Australia’s newest footballing superstar is something of a link between the old and the new of women’s football.
Ellie Carpenter is only 20 but she’s already been a top-level footballer for six years and a Matilda for five. And the kid from Cowra just signed with the best team in the world, Olympique Lyonnais.
Her memories of going to watch her first Matildas game as a little girl are, frankly, not that distant.
She recalls seeing the Australian team in Parramatta as an eight-year-old and thinking: “I want to be part of that one day.”
Now very much a part of the national team setup with 31 appearances to her name, the classy right-back will very likely be in the thick of things when Australia and New Zealand host the Women’s World Cup in three years’ time.
The trans-Tasman bid successfully saw off its only challenger, Colombia, and outlasted strong bids from Japan and Brazil, to the elation of the Australian football community, especially those involved in the women’s game.
Fiona Crawford, the co-author of the book Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football, says co-hosting the World Cup was the next obvious step in the trajectory of the Matildas.
“They’ve made some incredible gains on and off the pitch in recent years. Hosting the Women’s World Cup cements and extends those,” she said.
“Two