Teenage striker has instinct to succeed
A former New Zealand international is leading the calls for 17-year-old Wellington Phoenix striker Milly Clegg to be included in the next Football Ferns squad, believing she could provide the ‘‘killer instinct’’ the team has been missing.
Goals in back-to-back A-League Women games have shot the New Zealand age-group star into the conversation for a senior call-up with less than six months to go until the Women’s World Cup.
Clegg is only eight games into her A-League career but the Mount Albert Grammar School student has picked up where she left off after experiencing a breakout year in 2022, starting and scoring for New Zealand at the Under-20 and Under-17 World Cups.
Former Football Fern Katie Duncan played alongside Clegg for Auckland United in the Kate Sheppard Cup final last year and is urging national team coach Jitka Klimkova to pick the talented teenager for New Zealand’s upcoming matches against Argentina and Portugal, with a view to including her in the World Cup squad. The squad for the matches against Argentina and Portugal is due to be named next week.
‘‘Someone like her, she has spark and a lot of potential, so for me the earlier you can get someone like her in the environment the better it’s going to be for the Football Ferns in the future,’’ Duncan said.
‘‘We have lacked goalscoring strikers in the past, and in the present, if I’m to be brutally honest. She can score goals and striker is an area we’ve really struggled with in terms of a real killer-instinct strikers.’’
Clegg did not score in the Kate Sheppard Cup final but showcased another aspect of her attacking game by setting up the matchwinning goal with an intelligent ball over the top for Martine Puketapu.
Clegg signed an amateur contract with the Phoenix in order to retain her NCAA eligibility should she wish to take up scholarship in the United States. But she is already looking at home on the professional stage, and has cemented a starting spot on the right wing for the Phoenix despite being the youngest player on the youngest team.
Clegg produced a starring role in the Phoenix’s first win against Canberra United, a 5-0 thrashing, scoring her first goal for the club.
The daughter of former New Zealand hockey international Kylie Clegg (nee Foy) backed that up with a well-taken goal in their dramatic 3-3 draw with Brisbane Roar last weekend.
An inability to score goals has been a major concern for the Football Ferns, and Duncan said it was exciting to finally see a clinical young striker emerge.
New Zealand have only found the back of the net 14 times in their 26 games since the last World Cup in 2019.
‘‘She’s got an eye for the goal. I think being exposed to training with boys, you kind of have to make your mark or you just don’t do well, and I think that’s been a real positive for her, that she was able to train with boys for such a long time.’’
‘‘Why would you not put her in the mix? Give her that exposure and experience and she might not be quite ready for the World Cup [right now], maybe, but there’s a few tours before the World Cup so why not make her a part of it?’’
It was at the 2019 New Zealand secondary schools championships when New Zealand under-17 coach Leon Birnie first got a glimpse of Clegg’s finishing prowess. Clegg scored 13 goals for Mount Albert Grammar School during the tournament to win the golden boot award. She was only 13 at the time.
‘‘When I first saw her, and I didn’t know her then, the first three things I saw was that she was a clinical finisher, she was very consistent with her finishing and what I would call a natural finisher,’’ Birnie said.
After watching her play at that tournament, Birnie invited Clegg to experience a New Zealand under-17 camp a World Cup cycle early.
Two years later, Clegg was a key figure in Birnie’s World Cup squad.
‘‘Over my 10 years I’ve only done that with a handful of players.
‘‘I’m very reluctant to bring players in early unless I can see potential and longevity and I saw both of those things in her.’’
She scored the team’s only two goals in defeats to Chile and Germany at the Under-17 World Cup.
Although she was only 16, the youngest player in the squad, Clegg started in all three games at the Under-20 World Cup.
Birnie said it was unusual for a player to start at two age-group World Cup tournaments in the same year, let alone score at them.
‘‘She’s proven she can score in three environments now, the Under17 World Cup, the Under-20 World Cup and now the A-League.’’
But can Clegg make it three World Cups in 12 months by earning selection in the Football Ferns squad for the home World Cup?
Clegg herself was asked that question after scoring her first goal for the Phoenix.
‘‘That would be a dream come true, but I’ll just keep working hard and try to put in good performances and see what happens,’’ she said.
‘‘Why would you not put her in the mix? Give her that exposure and experience.’’ Former Football Fern Katie Duncan on Milly Clegg