Ashley Plumpeter: “I hurt people badly by moving to Saudi Arabia”

Now 27 years old, she is a young woman with a sharp mind and a talented footballer. She has made several unusual moves in her career, most notably switching international allegiance from England – where she was born and where she represented at youth level – to Nigeria, the country of her paternal grandfather.

So when her father Tim, who is also her agent, told her about the approaching union, she decided to give them a chance despite initial doubts.

She told BBC Sport: “I spoke to some teams in the UK, US and Europe, and then my dad said there is a team in Saudi Arabia that is interested in you.”

“I was shocked. My initial reaction was ‘no,’ but I wanted to give them a chance.”

Plumpeter was one of the first international stars to move to the SWPL, which launched in 2022 as a fully professional competition.

There are 24 teams in the league pyramid, divided into three leagues of eight, and clubs are allowed to sign six foreign players.

The men’s competition, the Saudi Professional League, has gained a reputation for spending money to bring in major international names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema.

Plumpeter’s representatives declined to comment on her salary and contract at the federation, and the player herself said that the project was the main attraction, not the money.

According to The New York Times in 2023, the league is funded by the state’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and carries higher prize money than the WSL while foreign players’ salaries range from $60,000 to $120,000 (£44,000-£89,000) per year tax-free. In a 2022 survey, the BBC found that the average WSL salary was £47,000, although some top players can earn well in excess of this figure.

“I had an hour-long call with the coach and a couple of people on the management staff, and I said to my dad, ‘I have a really good feeling about this,’” Plumpeter said.

“We didn’t even talk about football, but about ourselves and what we were passionate about.

“I’m a person who runs out of feeling and intuition. But I wanted to get out and visit – I wanted to see what it was really like. I visited for two days and really liked it, and when I left there I thought ‘this is where I want to be’.”