What’s next for U17 stars?
The New Zealand under-17 women’s football team have bronze medals around their necks and memories that will last a lifetime, but what’s next after their history-making run at the World Cup in Uruguay?
Some may yet be involved in the closing stages of the National Women’s League – the last round takes place this weekend, with the final between the Northern Lights and either the Canterbury United Pride or Auckland to follow.
Six are already involved in the Future Ferns Domestic Programme [FFDP], New Zealand Football’s effort to help players progress to professional football and otherwise prepare them for the senior international game. That number is likely to grow in the new year, as they set their sights on the Under-20 World Cup in 2020 and beyond.
Midfielder Maya Hahn has decided her immediate future lies in the United States’ college system, accepting a scholarship to play for the University of Oregon. Goalkeeper Anna Leat has flown from Uruguay to visit colleges in the US, and she is set to have no shortage of suitors, given her heroics over the past three weeks. They won’t be the only ones to consider that pathway.
New Zealand currently has more professional women’s players than at any point previously and several of this cohort will be eager to join them. Leat is a leading contender, having made her Football Ferns debut at 15, as is Maggie Jenkins, who did so at 16, while captain Aneka Mittendorff, a centre back, is also highly rated.
Currently aged 16 and 17, the whole squad have plenty of mental, physical, and technical development ahead of them. Some will rise while others fall, and many will decide their future lies away from football, whether now or further down the line.
Most will be back in New Zealand’s senior club competitions next winter, while some will also be back at high school. There, they will be living, breathing examples of what it’s possible to achieve as a footballer from these shores.
Ben Bate coaches Forrest Hill Milford United, based on Auckland’s North Shore, home to four of the under-17s – Mittendorff, Rose Luxton, Arabella Maynard, and Hannah Mackay-Wright – during the season just gone, where they made it to the final of the Kate Sheppard Cup national knockout competition.
He said having players with international experience involved was great for building a positive learning environment at the club, which also boasts several senior and under-20 internationals.
‘‘We have a number of our 14th grade and 16th grade players that train with the first team periodically throughout the season, and they’re all awestruck by these girls, because they get to go and watch them on TV at certain times of the year.
‘‘We talk about it a lot, it’s about providing those inspirational female role models that haven’t necessarily been there in the past.
‘‘That’s the beauty of the club environment in New Zealand, that a lot of younger players get to rub shoulders with internationals very often, so hopefully this inspires them to see that anything’s possible, really.’’
New Zealand sent 97 players to Under-17 World Cups before this one, 29 of whom have gone on to play for the Football Ferns, a group that includes Jenkins and Leat, two of the six currently involved in the FFDP.
On average, that suggests five more Ferns may come from this group in the years ahead. Fellow FFDP members Mackay-Wright, Mittendorff, Macey Fraser and Gabi Rennie are leading contenders, and given what they’ve done over the past few weeks, it’s a dream they will all be able to believe in just a little bit more.