A couple of summers ago professional footballer Colin Stewart, of Livingston FC, married his beloved fiancée, Julie Fleeting, and off they went on their honeymoon. 

Being the sporting type, and knowing Julie enjoyed an active lifestyle too, Colin decided to take her on at a game of tennis. 

He won a game, but lost the next, and the next, and the next.  Julie then went on to win the set, and the match.  He has never beaten her at any sport since.  “And he never will beat me again,” exclaims Julie.

Then again, Julie Fleeting, 26, is no ordinary footballer’s wife, despite her glamorous looks and platinum blonde hair.  Rather, she is a footballing wife, and he a footballer’s husband.  And it is Julie who is In The Winning Zone’s ‘Champion in their Field’ for October.  Sorry, Colin.

At her home in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, where she very kindly invited us to meet her, Julie Fleeting cuts the figure of a woman who leads a very busy, energetic lifestyle.  In her tracksuit bottoms and jogging top, try as she may to relax on the sofa, between taking phone calls, answering the door and bringing her guest a glass of water, she rarely gets to sit still. 

But she is used to it.  Being perhaps the greatest female footballer ever to represent Scotland, Julie is used to having her hands full and keeping her feet busy.  And beating her husband at tennis, or whatever, is merely a matter of course for a young woman who hasn’t so much learned a winning mentality, as she has grown up knowing no other way.

“For me, I have always wanted to win.  It is something that’s been in me since I was younger, I have wanted to win in everything that I do, and my family found that in any of the games that I played,” she says.

And she has played quite a number of games, certainly in footballing terms; firstly for Ayr United, then professionally for San Diego Spirit in California, then Ross County Ladies, and now Arsenal Ladies, (where she has recently won the European Cup) combined with almost a century of caps for Scotland, of whom she is captain.

And in every single game, whether that has been in front of thousands in America or in front of a man and his dog in the west of Scotland, she has had the same desire to play her hardest, try her best, and emerge victorious.

“I was playing in front of live TV cameras at San Diego, but for me as soon as I get my head switched on to playing a game, it doesn’t really matter if I was running out to play for Ayr or San Diego, the main aim for me was that I would do as much as I could for my team to win.  There actually isn’t a difference as to which strip you are pulling on and who’s watching you.”

Julie’s will to win is almost tangible.  You feel that if there were a ball on the ground between you and her, you would have no choice but to watch her crack a shot past your ear into whatever makeshift net you are trying to defend, something which her goalie husband must experience on a daily basis. 

In fact, he probably counts his blessings that he has never had to play against her competitively.  Julie has a goals-to-game ratio for Scotland which beggars belief, scoring on average more than one goal every time she plays.  She has scored so many, she has actually lost count herself.

“I think it’s at 98, that’s what they said at the training camp last week!”

But for all her endeavour, she is remarkably modest about her record (which, let it be said, is more than three times that of what Scotland’s greatest male players have ever scored – the men’s record scorers are Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish, both of whom have scored 30). 

“I play alongside very good team mates,” Fleeting points out.  “There’s no way I could have scored that amount of goals if the players around me hadn’t been of the high standard that they have been over all these years. 

“The secret is you won’t score goals in a team with nobody else playing, and I have been very lucky with the amount of players who have created so many chances for me. I think in Scotland we rely so much on team spirit, working together is something that has always been instilled in Scottish teams. We don’t have individuals, we have team players. We work well together, and that’s my job in the team.  If I’m not scoring I’m not doing my job.”

Yes, team spirit is indeed vital.  But come on Julie, stop talking yourself down!!  Surely you must apportion a little of what you have achieved down to your own goal-scoring talent?

“I would say natural talent is probably the bit that you need the tiniest amount of. If you can work your socks off, then there’s a good chance that you can get to any level you want.”

Although fully committed to her country, Julie’s day-to-day footballing commitments are to her London based club, Arsenal, where she commutes to each weekend to play.  Keen to stay at home, close to her friends and family, and also her job as a PE teacher at St Michael’s Academy in Kilwinning, she would rather fly back and forth than move down south.

Unsurprisingly, this makes life difficult for her.  Deprived of the chance to train with her club, Julie has to take the responsibility on her own shoulders to ensure she is fit enough and sharp enough to pitch up on a Sunday and do the business for Arsenal.

She goes to the gym at her school most mornings, doing weights and running for 35 minutes, and then goes training with the Kilwinning Rangers under-21 men’s team a couple of nights each week.  If she isn’t with them, she will be out running, cycling or practicing her skills in the park with her brother and her dad.  All of this on top of her day job.

“I come in from work at 4pm and I only really have a few hours to relax and have something to eat before I go back out to train. By the time I train and come home my night has gone.  It definitely requires a lot of commitment, especially after a hard day’s work.

“That’s the difference between playing at the top level, and just playing; it is having the determination and commitment.”

Julie’s coach at Arsenal does not monitor how she trains.  She is judged entirely on match-day performance.  It would be easy for her to slack off.  Everyone has given themselves an easy day at work when the boss is away.  To keep up the intensity of her training, especially when she is forced to do so much of it on her own, is a very difficult task. 

Thankfully, with a footballing husband and a sporting family – dad Jim is Director of Football Development at the SFA and a former manager of SPL club Kilmarnock – Julie has plenty of support around her to ensure she gets the job done. 

“If you don’t have people around about you who understand you have got to make that commitment, that you have got to make sacrifices, then it would be very tough. I am very lucky, and if you don’t have that then you will struggle because it’s easy to say ‘don’t bother’ or ‘I’m tired and have had a hard day’.

“And if you do it once then it’s quite easy just to say ‘I can’t be bothered tonight again’.”

By putting herself through her paces on a regular basis with the Kilwinning 21s team, however, she knows that she will always be up to the standard expected of her at Arsenal, one of the biggest women’s teams in Europe.  Though she may be equally skilled and be able to play the game tactically and technically as well as the boys, her physical inferiority means that every session is a challenge, and one that she accepts readily.

“At training, though I compete in many ways, I could never sprint past them if I were to do a 100m race. In terms of strength the majority of them will be quite a bit stronger than me, but that’s the kind of thing I need if I want to be better.  There’s no point in me going training with under-13s, because I won’t have them ahead of me to try and chase.

“It makes a big difference, especially when you are running with a team, because if I was to go out myself I would never push myself to the standard I do at training.  I would never drop out in front of these boys.  I wouldn’t lose face, I would never give up.  If they tell me to run, I will run whether I finish at the front or the back, I don’t care.  I might not be at the front of their group because I can’t run as fast as them but I will finish the run off.”

Fleeting is, unsurprisingly, revered in her local community, not only from her footballing exploits, but also in no small part due to her work at St Michael’s Academy.  She is a role model off the pitch, as well as on it.

The kids in school always ask her how the game went at the weekend, and she likes the fact that her influence can help to make a difference, especially in the much maligned burger-belt that is the west of Scotland.

“I think I’ve learned an awful lot in life myself, and if I can pass that on to any of the kids that I teach then that’s good.  The fact that I work with them every day is quite good because you have got a chance to make a difference to the kids that are in the school. They know I train every morning in the gym, they know I drink water all the time and they know that at break time I will always eat fruit. To be able to make a small difference in the kids that I teach would be a great thing.”

And as a parting piece of advice, what would Julie pass on to any youngsters not fortunate enough to be under her tutelage in Kilwinning?

“For me, it is about enjoyment.  If you can train and play with a smile on your face, it makes it all worthwhile, but do it at the best level you can.  Enjoy yourself and have as much fun as you can, but at the same time have a healthy balance in your life.  Never lose sight of that balance, and take everything in moderation.”

And never let your other half beat you at anything…

RO

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMVII, All Rights Reserved