ANNABEL Martin dares to dream of suiting up in the green and gold of Australia for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The 21-year-old former Three Colours S-League and now Newcastle Jets W-League player has represented her country in the past at under-20 level with the Young Matildas.
Now with Australia and New Zealand to host the World Cup, Martin has three years to break into the senior Matildas.
“We have a great side right now, and for the Olympics next year hopefully, but I think there’ll be a bit of turnover with new players coming in, and a lot of players doing well in the W-League, that will help that overall with exposure and media,” Martin said.
“I’m loving my soccer at the moment. I’m super excited, and hopefully, maybe? I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.”
Martin described gaining the hosting rights for the World Cup as a huge moment for both countries.
“It’s come at a really good time and I think us and New Zealand thoroughly deserve it,” she said.
“I’m very excited to see what happens, not only between now and then but afterwards as well.”
Martin, who spends the W-League off-season in Sydney at college while playing in the Football NSW NPL for Sydney University and studying a journalism degree, has just returned to training after spending the enforced COVID-19 break recovering from a knee operation.
The operation was a clean out to fix issues that plagued Martin’s 2019-20 W-League season.
“I had surgery around February which was lucky. I’m only just coming back into full contact now. Games should start up in about three weeks,” she said.
“I timed it well given the circumstances. It’s just been good to be back up and running.
“I was lucky I got (surgery) done about a week before they stopped doing elective surgery, and then I got to go back to Mildura for a couple of months, which was lovely.”
Martin said the enforced break was a good chance to get ahead with her study.
“We all went online. It wasn’t a huge difference for me because it’s a lot of outside assignments with less contact hours than other subjects,” she said.
“It’s been nice concentrating on my studies more considering my injury.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has cast doubt over when the W-League season might kick off this year, Martin had her eyes forward on a second campaign with the Jets after playing for Melbourne Victory since the 2015-16 season.
“Melbourne Victory is obviously one of the biggest clubs in Australia, if not the biggest. Newcastle isn’t as much but it’s got a great community feel that I missed being in Melbourne,” she said.
Having grown up in Mildura, Martin drew parallels between Newcastle and her home town.
“It’s a little bit like Mildura in that sense. Everyone knows everyone, a couple of my teammates and I went up the street a couple of times and we got recognised which is something pretty cool and a bit different than Melbourne,” Martin said.
“I love living up there, right on the beach, it’s a great lifestyle and a little away from the city.”
