Poet joins Wales women on Euro 2025 journey

A poet says it is a dream come true to combine her "great passions" of football and poetry by joining the Wales women squad on their Euro 2025 journey.

Literature Wales commissioned poet Sarah McCreadie, from Cardiff, to help celebrate Wales' efforts in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 tournament in Switzerland.

In July, she will follow the squad to Lucerne and on to St Gallen, supporting them as they take on the Netherlands, France and England, and creating a collection of 15 poems in total.

Her first commissioned poem, entitled We Are Here, was released after she attended the squad announcement on the summit of Yr Wyddfa last week.

"This is my dream job as a poet and Welsh football fan," Sarah told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

"I think those two things go together so beautifully, so perfectly.

"Football is so emotional, so much about identity, it's art in my opinion."

As part of the project, funded by the Welsh government's Euro 2025 Partner Support Fund, Sarah has also helped develop a resource called Cymru and Me, to be used in schools to help encourage young writers.

She said there was "so much need for poets and painters" because it was "such a part of Welsh culture and history".

"I think the way to do that is to make poetry and writing appealing to young people, make it relevant to them," she said.

Sarah is a Welsh learner who weaves the language into her poems, but will also work with poet Marged Tudur to translate some of her long-form pieces into Welsh.

Claire Furlong, executive director of Literature Wales said Sarah had been commissioned to respond to the Wales Women campaign, "in the ancient Welsh tradition, where bards were sent to record heroic battles and rouse and inspire combatants".

Jack Sargeant, Welsh government minister for sport and culture, added: "This collaboration exemplifies Welsh creativity at its finest, celebrating both our cultural heritage and sporting excellence."

An extract from the poem by Sarah McCreadie

We are here

Fire and waves

and football

forged

this mountain peak

Y daith did not begin with four Cymru goals

it began when these menywod hanesyddol were

girls in baggy kits

who dared kick a ball for the first time

and it began with our first steps of 1973

and it began with the rebel girls of P.E.

To the child she was

Rhiannon says believe

We have scaled these ancient rocks

this untread path

wrote our own map

the wind will carry through generations

Each goal a summit step

gave our bodies for the apex

hearts pounding under red shirts

finding infinity in the embers of 90 minutes

to be the first to stand on mountaintop

Do not measure us in anything

but each step we have taken in studded boots

and bucket hats