The Big Interview: Mollie Rouse and Zoe Cross
Mollie Rouse and Zoe Cross were part of a star-studded U20 Lionesses side at the 2018 World Cup. Now, one plays in Germany and the other has retired. They speak candidly about their differing paths.
The England squad named for the Under 20 World Cup in France was special. So special in fact they won a bronze medal, under the guidance of their iconic head coach Mo Marley, the woman responsible for the development of almost every player that graduates into the senior Lionesses squad.
That squad which headed out to the north-west region of France less than five years ago carried five players who would go on to win gold under Sarina Wiegman last summer. Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo, Lauren Hemp, Georgia Stanway and Ellie Roebuck, while Ella Toone would have featured had injury not ruled out.
Several more have represented their country at senior level in the years since, but weren’t at the Euros. Still though it is rare to see so many graduate from youth team to senior team from one group, but usually those that do define a special group, and with the 2018 group it was clear something unique was brewing.
But the flip side of the story is so many don’t. The majority have and will continue to forge solid careers for themselves, but a good chunk of players at that tournament from all nations will never go as far as the senior national team, that is just the brutal reality of youth team football and the step up to senior level.
While half a dozen have become instant legends, two of the 21 from that squad have given up playing completely, before even reaching their mid-twenties - midfielders Georgia Allen and Zoe Cross.
Rinsola Babajide is abroad playing for Real Betis in Spain, as is Mollie Rouse with Turbine Potsdam. Former Liverpool youngster Ali Johnson is playing non-league football in England after returning from giving birth to her first child, such are the varying fortunes and motives of the fortunate few.
For midfield duo Rouse and Cross, their careers in particular followed similar paths. As a teenager, Rouse was a regular starter in Aston Villa’s first team in the old FA WSL 2, while Cross was a youth team player at Chelsea before both pursued opportunities at college in America, where they were playing at the time of the 2018 U20 World Cup.
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After returning, both signed for Championship side Lewes in January 2021, but since then their careers, and indeed lives, have gone very different ways.
Just 18 months on, Cross walked away from playing at the age of just 24 and now works for a company called KICK where she mentors students one on one and helps to “drive mental health awareness” as she describes it, as well as teaching P.E.
Cross has moved up to Cambridge where her fiancé is from – the couple got engaged just after Cross retired – and she speaks candidly about her decision to walk away, but it’s clear she has made peace with her decision.
“It was a variety of reasons,” Cross admits. “Firstly, a big one for me was injuries. I don’t think I went from 2018 to now where I had a period where I wasn’t carrying some form of injury. I think the mental side of it, knowing I wasn’t 100% fit and my body couldn’t do it affected me.
“All athletes will want to say they want to retire on their terms and for me the mental side compared to what I was actually getting out of football. I always say I’d do it while I loved it, and I started to lose the love and that was the time to look and do something else.”
She adds, regarding making peace with her decision, “I always said to myself I was never going to retire on bad terms. There’s no regret or anger or bitterness, I knew I was ready and it was the right time for me to be like ‘ok, let’s end it’.
“I know it’s spoken about a lot in women’s football, but the sustainability too, for me to actually be able to actually play. I was working as a lifeguard part-time and while that’s great and I’m thankful and grateful for the opportunity I got to play for Lewes in the Championship at a good level, for me and my long-term bigger goal, I don’t think that was something I could sustain. I met my partner, we wanted to do things and get a house and I don’t think that’s something realistically I could have achieved, so yeah, a lot of things went into it.”
Rouse meanwhile has also found contentment, but in a very different way. While Cross remained at Lewes for 18 months, Rouse moved on after her first half season to join fellow Championship side London City Lionesses.
It looked like an ambitious move as the Lionesses moved up the table (they currently sit top in February 2023), but Rouse took the step to walk away and pursue other opportunities, which eventually lead her to one of Germany’s most historic and prestigious clubs in the women’s game, via BT Sport’s Ultimate Goal reality show.
“The German’s coming,” she laughs. “I’m doing lessons three times a week – slowly and steadily!
“After last season I was thinking about my career, what path I wanted to go down and that kind of thing. I’d played in the Championship for 18 months. Did I want to continue and push on? London City were a great team, doing well, or did I want a new experience and I was really itching for a new challenge. One out of my comfort zone.
“For me, having been to America I always had it in me to travel again and see what else is out there. The [transfer] window was really tough, it was really late on, I was looking at other options and nothing really went through. A trial at Turbine and I was like ‘yes!’. It was Germany, the Bundesliga, they’d just finished top four last season. If they didn’t want me it would have been a great experience anyway and I would see what I needed to take the next step.
“It ended up being successful, I went on trial at their camp in Austria, flew back home and they said they wanted me. We sorted out the papers and I flew out to Germany straight away.”
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