Victoria Lucy Esson (born 6 March 1991) is a New Zealand

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, currently playing for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

and represents

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at international level.

Early life

Esson started playing football at the age of 10 for

Halswell United Halswell United is an amateur association football club based in Christchurch, New Zealand in the suburb of Halswell. They will compete in the New World Mainland Premier League. The club was founded in 1964 as Halswell United Soccer, changing i ...

. At first a midfielder and later defender, she became a goalkeeper at the age of 17. Playing for

Burnside High School Burnside High School ( mi, Te Kura o Waimairi-iri) is a state co-educational secondary school located in the suburb of Burnside in Christchurch, New Zealand. With a roll of students, it is the largest school in New Zealand outside Auckland, and ...

, Esson became the team captain and played at

Secondary School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

tournaments, getting selected to be part of South Island Secondary Schoolgirls squad and the Mainland's U-14 and U-16 squads.

Club career

Esson went to

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

in 2011, becoming Tech's first-ever international football play in the schools history. Esson became Tech's all-time leader in career shut-outs, career goals against and set school records for single season and consecutive shut-outs. Esson also broke the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

record for single season shut-outs with 15 in 2013. Esson ended her time in goal at Tech, winning 41 of their 62 games, including six draws. After graduating, Esson signed with

Avaldsnes IL Avaldsnes Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Avaldsnes, Karmøy, Rogaland. It was founded on 16 June 1937. The club has sections for football and handball. Women's football The women's team began play in 1989, winning the 1st Division of ...

. Struggling to adapt, she returned to New Zealand after just six weeks. She signed with

Coastal Spirit FC Coastal Spirit FC is an association football club in Christchurch, New Zealand. Their Premier Men's team currently competes in the Mainland Premier League. Their Premier Women's team competes in the Mainland Women's Premier League and were the 2 ...

, but missed most of the season with an injured hand. In 2014, Esson was captain of Mainland Pride as they won the

National Women's League National Women's League may refer to: * National Women's League (Canada), a women's rugby union league in Canada * National Women's League (Ghana), a women's football league in Ghana * National Women's League (New Zealand) The National League ( ...

, the top-flight women's football tournament of New Zealand. In 2019, Esson signed with Avaldsnes again, this time playing for three years. In February 2022, following the injury of first goalkeeper

Jasmin Pal Jasmin Pal (born 24 August 1996) is an Austrian footballer who plays for Köln. International career Pal was also part of the Austrian team at the 2022 European Championships The 2022 European Championships were the second edition of the Europ ...

, Esson was signed by

SC Sand SC Sand is a German sport club from Willstätt, Baden-Württemberg. The club was founded on 11 August 1946 and competes in football, aerobics, judo and qigong. The club is most known for its women's football section which plays in the Bundesliga ...

. In July 2022, Esson joined Scottish club

International career

Esson was a member of the New Zealand U-17 side at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

held in New Zealand, playing all three of three of New Zealand's group games. She was also part of the New Zealand U-20 teams for the

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Women's World Cups but didn't make an appearance on the field. Esson made her senior debut for the senior New Zealand team, the Football Ferns, against

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Coming on as a sub in the 80th minute in their 5–0 win. In April 2019, Esson was named to the final 23-player squad for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

. Esson was the starting goalie for New Zealand in all the games in 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 ...

.Co-host New Zealand out of Women's World Cup following 0-0 draw with Swiss
/ref>

Personal life

Esson completed her degree in wind, energy and industrial engineering while she was playing football at Texas Tech. Afterwards she got a job at the

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA; Māori: ''Te Mana Haumanu ki Waitaha'') was the public service department of New Zealand charged with coordinating the rebuild of Christchurch and the surrounding areas following the 22 Februar ...

.Fifa Women’s World Cup: The remarkable journey of Football Ferns goalkeeper Victoria Esson
/ref>

References

External links

*
Profile
at NZF * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Esson, Victoria 1991 births Living people Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic association footballers for New Zealand New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States New Zealand women's association footballers New Zealand women's international footballers Women's association football goalkeepers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Texas Tech Red Raiders women's soccer players Rangers W.F.C. players Expatriate women's footballers in Scotland New Zealand expatriate women's association footballers New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Norway New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Avaldsnes IL players SC Sand players Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Germany 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players