I think they’ve been pivotal in shaping me into the player I am and being that support network for me off the pitch as well. They’ve been on a long journey with me.”
When Raso thinks about the people who have had the biggest impact on her through her career, her mum is the one who has been “my rock, my strength”. “I don’t think I would be the person or the player I am without her,” Raso says.
But a former Matildas teammate also stands out as her inspiration, and someone who the 28-year-old still turns to.
“Melissa Barbieri is someone who I think has helped me become the player I am,” Raso says. “I was quite young when I came into the Matildas side and she took me under her wing. I roomed with her at my first World Cup and she did a lot of small things to make sure I was ready and fitting into the team.
“She’s somebody I look up to as a leader and want to be like for the younger members coming into the team now.”
Barbieri is one of Australia’s most capped players, but the goalkeeper had to fight for those caps when she returned to football after giving birth to her daughter, despite losing her sponsorships and contracts as soon as she fell pregnant.
“She’s incredible,” Raso says. “Not only an amazing person, but an amazing athlete; to have her daughter and come back and still be the athlete she was before and the leader she was before. I do think her leadership qualities are something I really admire about her. Seeing someone have a child and come back is inspiring in itself, so she would have had to overcome a lot of battles.”
Raso has had to overcome a fair few battles herself, not least a broken back in 2018. She has already played in one World Cup since then, completing a truly remarkable comeback, and she’s aiming to inspire a few herself come July.
“I was in England when the Lionesses won the Euros and I saw the change in football here afterwards,” she says. “I look at that as something that could still happen in Australia, where we have this amazing tournament with the world coming to our country and where fans – young boys, young girls, everybody – will be inspired. I just can’t wait to see what it will be like once that tournament is over, to see how far the game has grown.”
As for Raso’s ribbons, her nan has special World Cup creations ready and waiting. “When the new kit was released she made sure she got all my ribbons ready and sorted, so when I get back to Australia I’ll be sticking to my trademark of wearing them every game,” Raso says.
Does she ever wear the same ribbon for more than one match? “That all depends how the game goes.”
