Michaela Leigh Foster is a New Zealand

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays for

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

in the

A-League Women A-League Women (known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Federatio ...

and the New Zealand national team.

Early and personal life

Michaela Leigh Foster is the daughter of Ian Foster, a former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who coaches the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

. In November 2022, she got engaged to her girlfriend. She attended Hamilton Girls' High School, later working in its sports department while a

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

player.

Club career

Foster played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

in California for four years and, upon her return to New Zealand, worked different jobs while playing for

Northern Rovers Northern Rovers Football Club is an amateur football club based in Glenfield, New Zealand. Formed in 2020 as an amalgamation between Glenfield Rovers and Forrest Hill-Milford United, Northern Rovers men's team currently competes in the NRFL C ...

in the National League. Though a recognised youth international, she did not play for a top-flight football team until she was 24, when she joined

in October 2022 ahead of the

season. She had been offered a scholarship position on the squad, with a lower wage; with good performances despite the team's poor results, and having played every minute for the team, she was given a full contract after four matches. Foster is considered the set-piece specialist of the team.

International career

As a youth international, Foster captained New Zealand's under-17 and under-20 teams at their respective youth World Cups in 2016 and 2018. The under-17 coach said that while it can be hard to identify leaders in the youth levels, Foster stood out for her ''

mana According to Melanesian and Polynesian mythology, ''mana'' is a supernatural force that permeates the universe. Anyone or anything can have ''mana''. They believed it to be a cultivation or possession of energy and power, rather than being a ...

''. After her successful debut season in the A-League, Foster was called up to the senior New Zealand national team in February 2023, making her debut on 20 February 2023 in a friendly against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. She had originally been included only as a training player unavailable for selection, but with injury to

Rebekah Stott Rebekah Ashley Stott (born 17 June 1993) is a New Zealand footballer who plays for Brighton & Hove Albion in the English FA Women's Super League. She is a defender for the New Zealand women's national football team. She previously played for ...

was added to the squad. On 30 June 2023, Foster was called up to the New Zealand squad for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national association football teams organised ...

Career statistics

International

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Michaela 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Hamilton, New Zealand New Zealand women's association footballers Women's association football fullbacks New Zealand women's international footballers San Diego Toreros women's soccer players Wellington Phoenix FC (A-League Women) players A-League Women players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Expatriate sportspeople in the United States New Zealand LGBT footballers