Malta’s number one
In the second of this week’s National Inclusion Week stories, Edinburgh postwoman Anna Vincenti tells us how much women’s football in the UK has developed and how she wants to be Malta’s number one.
As a freestyle skier, Anna would soar over 20 metres into the air with only mild concern that she was about to plummet on to an icy surface.
After narrowly missing out on a place in the Team GB squad for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Anna ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee at the subsequent World Championships.
After more than a year off the snow she returned to enjoy her ‘best ever’ season in 2016 - finishing second in the overall Europa Cup rankings - but then came further sickening injury setbacks.
Ruptured ligaments in her shoulder were followed by a torn meniscus and further knee damage before a complete ACL rupture in September 2017, which ruled her out of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
In an interview with BBC Sport, Anna said: ‘Laying there and knowing what I'd done to myself, it felt like my soul left my body. I was crumpled and crying and just saying, “I can't go through all of that again."’
With the help of the GB Snowsport team and her sports psychologist, Anna was able to return to the slopes. But she knew deep down that she was no longer the fearless skier of old. ‘The fear hit me, I just felt too scared and even now sitting here I can't believe I used to do that,’ she said.
With that, Anna decided to hang up her skis and return to her first love, football - a sport she says is almost ‘unrecognisable’ from the one she left as a teenager. Record viewing figures for the Women's World Cup in France, as well as major investment in England's Women's Super League, show how much the women’s game has developed.
Anna, who played in goal for Scotland at Under-15 and Under-17 level before focusing on slopestyle skiing, said: ‘It's crazy. When I was younger, I always wanted to go over to America and get a scholarship there because that's where it was so big - and now it's massive here.
‘Women's teams are being paid, you've one of the biggest leagues in the world in England, and the Scottish girls went full-time leading into the World Cup. Growing up, that just wasn't a thing and there wasn't financial backing, but we're seeing men's and women's teams working together, like with Manchester City and here with Hearts, which is amazing to see.’
Anna qualifies for Malta through a grandfather, and, after a successful trial, she kept a clean sheet on her debut in a friendly against Bolton Ladies in May.
Malta are currently 101st in the world rankings, but Anna believes they can make big improvements. ‘It's a new programme but the standard is really high and we have some really good players, so I think it's only going to get bigger in Malta,’ she said.
Anna has been training throughout the summer and hopes to establish herself in the number one shirts for Motherwell and Malta this season.
‘Having aimed for the Winter Olympics in the past, qualifying for a summer Olympics in the future would be a dream,’ she said. ‘For now, I'm just focusing on being the best I can be and seeing how far I can take this.’
