Australia women’s soccer team roster: players, profiles, stars

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be co-hosted for the first time by Australia and New Zealand. Established by FIFA in 1991, the Women’s World Cup is regarded the ultimate competition in women’s soccer. With the ninth edition about to get underway, it is worth noting that only four nations - the United States, Germany, Japan and Norway have lifted the trophy in this prestigious quadrennial event, which will feature 32 teams from around the globe.

As part of AS USA’s collaboration with The Guardian, we bring you the player profiles of each of Australia’s women’s national team squad. Compiled and written by Joey Lynch, who works for Guardian Australia, these profiles include everything about these players, from their positions to their clubs and accomplishments.

You can also check out the full in-depth team guide for Australia here.

Goalkeepers

Name: Mackenzie Arnold

Date of birth: 20/10/1997

Club: West Ham

Position: Goalkeeper

Profile: Tony Gustavsson has chopped and changed his starting goalkeeper across this cycle, meaning it is difficult to say who his preference will be when the tournament opens, but given her recent run of form and starts at club and international level, it appears that Arnold is in line to be first choice. No doubt music to ears she’s hearing a bit clearer now; the West Ham keeper revealed after the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone behind masks and robbed her of the ability to lip read, that she finally bit the bullet on a problem that had been affecting her since her early 20s and got her hearing checked, leading to her being fitted with hearing aids. “There’s been quite a few messages from parents and kids who’ve been playing with hearing aids and some people that are my age as well that have thanked me for speaking out about it,” she told AAP.

Name: Lydia Williams

Date of birth: 13/05/1988

Club: Brighton & Hove Albion

Position: Goalkeeper

Profile: A veteran of more than 100 appearances for Australia, Williams has been a fixture in the national setup since 2006 and regardless of whether she is starting, she serves as a priceless and well-loved leader of the side. Not bad for someone who had not heard of the Matildas until she was called up to the national setup for the first time as a 15-year-old. Her chances of starting at the World Cup have been hampered by a dearth of minutes at club level – playing only 180 league minutes for Arsenal and PSG in 2022 before moving to Brighton. A proud Noongar woman, the 34-year-old spent much of her childhood in Kalgoorlie where she raised two kangaroos and developed a deep connection to Country (an Australian term that refers to the physical and spiritual connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to their ancestral land). In 2019 she authored a children’s book Saved!!!, which drew upon her upbringing and rise as an Indigenous footballer.

Name: Teagan Micah

Date of birth: 20/10/1997

Club: Rosengård

Position: Goalkeeper

Profile: Born in the regional Victorian town of Moe, Micah was the first-choice keeper for the Matildas at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, saving a crucial penalty in extra time of their victory over Great Britain in the quarter-finals. Concussion concerns, however, have dogged her preparation for the World Cup and probably robbed her of the chance to take up the No 1 mantle, a missed six months of football after a collision in a Champions League match last December throwing even her place in this squad up in the air. The 25-year-old is one of the few players in the Matildas squad to have been developed in the American collegiate system, having enjoyed a successful stint with the UCLA Bruins.

Name: Jada Whyman

Date of birth: 24 October 1999

Club: Sydney FC

Position: Goalkeeper

Profile: The Mackenzie Arnold/Lydia Williams/Teagan Micah triumvirate has had an almost unbreakable stranglehold on the Matildas’ goalkeeping stocks over this cycle but with Micah’s concussion issues ultimately proving impossible to overcome, Whyman, long zeroed in on by the coaching staff as the next keeper up, heads to her first World Cup. Indeed, Whyman had engaged in a battle with Melbourne Victory’s Casey Dumont for the title of most in-form Australian keeper during the past ALW season but with it becoming increasingly apparent that the national setup had long tapped Whyman, Dumont made a cross-code switch to AFLW side Hawthorn in April.

Defenders

Name: Courtney Nevin

Date of birth: 12/02/2002

Club: Hammarby

Position: Full-back

Profile: Nevin typifies the pathway into the Matildas team that Tony Gustavsson, his staff and Football Australia have attempted to hone in recent years: racking up minutes in the A-League Women competition alongside her progression through the Junior Matildas, Young Matildas, and Future Matildas programs before being called into the senior side and securing a move overseas. Her first call-up to the Matildas coincided with her high school exams in 2019, and Nevin has been a regular part of squads since; backed through some inconsistent performances to develop into an important depth player that can operate in multiple defensive roles, like her role model Steph Catley.

Name: Aivi Luik

Date of birth: 18/03/1985

Club: Häcken

Position: Defender

Profile: Luik is the type of player that every side need but not all are blessed to have: a tireless worker and able to fill in at multiple positions, who does the hard yards without expecting much praise or fanfare. After spending much of her career in midfield, the 38-year-old shifted into the backline later on in her career and with the Matildas experiencing ongoing problems with depth and fitness in that position, was called out of a five-month international retirement by Gustavsson going into the 2022 Asian Cup. That an out-of-retirement Luik is one of the best backup options after a four-year cycle that has been heavily devoted to building depth and bringing young players through isn’t the most auspicious long-term sign, but the four-time A-League Women champion is a dependable team leader and stopgap option in the short-term.

Name: Clare Polkinghorne

Date of birth: 01/02/1989

Club: Vittsjö

Position: Centre-back

Profile: The Matildas aren’t exactly bereft of players beloved by the Australian footballing public, but you’d struggle to find one that inspires the same level of affection as Polkinghorne. She is the most-capped Australian player – male or female – in history, and there has been an informal campaign to get the Queensland legend a statue outside the World Cup venue Lang Park for years now, one that swells in numbers and volume whenever she gets forward and sparks wild celebrations with a goal. At 34 this year’s tournament represents a potential last dance for the defender, possibly extending to next year’s Paris Olympics, and her battles with time mean that she will likely need to be paired with a more athletically inclined partner in the heart of the Matildas’ defence, but she’s an almost certain starter.

Name: Ellie Carpenter

Date of birth: 28/04/2000

Club: Lyon

Position: Full-back

Profile: Australia held its breath when Carpenter went down just minutes into Lyon’s win over Barcelona in the 2022 Women’s Champions League final and then feared the worst when it was revealed she had suffered an ACL injury. But with her now back on the field, Australia’s chances of doing something notable on home soil have been given a major boost. One of the best right-backs in the world, it feels almost bizarre to think that Carpenter, this kid from rural New South Wales, is still only 23. Called into Australia’s Under-17 squad aged 14, she was playing senior A-League Women’s football and debuting for the Matildas a year later before becoming the youngest player to ever play women’s football at the Olympics, in 2016. Two years later she set the mark as the youngest player and goalscorer in NWSL history and then followed that up with a World Cup appearance and a move to the biggest club in women’s football at the age of 20.

Name: Charlotte Grant

Date of birth: 20 September 2001

Club: Vittsjö

Position: Defender

Profile: If you’ve got a hankering to see a squad at the Women’s World Cup bust out their best Taylor Swift lip-sync performance, best to jump on TikTok and see if Charlotte Grant blesses the public with another gem. One of a wave of new faces brought into the team during Gustavsson’s project to build depth and blood new talent, Grant was asked to somehow fill the gap left by Ellie Carpenter’s ACL injury. And though there is no danger of her supplanting the Lyon star, she has now established herself as a dependable option both on the right and the left, and scored her maiden international goal in the Matildas’ win over England earlier this year.

Name: Clare Hunt

Date of birth: 12 March 1999

Club: Western Sydney Wanderers

Position: Defender

Profile: Hunt is one of the closest things to a surprise package in this largely settled squad, recognised for her standout A-League Women season with Western Sydney Wanderers with a maiden international call-up in February this year. With depth in the centre-back position still one of the question marks hanging over this team, Hunt is now set to play in a World Cup. It is a fairytale moment for the Grenfell native, whose story is one of persistence, refusing to give up in the face of seemingly endless adversity and, eventually, being rewarded for all her work with the realisation of a lifelong dream. In the past five years the defender has suffered and overcome an ACL rupture, multiple operations on her other knee, a shoulder dislocation that required a full reconstruction, and a fractured tibia.

Name: Larissa Crummer

Date of birth: 10 January 1996

Club: Brann

Position: Striker / Full-back

Profile: That Crummer is even walking, let alone about to play in a World Cup, is momentous in itself: the attacker almost lost her left leg after shattering her tibia and fibula, suffering compartment syndrome and needing five surgeries after a horrific on-field injury in 2019. Nonetheless, even with her inspiring return to the field, the 27-year-old’s continued position in the Matildas has come under significant scrutiny during the buildup to the tournament, her domestic form or play with the national side not of the standard one would expect to merit her ongoing selections. Gustavsson, though, has continued to back her, playing her both up front and in defence, and has gambled on her for the tournament.

Name: Alanna Kennedy

Date of birth: 21 January 1995

Club: Manchester City

Position: Defender

Profile: A large part of the Matildas’ ongoing defensive depth problems during this World Cup cycle can be traced to Kennedy’s ongoing battles with injury – the 28-year-old returning to the fold in a 2022 friendly against Canada, only to limp off with a hamstring in the opening half. With much of her game built on physical presence, her ability to win her fitness battles could be a potentially tournament-defining storyline for the Matildas, even though she has been surpassed on the depth chart by Clare Hunt. She recently signed a new deal with City that ties her to the club until 2025. One of her tattoos says “I love a sunburnt country”, from a poem by Dorothea MacKellar. “It reminds me of home and outlines what Australia looks like as a country,” she says.

Name: Steph Catley

Date of birth: 26 January 1994

Club: Arsenal

Position: Defender

Profile: Though she perhaps flies under the radar compared to the likes of Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter, Catley is also one of the genuinely world-class players in this Matildas’ squad and a vital defensive presence and leader. She can fill in at both left-back and a more central role in a back four or five (though it almost feels as if she is wasted centrally given what she provides out wide). Melbourne-born and raised, the 29-year-old won multiple A-League Women championships with both Melbourne Victory and City and, in true Victorian fashion, wears the No 7, not in tribute to any football idol but to the St Kilda AFL great Lenny Hayes.

Midfielders

Name: Tameka Yallop

Date of birth: 16 June 1991

Club: Brann

Position: Midfielder

Profile: Another member of the squad with more than 100 international caps to her name – achieving the mark against the US in 2022 – Yallop is also one of two mothers in the team: baby Harley and wife Kirsty, herself a former New Zealand international, becoming regular presences in the Matildas in recent years as pandemic restrictions subsided and the squad moved to embrace and support the mothers in the team. Nominally a midfielder, Yallop’s ability to play in multiple positions has been frequently called upon by Tony Gustavsson throughout the buildup for the World Cup, with the veteran thrown into both defence and attack at different points.

Name: Katrina Gorry

Date of birth: 13 August 1992

Club: Vittsjö GIK / Brisbane Roar

Position: Midfielder

Profile: The other mother in the midfield ranks, Gorry made the decision to fulfil her long-standing desire to become a parent while isolated away from friends and family during the pandemic. She started IVF while on the books of the Norwegian side Avaldsnes and discovered that it had been successful during a mandatory two-week quarantine period upon her return to Queensland. Giving birth to baby Harper in August 2021, she made her return to the Matildas in 2022 and instantly established herself as one of their most important players. Shifted from the No 10 slot to pulling the strings at the base of the midfield in a regista-like role under Gustavsson, the Matildas’ ability to consistently function in possession and transition leans heavily on the footballing intelligence and bravery with and without the ball that the diminutive 30-year-old possesses.

Name: Kyra Cooney-Cross

Date of birth: 15 February 2002

Club: Hammarby

Position: Midfielder / Winger

Profile: Cooney-Cross’s life has been nomadic, her childhood spent criss-crossing Australia with stops in the Sunshine Coast, Alice Springs, Ballarat and Torquay – debuting in the A-League Women with Melbourne Victory as a 15-year-old – before she eventually moved, on her own, up to Sydney to enrol in the future Matildas. Now, she is regularly starting and earning plaudits in Sweden with Hammarby, who recently won the domestic Cup. Named as a standby player for the 2019 World Cup before actually making her senior international debut, Cooney-Cross has become an ever-present member of squads since she finally made her official debut in 2021. Beyond her role in the midfield she has become something of an “Olimpico” specialist – scoring directly from a corner – the most famous example being when she won the 2021 ALW grand final for Victory with a 120th-minute strike.

Name: Clare Wheeler

Date of birth: 14 January 1998

Club: Everton

Position: Midfielder

Profile: Debuting for Newcastle Jets as a 15-year-old, Wheeler spent seven years toiling away for her local club in the A-League Women, making the finals only once across that stretch before eventually moving on to Sydney FC and Fortuna Hjørring in Denmark. This made it fitting that what was considered the former Adamstown Rosebud junior’s breakout performance for the Matildas – a late appearance off the bench to salvage a 1-1 draw in an otherwise challenging series with the US – came at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium. An out-and-out defensive midfielder who sealed a permanent move to Everton earlier this year, Wheeler helps add steel at the base of the Matildas’ midfield.

Name: Alex Chidiac

Date of birth: 15 January 1999

Club: Racing Louisville / Melbourne Victory

Position: Midfielder

Profile: Chidiac is one of the most technically proficient players in the Matildas squad: a midfielder who wants the ball in tight spaces and embraces the risks that come with trying to make things happen. Fans have consistently called for the 2022-23 Julie Dolan medalist with Victory to start at a national level, but Gustavsson appears to have settled on using her as an off-the-bench “game-changer”, something she also excels at. No one was happier than Chidiac, a member of the Common Goal initiative, when the World Cup’s mascot, Tazuni, a Eudyptula penguin native to Australia and New Zealand, was revealed to the world. The midfielder has owned an Emperor penguin plush toy since birth (named Mama Penguin), which now follows her on her travels around the world as a stand-in for her mother (who also owns a small penguin plush representing Chidiac).

Name: Emily van Egmond

Date of birth: 12 July 1993

Club: San Diego Wave

Position: Midfielder

Profile: One of only two players in the Matildas squad contracted to an NWSL side (Alex Chidiac being the other), there is perhaps no better combination of player and city than Van Egmond and San Diego. The native Novocastrian, daughter of the former Socceroo and ex-Matildas assistant coach Gary, is never more at home than when she’s on the beach or riding waves. Her Twitter handle is quite literally @Em_surf. Though she is one of the most capped players in the team’s history, making 127 appearances since debuting in 2010 at the time of writing, Van Egmond’s role within the squad has become unclear across the past four years. Attempts to use her in a deeper, holding role in midfield have proven to be sub-optimal and the need to deploy her higher up the pitch has her caught up and potentially being overtaken in a logjam of players vying for minutes going into her fourth World Cup.

Name: Elise Kellond-Knight

Date of birth: 10 August 1990

Club: Melbourne Victory

Position: Midfielder

Profile: Somehow, despite rupturing her left achilles tendon in March and even taking a position with the host broadcaster in early June, Kellond-Knight has recovered in time to be named in Tony Gustavsson’s World Cup squad; her move to effectively live at AAMI Park’s rehabilitation wing validated in the best way possible. Well, she’s back in theory because the veteran midfielder was also named in the Matildas squad for the Tokyo Olympics, only to not play a single minute at that tournament, and only eight across the entire 2021 calendar year as she battled to return from an ACL injury. If she can contribute, the Gold Coast native will bring an even-headed presence to the side, probably off the bench, in the midfield or backline.

Name: Chloe Logarzo

Date of birth: 22 December 1994

Club: Western United

Position: Midfielder

Profile: The cliche is that football is the ultimate “What have you done for me lately?” endeavour, but Logarzo’s selection in the Matildas’ squad bucks that trend, the midfielder’s spot very much granted based on historical contributions to the shirt and a well-earned reputation as a standard-driver both on gameday and in training. Battling a series of injuries in recent years, the most recent of which was an ACL injury tear that subsequently led to plantar fasciitis in her opposite foot as it attempted to compensate during her rehab, the 49-times-capped Matilda has played a total of 487 minutes at club and international level since the start of the 2021 NWSL season, with her last full 90 coming in January of that year, when she was with Bristol. Off the field, though, she has kept busy doing important work for Australian football: Logarzo is an active advocate and champion for the LGBTQI+ community, twice leading a Football Australia contingent marching in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Forwards

Name: Cortnee Vine

Date of birth: 9 April 1998

Club: Sydney FC

Position: Winger

Profile: In a recent documentary series charting the journey of the Matildas, Vine declared that one of her goals was to become the fastest player in the world. And while the world is a pretty big place, the 25-year-old has a good case for being one of the swiftest at this year’s World Cup. A recent winner of the A-League Women’s grand final with Sydney FC, the fleet-footed winger’s continued selection by Gustavsson is impressive considering the coach’s repeated statements surrounding players needing to head overseas for more professional and challenging environments, particularly during the ALW off-season. Vine’s entire career has been spent playing for clubs in Australia.

Name: Mary Fowler

Date of birth: 14 February 2003

Club: Manchester City

Position: Midfielder / Attacker

Profile: Born in far north Queensland, Fowler and her four siblings did not own a television growing up, instead needing to find other ways to amuse themselves on the streets and beaches of Cairns, which, of course, frequently meant playing football. So perhaps it should be no surprise that the 20-year-old’s ability with the ball at her feet has had coaches across Australia – as well as the Republic of Ireland, for whom she was also eligible – raving ever since she was old enough to be noticed. Debuting for the Matildas as a 15-year-old and a member of the 2019 World Cup squad, all before she had even played in a senior professional league, Fowler has been the premier wunderkind of the past cycle, although her meteoric rise has hit a speedbump after only seeing sparse minutes at Manchester City following a June move and competing with a crowded Matildas starting XI.

Name: Hayley Raso

Date of birth: 5 September 1994

Club: Real Madrid

Position: Winger

Profile: Raso’s nickname is Ribbons, derived from the signature ribbons she wears in her hair during games and which helped shape the children’s book she released in 2021, Hayley’s Ribbon. In real life her ribbons were bestowed upon her by her grandmother Patricia, who would match the colours to her various teams. Fifty per cent of the profits from the book went to the charity HeartKids – Raso’s brother Lachlan was born with congenital heart disease and had open-heart surgery in 2015. Recently leaving Manchester City in search of more minutes and signing with Spanish giants Real Madrid – the first ever Australian to play for Los Blancos – the combative and hard-running Raso has been used in a variety of positions for the national team but is best suited in wider positions higher up the pitch.

Name: Sam Kerr

Date of birth: 10 September 1993

Club: Chelsea

Position: Striker

Profile: At times it can be difficult to come up with enough superlatives to describe Kerr’s achievements, abilities and the impact that she has had on the Australian game. The Perth-born striker has legitimate claims to being the most lethal striker on the planet and her star power and iconic status at home have almost transcended the Matildas and football; even the most oblivious of Australians could be safely anticipated to know who she is. The Matildas’ form has improved since moving away from a “kick it to Kerr” game plan and incorporating others more often in recent games but, paradoxically, it is almost guaranteed that their fate at the tournament depends on how far Kerr can take them. Fortunately for those in green and gold she thrives on the big moments and – stretching back to her days with childhood club Western Knights out at Perth’s Mosman Park and continuing through the A-League Women, NWSL, WSL, Champions League and more – goals have followed her wherever she goes.

Name: Caitlin Foord

Date of birth: 11 November 1994

Club: Arsenal

Position: Winger

Profile: For all the focus on Sam Kerr heading into this World Cup, Foord will also play a massive role for the hosts. Indeed, while it may be tempting to declare Foord – who grew up as more of an NRL fan than a footballing one – as the Robin to Kerr’s Batman in attack, such a characterisation massively understates the role that the Arsenal dynamo has in making this Matildas side tick. It was no coincidence that Foord’s move to a more central role alongside Kerr in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 – as opposed to her positioning out wide in a ‘Kerr and Friends’ style 4-3-3 coincided with the Matildas’ becoming a much more threatening side in attack. She has come a long way since being named young player of the tournament in 2011, as a full-back that gave the legendary Marta fits.

Name: Emily Gielnik

Date of birth: 13 May 1992

Club: Aston Villa

Position: Striker

Profile: When sparse minutes with Aston Villa gave way to sparse minutes with the Matildas, which then coincided with the side finally looking like they were beginning to find their feet under Tony Gustavsson, Gielnik’s position in the squad appeared increasingly tenuous. The big question was what kind of role she played in this team? With Vine and Raso, two speedsters, nailing down the wing positions, where did that leave her strength and physicality? If she was a striker, what did she bring to the team that was not already supplied by Kerr? Ultimately, however, Gielnik has always been one of the hardest workers in the team and, combined with her ability to serve as a battering ram against tired defences late on in games, she earned a spot in the final squad.

Name: Holly McNamara

Date of birth: 23 January 2003

Club: Melbourne City

Position: Forward

Profile: Twice ACL injuries have left a devastating indentation on McNamara’s rise, as has a stress fracture in her foot, but the 20-year-old’s almost freakish natural talent and understanding for the game has allowed her to persevere and earn selection for a first World Cup. At 15 she suffered an ACL tear for the first time and two years later was cut down by a stress fracture, delaying the start of her professional career. Making up for lost time, the opening months of her time with Melbourne City were so impressive that she earned a call-up to the Matildas’ Asian Cup squad, only to then suffer another ACL tear almost immediately after returning to City. Again forced to make up for lost time when she returned to ALW play this year, she reminded everyone what they had been missing, doing enough to earn a place in the squad as a potential game-breaking sub off the bench.

Name: Kyah Simon

Date of birth: 25 June 1991

Club: Free Agent (last with Tottenham Hotspur)

Position: Striker

Profile: Simon was forced into a race against time to be ready for what will be her third and almost certainly last World Cup – she missed the 2019 iteration through injury – when she suffered an ACL injury in October last year. Despite a lack of game time to accompany her return to fitness (the Matildas’ opening game, against the Republic of Ireland, is the first competitive fixture she will have been able to play in since the injury) her legacy in green and gold has convinced Gustavsson to add her to a crowded attack. A proud Anaiwan woman, Simon was the first Indigenous Australian to score in a World Cup and reach 100 caps for the national side and is tireless in her work as an Indigenous advocate and anti-racism campaigner.

Name: Remy Siemsen

Date of birth: 10 November 1999

Club: Leicester City

Position: Striker

Profile: When it was announced that Siemsen had departed Sydney FC for what would eventually be revealed to be Leicester City in the WSL, the Sky Blues trumpeted that they had secured a “club record transfer fee” for the striker, cashing in on a player that had finally taken that next step and broken into the senior Matildas set up during the early days of Tony Gustavsson’s tenure. Hailing from Sydney’s north shore – spending her A-League Women off-seasons with the semi-professional Manly United before she moved overseas – Siemsen will not be displacing the established attacking order in this side any time soon, but will potentially provide a spark off the bench.