Francesca Williams

Biography

Fran Williams describes herself as “your classic Pathway girl”. After first playing netball in her last year of primary school, she joined Woodley Netball Club before journeying from county netball to regional level to England trials. 

Call-ups for England U17, England U19 and England U21 – who she captained to bronze at the Netball World Youth Cup in Botswana in 2015 – followed, before she broke onto the senior international scene against Uganda in 2018. 

At 22 and with just three caps to her name prior to the start of the competition, she was the youngest member of an experienced England squad for the Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool. Unphased by the high-pressure stage and playing alongside one of her early inspirations in Geva Mentor, she made several appearances and won the first medal (a bronze) of her senior international career.  

Collected, consistent and spirited, 2023 was her year: a Netball Super League champion, named in the NSL All-Star VII, a Netball World Cup silver medallist, her first Super Netball contract and countless Player of the Match and Player of the Series accolades. 

Beyond the court, Williams is vocal about and holds a leading role in the ongoing development of our sport. At the elite level, she previously served as Player Chair for the Netball Players Association (NPA), which provides a unified voice supporting and promoting player wellbeing in the UK, before her move to the Super Netball league. 

We’re in a really strong position in that it’s such a female-dominated sport, in terms of it’s women helping other women, and I feel like that’s a really powerful place to be.

At a grassroots level, she has publicly demonstrated her support of NETBALLHer – an industry-leading education programme that aims to drive real change and normalise conversations on topics around the female body. A dedicated NetballHER website has been created where anyone can access expert resources for free.