WREXHAM forward Rosie Hughes has bagged 97 goals for the club since joining in 2021.
And remarkably she’s done that while balancing football with her day job as a prison officer.
Hughes, 28, works at HMP Berwyn, the largest men’s prison in the UK.
The forward enjoys a good relationship with Wrexham’s Hollywood owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
After scoring the goal that clinched the title for Wrexham’s women’s team to clinch the Genero Adran North Title in March, her post-match interview was interrupted by an ecstatic Ryan Reynolds.
After scoring the goal to secure Wrexham their title, she was rewarded with a semi-professional contract to go alongside her work as a prison officer.
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She told BBC Sport that her goals have made her something of a mini-celebrity in the prison.
She said: “It started getting spoken about, and once something is spoken about in prison it’s exciting, it is something new to talk about.
“Prisoners would come up to me and ask ‘do you play for Wrexham?’ and I couldn’t hide it in the end.”
After her heroics to secure Wrexham the title, she says she was introduced to Reynolds’ equally famous life, Blake Lively.
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On meeting the Hollywood actress, Hughes said: “I felt like the superstar because I’d just scored the winner at the Racecourse in front of nearly 10,000 people, so when he grabbed me to introduce me to his wife, kids – it felt like I was the star.”
The forward says that working as a prison officer has equipped her with a number of transferable skills that she has taken across to the football pitch, saying: “You definitely need some resilience, good communication skills, an excellent listener and some emotional intelligence to do the job.
“Communication and working as part of a team is massive for both football and as a prison officer. You need confidence in this job because you’ll get eaten alive if you don’t.
“It’s the same with football, you need to be confident on the ball. I’m so good at scoring goals and putting the ball in the back of the net because I’m confident to do it.”
Hughes uses the prison’s gym and training facilities after work to help hone her skills on the pitch.
And the extra work has paid off, with Hughes netting all five goals in a 5-1 demolition of Barry Town earlier this month.
This season she has dropped her working hours at the jail after receiving a semi-professional contract as Wrexham focus on winning the league again this year.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
