Just four months ago, Ruby Nathan was filing in to Auckland’s Eden Park to watch the world’s best women’s footballers play in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Now the 18-year-old forward has the chance to play alongside them, receiving her first Football Ferns call-up for two games against Colombia this month.
It’s been a dream a long time in the making for Nathan, who’s been following the team since she was a young girl, inspired by the Ferns.
“It can sometimes be intimidating coming into a new environment, but the team’s been amazing,” says Nathan, some of the senior squad members role models for her.
“Everyone’s been so welcoming and it’s made my trip here and made me much more comfortable, so that’ll help me perform better.”
Nathan signed her first professional contract this year when she joined Canberra United in the women’s A-League.
Alongside being her first professional gig, it was also her first time living away from her family and home of Auckland.
“The move was easier than I expected, Canberra made it pretty smooth,” Nathan says.
“They helped me get a car, helped me with accommodation – everything outside of football they helped me with. Which made going into training and playing much easier, especially moving countries.”
Canberra are sitting at the bottom of the table, with one draw and three losses, but it’s all a learning experience for Nathan.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Canberra so far, we’ve got a great coaching team; I feel like I’ve improved a lot since I’ve been there,” she says.
Nathan has been learning off some of the most experienced players in the A-League.
Michelle Heyman is not only the most capped player in the women’s league, with over 160 caps, but also the top goal scorer, finding the back of the net almost 100 times.
“The players we have, they have been great to learn off, they’ve been to Olympics and played Champions League, which are things I want to do in my career hopefully,” says Nathan.
Nathan herself is a pretty handy goal scorer, scoring the most goals in the 2023 OFC U-19 Women’s Championship in June/July this year.
She found the back of the net eight times, including scoring five goals in a 19-0 quarterfinal win over the Solomon Islands.
New Zealand went on to beat Fiji 7-0 in the final (Nathan scoring two of the Kiwi’s goals), qualifying them for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Nathan has already played in two youth World Cups, the U20 in August and the U17 in October last year.
“They were great experiences, it was really eye-opening to play against some of the best players in my age group in the world,” she says.
“For a lot of us, we hadn’t experienced anything like that.”
Nathan says it was a great opportunity to see what the level of play was like for some of the European teams, as they have some of the best leagues in the world, where many of the NZ team have aspirations of playing.
“It was good to bring that back home to my club football, and just motivate me to be better,” she says.
Nathan joined Eastern Suburbs when she was around 6-years-old, and joined the rep teams at the club a few years later.
“I did play a lot of sports growing up, but football was always my favourite,” she explains, playing netball, basketball, cricket and touch in school, but football stuck.
She stayed with her club until two years ago, when she moved to Auckland United.
Nathan is quick to mention her head coach there, Mauro Donoso.
“He’s been my coach, one-on-one and mentor since I was around 10, and he’s been a big influence,” she says.
Donoso was proud when Nathan made the Football Ferns, knowing that was a goal of hers since she started working with him.
The phone call from Ferns head coach Jitka Klimková came as a surprise to Nathan.
“I was kind of taken back I guess because that’s obviously been a goal of mine forever, a dream,” she says.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect when Jitka called me, but after a few days, it kind of settled down and I realised I’d be going to Colombia.
“I was proud because I know it’s something I’ve been working towards for several years, and I was just excited to come here.”
After getting used to the altitude in South America, Nathan found herself settling into the environment, a step-up from previous youth camps.
“Everything’s a bit more professional, obviously more mature players, so you can expect that coming into the Ferns environment,” she says of the trainings.
“But it’s been good to see what this level is like and see what it takes to be at this level.”
Even the off-field things like meetings and learning from the senior players and coaching staff have been an important learning experience for Nathan.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing what else we can pick up when we play Colombia, which is exciting,” she says.
Nathan is hoping to take the field in one of the two games against Colombia, but has already grown from simply being in camp.
“It would be an amazing experience, I’m not sure if that will happen or not, but if Jitka wants to put me on the field, I’m ready to take my opportunity. It would be a great moment in my career,” she says.
Nathan will return to Canberra after the Ferns play, with her family coming over around Christmas.
“They’ll definitely come to the game in New Zealand when we play the Phoenix,” Nathan says, with Canberra playing the Wellington Phoenix in Wellington in January.
“It will be a great experience, I mean playing in my home country, hopefully I can get family and friends to come and watch,” Nathan says.
“It’ll just be exciting to play, like I never thought I’d be playing a professional game in my home country, so that’s exciting.”
*The Football Ferns play two games against Colombia, streaming live on FIFA+. The first match kicks off on Saturday at 10am NZT, with the second
