Van Lienen secures football scholarship
Young Manawatu¯ footballer Gorgi van Lienen is off to try her luck in the United States.
The 18-year-old van Lienen is a gun sportswoman in tennis, triathlon, cycling and swimming, but chose to focus on football.
She now has a four-year football scholarship for Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut, 90 minutes from New York. She will study business.
The left back had her final year of school at Auckland’s St Kentigern College last year, having done the rest of her schooling at Palmerston North Girls’ High School.
She captained the Girls’ High team to eighth place at the national secondary schools championships in 2016, where they were knocked out by St Kentigern.
Van Lienen was later approached by St Kentigern about joining them and the next year they won the national title for the first time and she was voted the most valuable player. While in Auckland she also played for the Three Kings club.
She was spotted by Platform Sports Management scouts while playing for St Kentigern. She wasn’t sure about going overseas to play, but after she had a good season last year she was keen.
This year she played for Wairarapa United under former Wellington Phoenix star Paul Ifill.
Post University should be a young side this year and van Lienen said they’re building for the next couple of seasons.
There are two other international players in the team, one from the Netherlands and one from Sweden, who have already been in contact with her to help with her move.
A technical player, van Lienen expected the league to be fast and physical.
They will play two games a week, mainly against universities around New York. Post University play in NCAA division two and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.
As for her football ambitions, she said she would see what happens once she gets to the United States. Van Lienen has previously played national league football for Central, following in the footsteps of her father John, who played for Manawatu¯ AFC in the late 1980s.