Eternal Teenager

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Eternal Teenager

Women’s Football’s Eternal Teenager Still Going Strong

by Jeremy Ruane

The recent announcement of the Auckland squads to contest the ASB National Women’s Youth League early next year saw a name listed which is bound to prompt the raising of the odd eyebrow or three.

"How can it be a Youth League if she’s playing in it?" will be an argument some will doubtless put forward. But there’s nothing in the eligibility rules of the new competition to prevent New Zealand women’s football’s eternal teenager from gracing the colours of her province once more.

2011 will mark Maia Jackman’s twentieth successive season playing at the highest levels available to her in the game in this country. It’s a remarkable tribute to her self-discipline and personal fitness levels that she’s still performing to the best of her ability alongside and against peers who weren’t even born when the Whangarei / Kerikeri native headed south to Auckland in 1992.

The years in between have largely been unforgettable ones for the versatile 35-year-old, with such milestones as playing professionally in China and selection in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World All Stars squad just a couple of the highlights along the way.

Another was playing in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals. "That was an awesome experience", beams ‘MJ’. "It was really cool to play again in China, where I’d played professionally, and see and play against some of my friends at that tournament.

"It was hard, though. Our goals in ‘07, where we faced Brazil, Denmark and China, were to be credible in the group stage, knowing realistically that to make the quarter-finals would be a tough ask.

"We were a team that was far below the level which we are at now - we have come a long way".

China hosted the Olympic Games a year later, an event for which the Football Ferns qualified by beating Papua New Guinea. Maia played in that match, her 46th for her country, never realising at the time that it would be another twenty months before she would proudly sport the silver fern over her heart on the international stage.

"To say I was absolutely gutted about missing out on Olympic selection is probably an understatement. When you’re a kid, you see the Olympics on TV and it’s something you aspire to, even though it really was a far cry of a dream for me.

"When football became an Olympic sport for women, though, it opened up that dream for me, and it became a huge reality when we qualified for China ‘08. So to miss out on a childhood dream was …

She pauses. "I don’t know if I can describe my feelings. It’s still a bit of a soft point with me, even today. But it’s in the past now - you’ve just got to move forward and look to what you can do next".

And for Maia, New Zealand-wise, that was Japan in November 2009. "That was pretty indescribable", said the physiotherapist on her return to the national squad after such a lengthy absence.

"I always work hard, but I did a lot of training with the Mt. Albert Grammar School boys which improved my game. We had a few key players out who couldn’t make the Japan trip, so that was sort of an opening for me, but even then, it’s never a given that you’re going to play for your country.

"When I got the call-up to start it was a very humbling experience, and to get out there and listen to the national anthem … I definitely shed a tear or two. It just meant a lot for me to be out there again, ‘cause I went through a period where I didn’t know whether or

not I wanted to play soccer anymore.

"I made the decision to carry on because it’s something which I’m really passionate about, and I know that my body’s still OK to keep going, so I thought, "Well I can, so why not?" It was worth the effort and worth the decision to carry on".

It most certainly has been, culminating in a momentous occasion on October 6, when Maia captained her country for the second time in her career as she made her long-awaited fiftieth appearance for New Zealand. Did she ever think she would realise this milestone?

"I never say never. I always give myself the chance that I’ll be in contention for selection. I’ll set a goal and I’ll drive for it every time, until there’s a point where I think that I’ve given it absolutely everything I can, and that I can walk away with my head held high.

"I probably could have done that after being dropped from the Olympics, but I didn’t want to finish my international career that way. I knew that the Women’s World Cup qualifiers and the Peace Queen Cup were coming up - two things that I really strived to achieve this year - so I really put my head down and went for it".

And duly became the fifth player to realise a milestone which, when she took to the field as a bright-eyed eighteen-year-old in New York against Trinidad & Tobago in August 1993, had yet to be achieved.

"I’m probably fitter now than when I made my international debut!" declares the veteran of four Women’s World Cup qualifying campaigns. "My secret? I don’t know. Good genetics!

"I’m pretty happy with my parents for giving me what they gave me, but you’re given so much then you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. So I always give it my all when it comes to staying fit and, being 35 now, it’s still one of my biggest assets, and I don’t want to lose that.

"Just to get out and train hard and work hard has always been who I am and what I’m about, so that’s never going to change. Even when I finish playing soccer I’ll probably find something else to do to push my body to the limit".

Given that degree of dedication, can we anticipate the eternal teenager of NZ women’s football still being in contention for national selection when the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals and 2016 Olympic Games come around?

"I’m going to say no!!" But you said never say never! "True", she laughs, "but there’s a point!

"I am looking at 2011, to be honest, and maybe 2012 too. Initially, my plan was that if I made the Peace Queen Cup squad, I was going to retire after that, probably full stop. But having got this far, I’ve decided to carry on, and see if I can make another FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals a reality".

To that end, her inclusion in Auckland’s National Women’s Youth League squad makes an awful lot of sense, and her young team-mates would be foolish not to tap into the knowledge and experience their seemingly ageless team-mate has accumulated over two decades of playing at the highest levels of the game while the opportunity presents itself.

It also provides Maia Jackman with the perfect platform for her own objectives in 2011 - to earn selection for the Football Ferns’ Cyprus Cup campaign and other planned fixtures leading up to her prime goal for the coming year, playing for her country in Germany at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals.

Maia Jackman