The amateur Welsh footballers on computer game Football Manager

The amateur footballers sharing a stage on Football Manager game

"I used to sign my brother for my teams," says Amy Jenkins, captain of Aberystwyth Town Women. "So now hopefully he can sign me for some of his."

For Amy and her amateur team-mates, the bright lights of football's biggest stages can feel very far away from their windswept training sessions by the Welsh coast.

But this year, for the first time, they will feature alongside global stars such as Alessia Russo and Aitana Bonmati on the latest edition of popular computer game Football Manager.

"I was a bit shocked to be honest," said Amy, 29. "It's nice that a small town in Wales gets the opportunity to be on such a big game."

As an eight-team league whose players are still largely unpaid, the top flight in Wales – or Genero Adran Premier – seems an unlikely candidate to sit alongside the likes of the Women's Super League in England, or the American NWSL, on the game.

Last year's highest match attendance saw more than 2,200 fans at a Swansea-Cardiff derby, but crowds generally number in the hundreds or dozens – although the standard of football is "getting better and better", says Amy.

It's why she and her team-mates are so delighted by their unexpected inclusion on the popular game, whose last edition attracted 19 million players worldwide.

"I've played Football Manager since I was really young, it's a family thing for me as well," says Amy.

"So I'm just really excited for the opportunity to be on the game, and play as myself, alongside players like Lucy Bronze."

What the team's manager, Rhys James, hopes to see is this publicity – and the excitement of Wales' first major tournament appearance this year – translating into real-life support.

"There's a chance now, after this summer's Euros, to build interest and, here in Aberystwyth, that means getting people through the doors to watch the girls," he says.

"That would bring more money into the game locally, so they can be fairly rewarded for what they put in."

Self-confessed Football Manager fans include Paris Saint-Germain men's star Ousmane Dembele and Premier League boss Ange Postecoglou – with some clubs even using its extensive database as a scouting tool.

Unlike other popular football gaming titles such as FIFA (now EA Sports FC), the game's focus is on an all-encompassing simulation of managing a football club, rather than playing the matches themselves.

A spiritual successor to the long-running Championship Manager series, the game's last edition included 127 men's leagues across 55 countries.

However, this year's will be the first to include women's football, with Wales one of only 11 countries to make the cut.

Amy's late father Kevin Jenkins was previously on the game as a coach and chairman of village side Penrhyncoch – as is her brother Leigh, the team's current goalkeeper.

"I think we'll probably be one of the only brothers and sisters on the game," says Amy.

The Lionesses' Euros-winning stars are likely to be among the game's top-rated players, with Wales internationals also featuring for their clubs.

Aberystwyth midfielder Alaw Davies, 22, says being included alongside countries such as England, Spain and USA can add credibility to their league.

"It's great that we have something like this that stands out, which shows that we're not too far behind the others," she says.

Defender Sian Evans, 29, says playing FIFA in the past helped her with recognising players, something that is key for the visibility of the women's game.

"When you know the people on it, it just helps with generating that interest," she says.

"I'll have to see what my ratings are on the game, just to see if I'm as fast as Amy."

Harry Ware, who led the research in Wales for Football Manager, says despite the league's relatively low profile, it did have factors that "made it worth including".

He said there was "interest in Wrexham with the documentary", which follows Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as they buy the club to turn its fortunes around on and off the pitch.

"And Cardiff and Swansea are big clubs anyway," he says.

"The potential for it to grow is huge, because it's a league not many people know about."

Football Manager's players also tend to embrace the difficulties of choosing smaller clubs, he adds.

"There's almost an agenda against going for a big team, because it's seen as the easy way to do it.

"So Wales will be a good challenge for people in the game."

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) worked with the game's developers, Sports Interactive, to allow a licence to use the league's image rights.

But although the alternative platform offered by the game is "fantastic", says the FAW's strategic head of women and girls, there is more real-world progress to make.

"We're in a really exciting period for women's football, we saw that over the summer," says Bethan Woolley.

"Visibility is increasing, but there's still a long way to go."

That has already included a restructure of the national academy system, with a review also under way into domestic and grassroots football.

"We've now got better players coming through, that need a better environment and better support structures," Ms Woolley added.

"But if you can't see it, you can't be it.

"So we're doing our job to shine a positive light on women's football, for people to understand that there's a space for every woman, every girl across Wales to be involved in football, no matter which arena they want to be in."

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