Women's World Cup 2023: Michaela Foster's remarkable rise from supermarket to New Zealand team
- Published
All Blacks coach Ian Foster (left) - pictured with wife Leigh (right) - has two World Cups on his mind as his daughter Michaela prepares for the Fifa Women's World Cup before he takes New Zealand to France for the 2023 men's Rugby World Cup
2023 Fifa Women's World Cup on the BBC |
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Date: 20 July-20 August Co-hosts: Australia and New Zealand Coverage: Watch on BBC television, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app; listen to commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live; follow live text on BBC Sport website. Click here for Women's World Cup TV schedule |
When Ian Foster bought advance tickets for the opening game of the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, the New Zealand men's rugby coach did not realise his daughter might feature.
Last October, Michaela Foster was working in a supermarket after her initial contract at Wellington Phoenix left the defender requiring a second job to supplement her wage.
"There are some really good people there [at the supermarket]. It was a really cool environment to be among," says Michaela, who resigned from her job as a teacher to pursue her dream of playing professional football.
In the past nine months she has established herself at Phoenix, made her debut for the Football Ferns and been picked for her country's home World Cup.
It has been a remarkable climb and should Michaela, 24, feature in the tournament's opening game against Norway on 20 July (08:00 BST kick-off), it will be a hugely proud moment for her father, who is currently preparing for the forthcoming 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Michaela says the moment she found out she had been called up she phoned her dad.
"I think he ran out of a meeting to take it, so it was quick phone call but a very proud one, and then I spent an hour on the phone talking to mum about it.
"It was really special to share that moment with them both."
Up until 10 July, when New Zealand earned a warm-up win over Vietnam,, external they had gone 11 years since winning on home soil, and their ambitions at this World Cup are modest.
They have not won a single game in 15 attempts at any of their previous five appearances on the global stage.
But the Football Ferns have the backing of the All Blacks as well as a home crowd roaring them on at the biggest women's football tournament yet.
Football Ferns on home soil since defeating China in 2012 | |||
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10 July 2023 | v Vietnam | 2-0 | Won |
23 February 2023 | v Argentina | 0-1 | Lost |
20 February 2023 | v Argentina | 0-2 | Lost |
17 February 2023 | v Portugal | 0-5 | Lost |
21 January 2023 | v United States | 0-5 | Lost |
18 January 2023 | v United States | 0-4 | Lost |
15 November 2022 | v South Korea | 1-1 | Draw |
12 November 2022 | v South Korea | 0-1 | Lost |
10 June 2018 | v Japan | 1-3 | Lost |
12 February 2015 | v Australia | 2-3 | Lost |
8 February 2015 | v North Korea | 1-1 | Draw |
20 June 2014 | v Brazil | 0-0 | Draw |
16 June 2014 | v Brazil | 1-1 | Draw |
Eyes of the world on New Zealand
New Zealand is used to hosting World Cups.
The upcoming tournament will be the third to be staged on these shores in less than 18 months after the Women's Cricket World Cup, in March-April 2022, was followed a few months later by the Women's Rugby World Cup, when 42,579 packed into Eden Park to see the hosts defeat England in the final.
Eden Park's capacity for this World Cup is 40,536 and a full house is expected on Thursday when the opening ceremony is followed by a game in which the Football Ferns play at the national stadium for only a second time.
That the hosts have managed to sell so many tickets is an achievement in itself.
The record attendance for a football match in a nation of just five million people is the 37,034 who watched New Zealand's men's national team play Peru in a World Cup play-off in Wellington, the capital, in 2017.
The 2023 Women's World Cup is an immensely proud moment for a nation where rugby and cricket usually dominate the sporting agenda.
New Zealand has been preparing for this moment since Fifa announced in 2020 they, along with Australia, would co-host the first Women's World Cup to feature 32 nations.
Around 30,000 international visitors are expected to visit the islands for the tournament, while more than 300,000 advanced tickets have been sold for 29 games in Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton.
"After seeing the Euros, I'm all the more convinced that this is going to be an incredible World Cup and that new standards will be set," says American-born Kiwi defender Ali Riley, who will be New Zealand's co-captain along with Tottenham's Ria Percival at the tournament.
"As a representative of one of the host nations, it's really important for me that that happens.
"People can no longer say that no-one cares [about women's football] because it's been shown beyond doubt that they do."
The Football Ferns wore special jackets before the friendly with Vietnam on 10 July featuring the names of all 204 players to have represented New Zealand's women's team
Ice cream on the menu?
Coach Jitka Klimkova will lead a New Zealand side hoping to record a landmark win or two in a group featuring 1995 world champions Norway, Switzerland and World Cup debutants the Philippines.
The Football Ferns are ranked 26th in the world and the last New Zealand player to score a goal for them on the global stage was Hannah Wilkinson against China in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2015.
"I know what it means for them to put the shirt on and they will fight," said Czech Republic-born Klimkova, who spent her first few months following her appointment in 2021 unable to step foot in New Zealand because of Covid restrictions., external
When the Football Ferns win, they celebrate by eating ice cream., external
They haven't tasted the frozen dessert too many times lately but Klimkova is determined it reappears on the menu over the next few weeks.