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Background

This is a resource on Owain Fôn Williams, a footballer who played in goal for his country, and a highly respected artist who has exhibited his work in many of Wales’ most prominent galleries. The resource focuses on three portraits in the collection of the National Library of Wales:

Chris Coleman – former manager of the Wales National Football Team

Gareth Bale - the player who holds the record for the most caps and the most goals for Wales

Ashley Williams – captain of one of Wales' most successful national football teams.

Activities and experiences

  • Watch a video of Owain Fôn Williams, Ashley Williams, or Gareth Bale playing
  • Watch a video of Chris Coleman
  • Write a fact file about another member of the Wales Football Team
  • Create your own portrait of your favourite Welsh footballer

Key concepts

(derived from the statements of what matters)

Humanities
  • Investigate
  • Interpretation
  • Identity and Diversity
The Expressive Arts
  • Explore techniques and resources
  • Explore creative identity
  • Comparing creative work
  • Evaluating and developing
Health and Wellbeing
  • Social influences and norms
  • Identity and values
Language, Literacy and Communication
  • Reading strategies
  • Draw a conclusion
  • Vocabulary Development
  • Communicate effectively and communicate ideas and opinions (verbally)
  • Cooperation and discussion
  • Studying novels/prose
  • Reacting to texts

Portraits by Owain Fôn Williams

The portraits of Gareth Bale, Ashley Williams and Chris Coleman were created by Owain Fôn Williams to celebrate the Wales national football team’s success in the Euro 2016 championship.

The three portraits use oil on canvas. They were displayed as part of Owain Fôn Williams’ ‘Heroes’ exhibition at Oriel Môn, which included a number of portraits depicting the Welsh national football team during the Euros championship.

The three portraits have been part of the National Library of Wales collection since 2017.

Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale

Chris Coleman

Chris Coleman

Ashley Williams

Ashley Williams

Owain Fôn Williams

Owain Fôn Williams as a goalkeeper
Owain Fôn Williams as a goalkeeper

Owain Fôn Williams was born on 17 March 1987. He grew up the youngest of three boys, with two older brothers, Alun and Gethin. He was raised in the village of Penygroes in Dyffryn Nantlle, Gwynedd, and he attended Ysgol Gynradd Bro Lleu (Bro Lleu Primary School) and Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle (Dyffryn Nantlle Secondary School).

From a young age, Owain loved playing football with his brothers, and from the start he enjoyed playing as goalkeeper. His hero as a young boy was Peter Schmeichel, the Manchester United (Man Utd) goalkeeper and a Danish international. He has always supported Man Utd.            

When Owain was nine years old, he had a lung infection and needed to undergo major surgery at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. It was months before was able to play football again.

Sometime after starting secondary school, Owain was selected to play for the Arfon regional team. Whilst playing his first match for Arfon, he was invited by a Man Utd and Wales scout to train with the Wales Under-14s team. He also attracted interest from Man Utd.

Every school holiday for the following three years, Owain would train and play with the Man Utd 14-15 team at their training centre in Carrington, around ten miles from Old Trafford.

Following that, Owain spent periods at Liverpool, Everton and Wolves. When he was 16 years old, he was awarded a three year scholarship to play with the Crewe Alexandra youth teams, who at the time were in Division 1 of the English League.

In November 2003, when Owain was 17, he was capped for the first time for the Wales Under-17s team against Azerbaijan. Between 2004 and 2006, he represented the Wales Under-19s team.

Whilst playing for the Crewe Under-19s team against Manchester City, Owain broke his leg and wasn’t able to play football for nearly a year. When his scholarship came to an end in June 2006, Owain signed for Crewe for two more years, and in the 2007-2008 season he played 11 times for the Wales Under-21s team.

Following his time with Crewe, Owain signed for Stockport County for the 2008-09 season, and was awarded Player of the Year in his first season at the club.

In 2009, Owain received a call from John Toshak, the Wales national football team coach at the time, inviting him to join the national first team squad for a friendly against Poland in Portugal. He was on the bench for 29 games before receiving his first cap against the Netherlands, in a match played in Cardiff on 16 November 2015.

Owain Fôn Williams' book, 'Rhwng y Pyst'
Owain Fôn Williams' book

In the meantime, Owain spent two months in 2010 on loan to Bury. Then in January 2011, having played over 80 games for Stockport, he signed for Rochdale. He played for Rochdale 22 times.

Owain moved to Tranmere Rovers for the 2011-12 season, and was the first team goalkeeper there for four years.

In July 2015, Owain signed for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, staying with the club for three years. Then in 2018, he went on loan for a season to Indy Eleven, where he was awarded player of the year.

Owain signed for Hamilton Academical in June 2019, and in 2020 signed for Dunfermline Athletic.

Owain was a member of the Wales squad who competed in the final rounds of the 2016  European Football Championships in France. This was the first time Wales had reached a final of a major football tournament since 1958. Wales reached the semi-finals, a huge achievement. They lost 2-0 to Portugal in the semi-finals.

In April 2022, Owain retired from professional football, after having played more than 500 professional games across England, Scotland and the USA. He began his coaching career,  becoming goalkeeping coach for Northern Colarado Hailstorm FC in the USA. Later the same year he started as the goalkeeping coach for the first team at Fleetwood Town, England, and in June 2025, he took on the same role at Bolton Wanderers.

Owain has many interests outside of football, including fishing and playing the guitar. He’s also a talented artist. When in primary school, he developed his artistic skills by drawing goalkeeper gloves and football boots. He loved art lessons at Ysgol Uwchradd Dyffryn Nantlle, and during his apprenticeship at Crewe Alexandra, he attended South Cheshire College in order to study A-Level art.

Following this period, Owain didn’t draw for about eight years, but eventually he picked up his paint brushes again. He began by creating images of the slate quarries in Dyffryn Nantlle, where his grandfather had been a quarryman, and this is a theme that has endured in his artwork.

Some time later, he began to combine his pasion for football with his love of art and embarked on painting a number of oil on canvas portraits of the Welsh squad, portraying the excitement surrounding the Euro 2016 camp. By now, his work has been displayed in a number of locations, and three of his works – portraits of the ex-Wales manager Chris Coleman, and two of the ex-captains, Gareth Bale and Ashley Williams – are a part of the collection at the National Library of Wales.

Useful resource

Sharing and discussing opinions 

*Acknowledgement – the following quotes are translations from the Welsh language book Rhwng y Pyst by Owain Fôn Williams. Published by Gwasg Y Lolfa, 2017.

The motto of the Welsh national football team is: 

“Gorau Chwarae Cyd Chwarae”, which roughly translates as “Best play is best team”

Discuss as a group:

  • What is the meaning of this phrase?
  • In your opinion, is this a good motto? Why? 
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“Creating art helps me escape from the hustle and bustle of the footballing world. As a goalkeeper, I can be called all sorts of names by the crowd. Having to perform well in front of thousands every week also puts a person under pressure. To be able to escape to my painting hut at the bottom of the garden and lift a brush is therefore extremely  important to me. It means I can fully relax, by shutting the door on the world and its pressures.” 

Discuss as a group:

  • In your opinion, why is it important to have a place to escape to and relax, when feeling under pressure?
  • What do you like to do to relax when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed?
According to  Owain Fôn Williams: 

“Without a doubt, being in France with the Wales squad, during the summer of 2016, was the most exciting experience I’ve ever had.”

Discuss as a group:

  • What’s the most exciting experience you’ve ever had?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“I’d been in the Wales squad for a few years, which made me feel very proud. In my mind, that’s the greatest honour I could have had as a professional footballer... It’s been privilege to be a part of the Wales squad. I’m Welsh through and through, and ready to do anything for my country.”

Discuss as a group:

  • In your opinon, what do these words tell us about Owain as a person, and what he holds as important to him?

Playing football for Wales had been a dream of Owain’s since he was a little boy.

Discuss as a group:

  • What are the dreams and ambitions of each person in this group? What do you all need to do to achieve your dreams or ambitions?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“By the end of the Euro 2016 campaign, a few of the lads in the squad had said a word or two in Welsh when speaking with the media. They’d never done that before. To me, this showed how proud they were of representing their country, and a desire to celebrate their Welshness at every level.”

Discuss as a group:

  • In your opinion, how important is it for footballers to show pride in their Welshness, and to speak in Welsh as much as possible? In this respect, are they important role models? Why?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“I’ve learned that whatever the challenge we face – with hard work, collaboration and pulling together – it’s possible to achieve anything.”

Discuss as a group:

  • Do you agree with these words?
  • Can you think of a time when you’ve had to work hard, collaborate or pull together with others to overcome a challenge and achieve a goal?
  • How did you feel when you were successful?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“The Wales squad is different. We’re not just a group of people who happen to play football together. We’re mates, and have been for a number of years.”

Discuss as a group:

  • In your opinion, how important was it that the Welsh squad were friends as well as colleagues? How did this impact on their success in the Euro 2016 championship?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“Taking time to relax is essential for a professional player in any field. Taking a break from exercise is almost as much of a priority as the training itself. It’s important to feel fresh when at training and when playing a match.” 

Discuss as a group:

  • Do you agree that relaxation is important for proffesional sportspeople? Why?
  • What do you like to do to relax? 
     
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“When I was young I had two obsessions. The first, of course, was football, and the second was art.” 

Discuss as a group:

  • What do you enjoy doing more than anything else in the world? Why? How do you feel when you have the chance to take time to do your favourite thing?
According to Owain Fôn Williams: 

“One of the Wales team’s strengths during the Euro 2016 campaign was the fact that giving up was never an option.”

Discuss as a group:

  • In your opinion, how important is it to persevere and never give up? Can you think of a time when you’ve needed to show persistence in order to succeed?
Discuss as a group:
  • What do you think are the best qualities in a manager or captain?

Owain Fôn Williams’ portraits of Gareth Bale, Ashley Williams and Chris Coleman were a part of the ‘Heroes’ exhibition

Discuss as a group

  • In your opinion, what makes a ‘hero’?
  • Who is your hero?
     
Discuss as a group:
  • Look at the quotes Owain Fôn Williams has made about his portraits of Gareth Bale, Ashley Williams and Chris Coleman. What do his words say to you about his relationship with the three, and his attitude towards them?

     

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