As a 15-year-old Carrie Jones must wait for her Cardiff City debut but after a senior call-up she could feature in Euro 2021 qualifiers against the Faroes and Northern Ireland

It is a surreal situation. Ineligible to play for her club until her 16th birthday on 4 September, Wales’s newest senior call-up, Carrie Jones, could make her international debut before she can turn out for Cardiff City.

It may be fair to assume Jones is unlikely to start the Euro 2021 qualifiers against the Faroe Islands on Thursday night and Northern Ireland on Tuesday but she could feature, with the manager, Jayne Ludlow, saying: “I see her challenging for a place. If she wasn’t going to do that she wouldn’t be selected.

“The reality of the youngster we’re talking about is that she’s performing very well in the domestic programme and we have high hopes for her in the future. It’s very early days in her senior career, club and country, and it’s a learning process.”

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So where has Jones come from? While playing for Newtown White Stars and Berriew Juniors in Powys, before joining the Women’s National Southern Premier League side Cardiff this summer, she has been nurtured by the Wales performance squad too. And with Ludlow and her coaching team stretched across all international age groups, they have a good grip on players coming through.

Jones had a tip-off that she might be about to receive the call-up to the senior side. “It’s quite a funny story really,” says the surprisingly confident and at-ease player. “I was on the way back for a Cardiff game and Lauren [Smith, the Wales assistant manager] goes to me: ‘Had any news yet?’ And I said: ‘No, I don’t think so.’ But I’d kind of got the gist of it and then I got in the car and mum said: ‘You’ve made the squad.’ I said: ‘Wow,’ because I just couldn’t believe it. It was a proud moment for me and my family. The victory is so much more sweeter when you’ve put so much hard work into it.”

She may be young but Jones oozes maturity. This call-up is the reward for hard work and long hours. “I train at USW [University of South Wales] with the performance centre and I live just outside of Newtown, so it’s a good trek. Mum and dad are the taxi drivers.

“Luckily there is another girl that we share lifts with so it’s not as hard, but obviously ‘Thanks Mum!’” she says with a grin at her mother seated in the corner.

“It’s twice a week, Tuesday and Friday, with a game on Sunday which could be anywhere. Last week I went somewhere in London, so obviously it’s hard on Mum and Dad, and I’ve got a brother and sister so it’s hard for them to give time to them because of my football. It’s a huge commitment. As well as that it’s a three- or four-hour session so I don’t get back until 12, then have to wake up at 7am in the morning to catch the bus.”

It is a familiar scenario faced by many a parent of a talented young female player. With high-level training hard to come by, long journeys are part and parcel of nurturing talented daughters.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despite being unable to start the season with Cardiff, Jones has played a few pre-season games. Photograph: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda/ courtesy of FAW

“I started playing at seven,” says Jones. “I’ve got older male cousins and they’re big football fans. We used to go over my nan’s farm and start playing football in the fields, and we’d set up little five-a-sides with the family on a Sunday, and then it’s just progressed from there.

“I played for a boys’ team [Newtown], then a rule came in that I couldn’t play for a boys’ team until I was 12, so I moved to a girls’ team, and then that rule went, so I joined back to a boys’ team. It’s been a big journey, but this has been my dream since I was seven.”

Now, she has swapped cousins for players such as Manchester United’s Hayley Ladd, Reading’s Natasha Harding and, when fit, the midfield magician Jess Fishlock. “It’s crazy, you know?” Jones says. “Cos I was in the changing rooms for the Russia game and being in the squad has been a dream of mine since I was seven years old, so having Jess Fishlock sitting opposite me in the changing room, I was like: ‘Woooah.’”

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Despite being unable to start the season with Cardiff, Jones has played a few pre-season games. “I’ve been training with the girls, so that’s not that much of a change, but with the games it’s so much different in terms of physicality,” she says.

Once this window is over she heads back to school. The reception from her classmates may be a little bit different. “The BBC are showing the games, so hopefully they will find out,” she says. “I don’t actually know when I’ll go back to school because I’ve got my first Cardiff game on the second day that I’ll go back and I’ll miss the first day of school because I’m on camp. Hopefully I’ll get a warm welcome, though.”