EXCLUSIVE: Leicester City’s Rosella Ayane on role models, going viral, and why she considered quitting football | OneFootball

Rosella Ayane (Leicester City/Plumb Images)

Rosella Ayane has only been with Leicester City for two months – but it already feels like home.

“It was quite last minute, but it came up and I came in, and the girls have made me feel really settled,” the former Tottenham Hotspur forward tells SheKicks.net in an exclusive interview.

“Leaving Spurs after six years of being there, it was a bit intimidating. I’m used to people coming into my home, so to go into someone else’s home was a bit daunting, but it’s been really good.”

She adds: “Rick [Passmoor, head coach] and Lee [Billiard, director of women’s football] have brought a super-positive energy. There’s a real good feeling about the place. People are enjoying being here, which is always really important for players. You want to come into work. I think creating that environment is really important and all the staff have done that.

“All the new players that have come in are really excited to be here and the players who have been here before are all very motivated, very determined, very positive. So it’s a really nice place to be in.” 

“Rick Passmoor is a great guy”

Passmoor was appointed as interim head coach at the start of September following the departure of Amandine Miquel, with his role confirmed as permanent a month later. He has spent years at the top of the women’s game, perhaps most notably with Notts County when the Women’s Super League started.

Ayane, who came through the Chelsea youth system and enjoyed loan spells with Millwall, Bristol City and Everton in her younger years, knew Passmoor of old.

“Rick’s a great guy,” says Ayane. “I’ve played against him before and I know about Rick from [him] being at the top level of women’s football for so long. He’s a well-known figure, but working under him, honestly, it’s a pleasure. I only have good things to say. He’s really approachable, super enthusiastic, positive, but when you need the hard truth that you need in elite football at the top level, he’s got that as well.”

Rosella Ayane: I don’t want to work a 9 to 5 office job

Ayane has also been playing at the top level for a long time. She turns 30 next year, and has played in the top leagues in the USA and Cyprus as well as in England – but she once considered quitting football altogether.

“That was a long time ago,” she is quick to point out. “I’d just been released from Chelsea. I was 21, and I wasn’t really getting the enjoyment that I wanted from football.

“I worked in recruitment for a couple of weeks and I can positively say I’ll never work an office job ever again. It’s put me off. I don’t want to work a Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. I tried it for a little bit, hated every second of it.

Rosella Ayane in her Spurs days, in 2022 (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

“And then a call from Cyprus, Limassol, came in, and I ended up speaking to Lianne Sanderson who was there at the time and they were playing in the Champions League and it was a new country, new experience, so I just put all my eggs back in the football basket.

“And I’m so thankful that I did, and I’m so thankful that I hated recruitment because football’s been a real journey for me.”

Morocco penalty: “It’s a funny story”

Rosella Ayane went viral when she scored the winning penalty for Morocco in a shoot-out against Nigeria in 2022, securing their place in the WAFCON final and also a spot in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

After the ball hit the back of the net, she did not celebrate until her team-mates mobbed her, looking surprised at the roaring noise in the stadium – simply because she had not remembered the significance of her kick.

“I got back to my phone and I had so many messages, and it was just meme after meme of me looking so confused!” she says.

“I knew how much pressure and expectation was on this penalty and having the weight of a whole country expecting something of one kick. I was so zoomed in on the moment, so focused on the moment, I genuinely just forgot that I was fifth – but I knew I was fifth, because obviously they told me I was fifth, I was the last penalty.

“And as I was walking [up to the penalty spot], I just completely zoned out, and my only focus was scoring.

“As soon as the ball hit the back of the net, I didn’t think, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve qualified for the World Cup!’ or ‘We’re in the final of AFCON!’ or any of that. I was just like, ‘Yes, I scored my penalty!’ That’s all that mattered to me.

“So it was a bit confusing, and the crowd and the referee were speaking to me in French – I didn’t understand French at that moment – so the whole build-up of everything, then when I scored, there’s just a little bit of confusion and what’s going on, but it’s a pretty funny story to tell, actually.”

As for whether her linguistic abilities have improved now, she says it “depends who you ask”.

“If you’re asking a fluent French speaker who can completely speak French, they’d probably say my level’s pretty basic, but I think I can understand the majority. If the conversation is not chopping and changing too quickly from different subjects, I’m okay. In terms of football understanding, I think I understand the majority and that’s the main thing when I’m playing for Morocco.”

Making a difference to girls in Morocco

Playing for Morocco has been a very special experience for Ayane, who qualifies to represent the nation through her father.

“You can just tell from Instagram or other social media platforms that the Moroccan people love any form of football that their country is involved in, whether it be the men’s, the women’s, the youth – you can really feel that online.

“The AFCON final in Rabat [in 2022], I don’t think I’ll ever experience anything like that final. Even my family who came out said that they’ve never experienced anything like that, and we played in the final, and then my mum and I went to watch my friend play in the Euros final at Wembley the next week.

“Obviously Wembley is incredible and the English fans are super passionate, but the difference in atmosphere, it’s just so hard to explain because in Morocco they brought the flares, the drums, the costumes, the environment and the noise that they created – and I actually think that there was more people in the stadium that were actually allowed. There’s people sat on the roof, there’s people in steps who shouldn’t be in the stadium – it was just completely packed in.

“That support – when football players always say about the 12th player, that really was the 12th player for us because it was like 50,000 people supporting Morocco and probably three people supporting South Africa.”

She hopes that in the future she will be able to make a real difference to girls in Morocco, from grassroots upwards, although her own footballing commitments don’t allow her to travel as much as she would like.

“It’s a work in progress and trying to find the time for me to be able to go out and actually set it up properly the way that I want to is obviously more difficult than I originally hoped, but it’s definitely a future plan of mine to have real foundations in place for young girls in Morocco especially and help them have the access to things that maybe little girls have in Europe. “

Rosella Ayane: her targets for Leicester City

In the meantime, Rosella Ayane is focused on being part of the Leicester City squad, and helping them progress this season, becoming an integral part of the team.

“I’ve never really been a player that sets myself very black and white targets,” she says. “Of course, I’d be silly to sit here and pretend to say that I don’t want more minutes. Of course I want more minutes. I think anyone from the last year at Spurs knows that I want more minutes, but in terms of actual stats, I haven’t thought of anything in particular.

“I think as a team, we’ve got a really, really good group here, and it’s exciting to be a part of, and I’m excited to see where we can go and how much we can develop across the year.”