Scotland’s greatest ever female footballer, Rose Reilly, was honoured by University of the West of Scotland (UWS) with an Honorary Doctorate at its graduation ceremony on Tuesday 1st December 2015 at Ayr Town Hall.
Rose, who was voted the world’s best female footballer in 1983, was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
Rose, who was born in Stewarton in 1955, gave up a promising athletics career to follow her dream of playing professional football. At the age of 17, having already played 10 games for the Scotland Women’s Team, she moved to Reims in France to become a semi-professional player and within six months she was spotted by an AC Milan scout. This was the start of her 20 year career in Italian women’s football.
As well as AC Milan she had the opportunity to play for five other Serie A clubs, including Napoli and Fiorentina and at one point in her career she played for Lecce in the south of Italy on a Saturday and then flew to France to play for Reims on a Sunday afternoon.
She is one of the most successful women in the history of the Italian Women’s League, winning eight Serie A titles and four Italian Cups, as well as winning the Serie A Golden Boot, awarded to the highest goal scorer in the league, twice. She also had a hugely successful international career playing for Italy (after gaining dual citizenship), scoring 13 international goals, including one in the 1983 Women’s World Cup Final against the USA. In Italy she went on to win the 1983 World Cup Final making Rose Reilly the only Scot to have won a World Cup winner’s medal.
Rose said: “I am delighted to receive an Honorary Doctorate from University of the West of Scotland. It is a huge honour to have my achievements recognised by UWS in this way.”
Professor Craig Mahoney, Principal & Vice-Chancellor of University of the West of Scotland, said: “We are delighted to award Rose with an Honorary Doctorate, who during her career demonstrated a real determination and strong will to succeed no matter the challenges. She is a Scottish footballing legend, an inspiration to us all and is a very deserving recipient of this award.”