Rachel Daly’s dad Martyn has expressed his pride at watching his daughter play for the Team GB football team that beat Chile in the opening match of the Olympic Games on Wednesday.
From the early days of putting up goalposts in the garden, Martyn Daly told the Stray Ferret he “never thought in a million years” he would be watching her play in the Olympics, which he called “something special”.
Football runs in the family and Mr Daly played as a striker for Harrogate Town and Knaresborough Town in the 1980s and 1990s.
He remembers taking his daughter to train at the age of eight, when she started playing for the Killinghall Nomads boys team, before there was the option for girls to play together.
Ms Daly has ascended to become one of the top players in the women’s game, the star forward for Houston Dash in the US, with World Cup appearances for England and now the Olympics.
He said:
“It’s a far cry from the marshes at Wetherby that flooded all the time!”
The die-hard Leeds United fan wakes up at 2am for every Houston game to watch his daughter play via an online stream. He says football is “all she’s ever been bothered about doing”.
Team GB’s women’s footballers. Rachel Daly is on the back row, far right.
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When the Stray Ferret spoke to Ms Daly earlier this year, she stressed the importance of pay equality with men.
Her dad praised her for setting a good example to girls and women wanting to make their mark in the game.
She is Harrogate through and through, attending Saltergate junior school and Rossett High School. Her dad says she always “appreciates where she came from.”
When she’s back for a visit, she’ll even sometimes play five-a-side with her brother at Rossett where she “runs rings around” the men.
This summer’s Olympics in Tokyo has been dogged by controversy with the matches played in front of empty stadiums and the squad are keeping together in their own bubble.
Mr Daly hopes she can make the squad for the next games in Paris in three years’ time.
He added:
“You can learn a lot mingling with a 100m runner or a canoeist. They’ll miss out on that, which is a shame.”
Team GB stand a good chance of winning a medal in football and take on hosts Japan at 11.30am (UK time) today. Ms Daly’s family will be cheering them on back home in Harrogate.
Mr Daly said:
“She’ll never realise what she’s done in the game until it’s over.
“Every pro has a cockiness about them but she’s down to earth too, she’s just my daughter.”
