For most female players, choosing football means betting on yourself

Ups and downs – as well as sacrifices – are a big part of the lives of those who want to play football professionally. In the women’s game, prejudice and low pay are additional hurdles to overcome in order to fulfil that dream. It is a lot of work – and for the players who are not quite good enough to play for their country it is even more difficult to stand out.

Ashley Riefner has taken the long – and rarely trodden – path from US university football to the professional game in Denmark, via Finland. It has not been an easy journey with injuries, having to dip into her savings to pay rent and a long-distance relationship that was in danger of breaking down.

But asked the question of whether it has been worth it, there is no question in the 29-year-old’s mind. All she ever wanted to do was to play football, and she is doing it.

“It’s been super hard,” says Riefner, who is now with Fortuna Hjørring. “I’ve had to be my own businesswoman, my own spokesperson, my own advocate along every step of the way. It’s not easy, but then I don’t really think it’s supposed to be. If I could do it again, I would. I think every step that I’ve taken has totally been the right choice.”

For her and many other young girls, to choose football is to bet on themselves. Born in the US, Riefner started playing at the age of six and has never stopped. “That was kind of my thing,” she laughs. Football got her into the University of Richmond and she started to dream about playing professionally. However, she was not drafted and not picked for the national team, meaning she had to find a different way to join a club.

“The path that I took versus what I thought it would look like is so different. Being from the US and not ever being on the national team makes it really hard for people to notice you. Everyone sees Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd and those kind of players but to make it as someone who doesn’t have a name is a different journey. But it’s also a really cool one.”

One of her coaches at University of Richmond, Mika Elovaara, suggested she moved to Finland to join PK-35 Vantaa. Once there she may have played for the Finnish champions and in the Women’s Champions League but she was still living with a host family and having to use her savings to pay rent because she would go months in the off-season without getting paid. “At the time, I didn’t know what I was signing up for. I didn’t have an agent so I was figuring out these business and life lessons on my own in a different country.”

To add to the stress, during her second year at PK-35, Riefner broke her foot. In her third season in Finland her pay was reduced and she began working 40 hours a week at a children’s nursery. “They gave me a special schedule so that I could work from 6am until 3pm and then go to training. I actually think I played a good season maybe because I had something to do apart from football. It was kind of my de-stress at that time.”

At this point Riefner was no longer on her own. Having met her teammate Tiia Peltonen at PK-35 they had been together for some time before Riefner moved to HJK in Helsinki and Peltonen to Åland, an island between Sweden and Finland. “It was too much,” Riefner says. A season later, however, they were both at Åland before moving to Denmark to play for Nordsjælland, right at the start of the pandemic. Despite being back together, it was a tough time. “We pretty much lived in an academy building, had to eat all our meals in our rooms, and weren’t allowed to go anywhere. It was really rough, football-wise, and also just being stuck in a room for too long.”

After the restrictions ended, Riefner was excited to finally see what football had in store for her. A former coach had just moved to Fortuna and invited her and Peltonen to the team, where they have been since the beginning of this season. “It’s been such a long, long journey,” she says. “But I really think this is the biggest classroom you could ever have.”

For Riefner, her path – even though a little unconventional for a US player – taught her how to deal with the unexpected. “You really have to love what you do and you have to be tough. Unexpected things will happen, and I know they will happen. It’s really just how you learn from things and respond to them.”

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