The Football Ferns have been drawn from clubs in six different nations – seven if you count the most recent Northern Hemisphere season – with players making the trip from pro outfits in Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, England, and USA to join their New Zealand-domiciled teammates.
While other nations may consist of more professionals, few if any, are as regionally diverse as the Football Ferns.
In 2007, New Zealand’s squad had a solitary professional and four years later that number had grown to five.
Fast forward to the eve of the 2015 event, New Zealand’s squad boasts a dozen players with professional experience in various corners of the globe with a handful more poised to join those ranks once their studies are completed in the US college system.
Vittsjo midfielder Kirsty Yallop, one of the first of the current team to land a contract in Europe, says it is more than just the fulfilment of a football ambition.
“It’s a really positive thing for our team because we now we have players in the best leagues in the world and a lot of girls who have been to University in America,” says Yallop.
“It’s really improved the quality of our play and our players are constantly improving and pushing themselves to be better.
“Playing against the best players week in and week out has been massive for us as a team.
“Being able to play professionally as a footballer is everything we’ve always dreamed of. You can only get better when you get paid to play and you don’t have to worry about having another job to support yourself.“
Coach Tony Readings says the Football Ferns migration is down to the team’s performance within a sport that continues to grow.
“The players have trained hard, the team performs well and those players get recognised and then they get opportunities to go overseas. It’s also coincided with the fact that the women’s game has grown so much and football is a genuine career path for players.”
Of previous campaigns, Readings says the cohesion that came from training together in Auckland fulltime was a strength, but that has had to evolve and the team find new benefits from the changing landscape.
“Since then, with the migration of players overseas, we still have that cohesion but we have to work a lot harder to achieve that in a short space of time because only have players three or four days ahead of a big match.”
“But what is does mean is that when players come back they are coming from environments where they are training and playing against some of the best players in the world regularly; they’re experiencing different cultures and different styles of play and they are growing as people as well.
“All of those ingredients mixed in make us a stronger unit.”
Readings credits the support from High Performance Sport New Zealand in enabling player migration to fuel further success rather than stall it.
“When we wrote the four-year plan after the 2012 Olympics we were fully aware the challenges we’d face with players going overseas.
“So part of the plan was to make sure we had more staff to make sure we can track and monitor these players better; whilst we can’t control them in the environments we can have an influence over how they train, are developed and what they focus on.
“At the same time we increased the number of games we had, and against the better teams in the world, so we are together more often. We needed to play more games but it also increases the contact time with the players.
“It’s been a real part of our strategy. We knew it was going to be a barrier but we have systems and plans in place to meet the challenge.”
FIFA Women’s World Cup
Football Ferns v Netherlands
Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada
Sunday 7 June, 1pm NZ time
LIVE on SKY Sport
NZLNED
Story courtesy of New Zealand Football
For more on FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ visit www.fifa.com

Share