Abby May Erceg (born 20 November 1989) is a professional 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 ...

who plays as a defender. She is the captain of the

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York ...

in the National Women's Soccer League. She has previously played for

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

in the NWSL, Jena in the German Bundesliga, FC Saitama in the Japanese Nadashiko League and

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

in the Australian W-League. Erceg was the first player (male or female) from New Zealand to play 100 international matches.

Early life

Erceg attended

Mount Roskill Grammar School Mount Roskill Grammar School is a secondary school in the suburb of Mount Roskill, Auckland. Officially opened in 1953, the school is widely regarded as one of the most diverse schools in Auckland, having students of over 70 different national ...

Club career

Erceg signed with German side

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

in 2013. She was loaned to the

, an NWSL club, and played there for two months during the Bundesliga's 2014 summer break. After she returned and played the first half of the 2014–15 Bundesliga season, she and the Jena club ended her contract during the winter break. Erceg then signed with the Chicago Red Stars in May 2014. In November 2015, the Red Stars traded her to the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Pro ...

. In 2016, she captained the Western New York Flash to a NWSL League Championship. Erceg became part of the

in 2017 after the

were sold to the owners of North Carolina FC. She would remain captain as the Courage won the 2017 NWSL Shield and appeared in the 2017 NWSL Final where they lost 1–0 to the Portland Thorns. Erceg was named to the NWSL Second XI for the 2017 season. Erceg was named the NWSL Team of the Month for May, June, July & August in the 2018 season. She helped the Courage to win their second straight NWSL shield. North Carolina broke the record for fewest goals conceded during a season, and only suffered 1 loss. The North Carolina Courage won the 2018 NWSL Championship after beating the Portland Thorns 3–0. They didn't concede a goal in either of their play-off games. Erceg was named to the 2018 NWSL Best XI, and was named 2018 NWSL Defender of the Year. Erceg was again named in the NWSL Second XI for 2019 as the Courage won the NWSL Shield and Championship again.

International career

Erceg made her full Football Ferns début in a 0–3 loss to China on 14 November 2006, and represented New Zealand at the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

finals in China, where they lost to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

0–5,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

(0–2) and China (0–2). Erceg was also included in the New Zealand squad for the 2008 Summer Olympics where they drew with Japan (2–2) before losing to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

(0–1) and

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(0–4). In the following tournament, Erceg helped New Zealand reach the quarterfinals, the Ferns' first ever knockout game in a FIFA tournament. There they lost 2–0 to the United States. She was included in the U-20 squad for the 2008 Women's U-20 World Cup finals in Chile. Erceg earned her 50th cap for New Zealand aged just 21 when starting New Zealand's 2011 Cyprus Cup opening match against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 2 March 2011 and becoming the third most capped female player in New Zealand Football history with 62 caps to her name. Erceg was also a part of the team that qualified for the

Women's Football World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bod ...

that took place in Germany, in 2011 where they finished 12th overall. Erceg's experience led her to be named captain of the Football Ferns in 2014. In the first game of the 2014 OFC Women's Nations Cup, she became the first player from New Zealand to reach 100 international caps. She featured in all New Zealand's three matches at the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

in Canada. Erceg was named for the 2016 Olympics squad, which will be her sixth international tournament representing New Zealand. In February 2017, Erceg announced her retirement from the international game on social media, writing "Due to the unfortunate and unfavourable circumstances within the organisation that is NZF, it is with regret and great sadness that today is the day that I announce my retirement from the international game. Without being able to justify my involvement any longer I will be stepping back in the hopes to create change for the current and future generations of NZ footballers." In February 2018, Erceg came out of retirement to play for New Zealand in their two friendlies against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in Spain. She then retired again for the second time in May 2018 before New Zealand's friendly against Japan. In January 2019, Erceg came back out of international retirement ahead of the 2019 Cup of Nations and 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. I ...

. In April 2019, Erceg was named to the final 23-player squad for the

. In June 2021, Erceg was named to the roster for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

International goals

Personal life

Erceg is of Croatian- Māori descent, and affiliates to the

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 16 ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...

Honours

;Western New York Flash * NWSL Champions:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

North Carolina Courage * NWSL Champions:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

* NWSL Shield:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

* NWSL Challenge Cup:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

;Individual *NWSL Defender of the Year:

*NWSL Best XI:

*NWSL Second XI:

, 2020 * IFFHS OFC Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Erceg, Abby 1989 births Living people Adelaide United FC (A-League Women) players Chicago Red Stars players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States FIFA Century Club FF USV Jena players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Ngāpuhi people National Women's Soccer League players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany New Zealand people of Croatian descent New Zealand women's association footballers New Zealand women's international footballers North Carolina Courage players Olympic association footballers of New Zealand Sportspeople from Whangārei Western New York Flash players Women's association football defenders 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Australia New Zealand expatriate women's association footballers