Cardiff: Whatever the outcome against Belgium Friday night, one message from Wales manager Chris Coleman has been unwavering.

“The journey does not end here,” he says. Part of that sentiment relates to his young team but there is a second longer-term objective following an unprecedented month in Welsh football. “We want to be role models and get other kids playing,” explained Gareth Bale.

“It is about the next generation and inspiring people.” Statistics about participation and attendances in Wales have been in favour of football rather than rugby union for some time but never before has the round-ball game enjoyed such prolonged spotlight.

The Six Nations of course provides an annual opportunity for rugby but there is a very keen sense that, amid wall-to-wall coverage on terrestrial television and the elimination of every other British team, football’s moment has finally arrived.

Shops are reporting an 800 per cent sales increase of Wales flags, fan zones in Cardiff, Newport, Anglesey and Pontypridd are selling out, local clubs are being inundated with inquiries from parents and football shirts rather than rugby shirts are currently the overwhelming choice of sports fans.

Neil Ward, the chief executive of the Football Association of Wales Trust, said: “Everyone you speak to is talking about football; even diehard rugby fans. It has captured their imagination. It’s great to see Wales truly on the international stage. It’s been beyond the wildest dreams.”

Around 30,000 Wales fans are estimated to have been in France and, through social media and videos that are being played to the squad on a daily basis, there is a very strong awareness of how their success is resonating. Some sort of homecoming in Cardiff already appears highly likely.

“The bond is just unbreakable,” says wing-back Chris Gunter. “Seeing grown men 20 yards from you in tears, that sheer joy, is enough for us. To know what we’ve given to the country and what they’ve given to us is quite unique. It’s brought the country closer together.”

Professor Laura McAllister, who is the former chair of Sport Wales, claimed last year that simply qualifying for Euro 2016 would be “more important to the reputation, profile and image of our nation” than even winning the rugby union World Cup.

Her argument hinged on research that showed around three times as many Welsh people were playing football and how the attendances at Swansea City and Cardiff City now dwarfed regional rugby.

She also contrasted the number of football-playing nations in the world (205) to rugby (around 25).

“No one would dream of denying the proud history of rugby here, or its historical and social import, but we simply cannot let rugby define us as a nation,” she said.

Ward agrees and is adamant that the two sports can actually feed off each other. The FAW Trust are now proactively engaging with the National Assembly for Wales and education ministers to encourage more schools football after a cross-curriculum resource they launched for Euro 2016 has been downloaded 7,000 times in two weeks in Welsh primary schools.

“There is space for both rugby and football; for more sport,” said Ward. “That’s important for the health of the nation. We want less competition at a younger age and, once we have captured them, it is about each individual sport to get its product right.”

A major focus for the FAW Trust has been delivering football in innovative guises so that it can appeal more widely, whether that be futsal, walking football, street football, five-a-side, veteran’s matches or beat-ball, a mixture of football and dance which is proving hugely popular with girls and women.

According to all the trust’s research, more people are playing football in Wales now than ever before. A stated target is that 50 per cent of all children will be playing at least once a week by 2024. A flexible structure to its coaching courses, which allows students to complete large elements of them online, has also attracted the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Jens Lehmann and Marcel Desailly to Wales.

With 12 of Coleman’s 23-man group having come through regional and national developmental squads, Ward is also confident that the structures will continue to produce players with the potential to qualify for further tournaments.

“We have a seamless pathway, a Welsh way of playing from top to bottom,” he said. The search for young talent who might have been born in England but qualify for Wales will also continue. “We have to work hard to make sure those players stay with us. Our size is a weakness but also our strength. You can develop that club ethos which players like. What has been achieved is by design and not default and, in terms of the quality of players coming through, the future looks healthy.”