The "Maia-das" Touch

The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home

SWANZ Star Jackman Has ‘The Maia-das Touch’

by Jeremy Ruane

New Zealand women’s soccer international Maia Jackman has developed something of a midas touch when it comes to being part of winning women’s soccer teams in recent seasons, and she has the medals to prove it.

The personal roll of honour sported by the spunky UNITEC gym instructor makes her one of the most decorated individuals in the history of Auckland women’s soccer, and given she’s aged just twenty-six, there is potential aplenty for her to add many more medals and representative appearances to her footballing CV, which is detailed in the left-hand column.

All in all, not bad going for a soccer star who started her career in the game as a ring-in!

Maia arrived in Auckland in 1991 from her home town, Kerikeri, where she first developed a liking for the sport. "My brother, Adrian, played the game, and I was always the kid sister thrown in to make up the numbers. I played in boys' teams up north, simply because there were no girls' teams in the area".

One day, then Centres of Excellence guru Kevin Fallon was in town. "At the end of the trial in which I played, he said, 'I want that young boy up front to come to my Centres of Excellence camp in Auckland'. The young boy, fourteen at the time, was me!”

So 'The Kerikeri Kid' duly came to the Queen City, caught the eye of Barbara Cox at the Centres of Excellence, and played for Eden in 1992.

During that season, she was selected in the Auckland U-18 squad which were beaten finalists in the Dana Cup, local Danish side FFI downing the cup holders 2-0.

Maia emerged from the tournament with her reputation greatly enhanced, her footballing ability proving to be a big hit with the other teams, as Auckland defeated Bottholma (Sweden) 4-0, and Jarder IL (Norway) 3-0, with Maia scoring twice, drew 0-0 with FFI (Denmark), then downing FC Lyon (France) 1-0 in the semi-final, with the rising star on target once more.

A year later, having switched to Avondale United, she was playing for New Zealand at the CONCACAF tournament in New York. "I had to pinch myself when the national anthem started playing against Canada on August 6, 1993. It was a huge step up for me, particularly as the highest level of play I had achieved prior to that had been at Under-19 level for Auckland".

After injury knocked her soccer ambitions sideways during the 1994 and early 1995 seasons, Maia effectively had to restart her career. It goes without saying, she has done so impressively, to the point where she is now an integral member of any team she plays for, be it her club side, Ellerslie, Auckland’s “A Team”, or the SWANZ.

"I've spent a fair bit of time on the bench for New Zealand" - (Judge Jackman?) - "but I've since added an extra string to my bow to help alleviate that", says the versatile international, who is now as effective in central defence or attack, as she is in her preferred role on the right-hand side of midfield.

Her most recent appearances for her country were in Australia, where New Zealand participated in the inaugural Pacific Cup women’s soccer competition in 2000, against the Australians, Canada, China, Japan and the world champions, the USA.

The consistency of her performances at this tournament earned Maia a nomination for New Zealand Soccer’s inaugural International Female Footballer of the Year award.

An Auckland rep since 1995, Maia has been a regular member of the National Championship-winning “The A Team” in the ensuing years, while in 2000, she was one of the stars of the highly successful Auckland Women’s Invitation Squad which toured South America in April, recording four wins, a draw and a solitary loss - in their first match - against the full international sides of Argentina, and Paraguay, and Uruguay’s leading women’s club teams.

It is in the world of club soccer where Maia has enjoyed the bulk of her successes, both individually and team-wise. After collecting nine winners’ medals in five seasons with Lynn-Avon (formerly Avondale) United, for whom she scored fifty goals, she joined Three Kings United in 1998.

"I felt like I wanted a change from Lynn-Avon, and I've always got on well with the Three Kings' squad, right from when I first played for the club in 1992, when they were known as Eden".

Seven trophies in three seasons followed, including two SWANZ Knockout Cup winners’ medals, as Three Kings became the first club to win New Zealand women’s club soccer’s symbol of national supremacy three years’ running.

Along with this feat came a very special honour for the team, as Three Kings United’s Premier Women’s side was crowned Sport Auckland’s Sports Team of the Year in 1999, the first time soccer has ever featured among the senior prizewinners at this prestigious awards ceremony.

On an individual basis, the budding footballing talent spotted by Kevin Fallon ten years previously had now blossomed into full maturity, for Maia capped off a memorable year in her career with the Soccer Auckland Women’s Player of the Year trophy on her mantelpiece, making her the first person to win both the senior and Young Player of the Year awards since the latter honour’s inception in 1992.

Despite struggling with a niggling back injury for much of the 2000 season, her consistent on-field efforts earned Maia the team’s Supporters’ Player of the Year award, while she finished as the team’s top goalscorer for the second year running, having now struck 54 goals for the club, and 104 all told in senior club soccer to that point.

In achieving this honour, “Mai-Mai”, who is an awesome sight to behold when using her devastating acceleration to thunder past an opponent, scored six goals in a match for the first time in her career, and netted her fiftieth career goal for Three Kings in the same game - only four players have scored more goals for the club since 1987.

The bulk of the goals she has scored have come at club level, primarily because Maia’s versatility has counted against her being able to repeat these scoring feats to the same degree when on representative duty.

In whichever position she plays, Maia gives everything of herself. She’s a tremendous competitor, blessed with phenomenal pace, who never knows when she’s beaten - her heart is HUGE!!

Her display in the 2001 SWANZ Knockout Cup Final for Ellerslie, to whom she moved upon the break-up of the Three Kings squad at the end of the 2000 season, epitomised her approach to the game.

Maia copped a physical battering from her opponents throughout the match, but still kept coming back for more, and ultimately had the last laugh, as she picked up her fourth winner’s medal in the competition - a feat no other player has achieved!

Although it wasn't announced in 2001, her efforts earned her Auckland's Sportswoman of the Year award, while the following year, she played an integral role in helping the Auckland-Manukau squad clinch the inaugural National Women's Soccer League crown.

During the new competition, she produced one of the performances of her life in a 2-2 draw at Mainland Soccer (Canterbury), no doubt drawing on the experience she gained from her short-term professional contract in the Chinese Women's Super League with Dalian Shide.

Maia's efforts in China were good enough to earn her praise from all the league's coaches, to such an extent that, of the ten imported players who played in the competition, she was rated number one! It was this achievement which saw her become the first recipient of The Jeremy Ruane Trophy, awarded for Meritorious Achievement by a team or individual from the Northern Women's Soccer region.

If she has a weakness in her game, it is her technical prowess. The role of the front-running striker demands many attributes, but there are four key factors, which are best summed up in the formula (FP)².

Improving both her first touch and her finishing are the key aspects which Maia needs to continue working on to better herself in the role. The other prime ingredients, pace and power, she boasts in abundance, while she has an added string to her bow, a result of being a striking physical specimen (no pun intended!).

I don’t mind admitting that Maia is blessed with one of the most magnificent physiques I’ve seen in women’s sport in New Zealand, never mind women‘s soccer.

Her lean, well-sculptured, superbly conditioned body is a glowing tribute to her self-discipline, i.e. mixing a healthy diet with a series of exercise routines aimed at keeping herself in peak physical condition, subject, of course, to injury. In this regard, she’s an outstanding role model for her sport.

The same statement applies to a couple of her team-mates down the years - no names, but I don‘t think it‘s that hard to guess to whom I’m referring!!

Thankfully, Maia and colleagues haven’t been encouraged to sell themselves, or their sport, short, by stripping for the cameras in the manner Australia’s Matildas did in preparation for their 2000 calendar.

We’re a far more dignified bunch on this side of the Tasman, preferring to attempt to do our talking via our footballing ability, rather than calendar sales figures, on the all-too-rare occasions when we do grace the world stage!!

The prodigious talent that is Maia Jackman is held in very high esteem by team-mates, opponents and supporters alike, so much so that this writer has never heard anyone speaking ill of her - few are the people in this day and age about whom this can be said.

Furthermore, she has the brains to match her good looks and undoubted footballing ability. "I completed my Bachelor of Sports Science degree in 1997, but decided against doing the post-graduate course. Instead, I'm now studying Physiotherapy, which I intend to complete in 2001".

These physiotherapy studies have come in handy on the soccer pitch as well. Her skills in this field have been called upon on a number of occasions in recent seasons to the ultimate benefit of an injured opponent - not just a good sportswoman, but a good sport as well!

Must be something to do with having ... ‘The Maia-das Touch!’

Maia Jackman