Rose Reilly: The lost superstar of women’s football Football Trailblazers: Reilly won eight league titles, World Player of the Year and four golden boots after being shunned by the Scottish FA

Had Rose Reilly been born a boy, she would surely rank alongside those great luminaries of Scottish football: Dalglish, Law, Busby, Ferguson.

They are the pillars that hold up the church, offering warm memories of a sepia-tinted past and inspiration for the future. Eight league titles, World Player of the Year award, four golden boots; for 40 years an extraordinarily successful career was deliberately kept hidden by those who should have been celebrating in her honour.

Reilly railed against biology and cultural expectations for as long as she could. Born in Ayrshire, at the age of four she remembers swapping her doll – a Christmas present – for a football and making it her most prized possession. Any time, any place, any excuse for practice. As a seven-year-old, she went to a barbers and asked for a short back and sides without asking her mother first. It’s hard to maintain the facade of being called Ross and playing with the boys when you have long hair.

The i newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

But when puberty hit, so too did the realisation that Reilly was not wanted by her country. At 17, she had won the inaugural Scottish Cup with Stewarton and a domestic treble with Westthorn United. But any dreams of professionalism within Scotland were dashed. UEFA nations had voted 31-1 in favour of promoting and integrating women’s football after an extended ban that began in the UK in 1921. The one dissenting country? Scotland.

By the time the Scottish FA eventually relented on their ban in 1974, minutes recording that they ‘they reluctantly gave official recognition to the women’s game’, Reilly had moved abroad and been banned (along with two national teammates) for life for criticising such archaic treatment. The decision was easy. She was wanted there, and she was being paid.

The break came after Scotland had lost their first international 3-2 to England in November 1972. Reilly had read a piece on foreign football in the Daily Record, and wondered if they might also have women’s teams. She went to the Record’s office and lied to say that she had a meeting with Jack Adams, the sports editor. Adams offered to research on her behalf and arranged a trial with Stade de Reims. At 17, she was signed instantly and became Scotland’s first female professional footballer.

With a professional structure around her, Reilly’s career in Europe flourished. She lived in Reims for six months before being scouted and signed by Milan, where she spent four years before embarking on a tour of nine clubs in 17 years until her retirement at the age of 40.

International honours came with her adopted country after earning 10 caps for Scotland; Reilly scored in the Mundialito final (a precursor to the Women’s World Cup) against West Germany and captained the side to lift the trophy. She played a total of 22 times for Italy, scoring 13 goals. In 1983 came the proudest moment: Reilly was voted the best female player in the world.

Read more: Nikita Parris admits frustration at lack of recognition for Lyon achievements

The sacrifices Reilly made are extraordinary; life wasn’t easy. For a time she trained at 5.30am daily while working in a sports shop until 9pm. In 1980, when Reims needed a favour, she repaid their loyalty by playing for Lecce on Saturday and Reims on Sunday evenings and won two league titles in the same season. But that only reflects her determination to play football as often – and for as long – as she could. The struggle of her journey to relative prominence eliminated any scrap of complacency.

Reilly could have been bitter, castigated by the Scottish FA and forced into exile to pursue her dream. A country that promised to create pathways for its youth had spat in her face. But she merely felt sorry for those who had overlooked her, and pitied their sexism. That pity became fuel for her own achievement. She retired with a body exhausted, but a spirit undimmed.

Women’s football is forever destined to jump through hoops with bricks tied around both ankles. Attitudes are changing, but only at a glacial pace in some quarters. Every time the sport achieves a boost, out come the boors and bores to tell you that, actually, they don’t like it as if there is some spreadsheet on which their names must be preserved for posterity. In 2013, Daily Record journalist Tam Cowan wrote that Motherwell’s Fir Park should be burnt down after it hosted a women’s match and referred to players as ‘blokes’. In those circumstances, the road to acceptance never ends.

But that only makes the work and wonder of pioneers like Reilly more vital. Now 65 and back in Ayrshire where it all began, she is a member of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame and MBE. Recognition came long before the wrongs she suffered can ever be fully righted. Reilly gave away every medal and trophy she won during her playing career, but her local leisure centre in Kilmarnock has been renamed in her honour.

That, then, is her legacy. Not the trophies or the accolades and not even her campaign by example against the archaic attitudes of those who supposedly guarded football’s reputation and future. But as the inspiration for a new generation of Scottish girls who can stand on the shoulder of a giant and behold a far more positive landscape. And if they are able to make their way in the game free from the shackles of cultural prejudice, they should thank Rose Reilly for clearing a path through the jungle.