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Football Australia is pleased to announce the 40 footballers awarded scholarships for the initial Future Matildas class of 2023.

Commencing in 2019, the Future Matildas Program (Program) is an initiative established by Football Australia to provide a holistic environment for the nurturing and development of the next generation of women’s national team footballers.

While the preliminary intakes of the Program were aged 15 to 20-years old, it has since evolved to support promising players with aspirations of senior women’s national team honours who sit outside of the youth national team age brackets, and established players between club environments.

This year the Program will be located in New South Wales (Blacktown International Sports Park), Queensland (Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre) and Victoria (Darebin and Maribyrnong Sports Academy).

CommBank Young Matildas head coach and Future Matildas Technical Lead, Leah Blayney, expressed her anticipation in welcoming an expanded class for 2023.

“I want to congratulate the initial recipients of this year’s Future Matildas Program scholarships, particularly with more recipients than ever in Victoria and Queensland,” said Blayney.

“The players identified in NSW, Victoria and Queensland have all demonstrated a willingness to continue their personal and football development with a strong commitment to making the most of the support the Program provides across all sectors of athlete wellbeing.”

The Future Matildas Program is backed by the contributions of the Australian Sports Commission and, in the five years since its inception, the Program has seen 63 scholarship holders participate with 15 advancing to capped senior CommBank Matildas status.

Nine Future Matildas’ graduates were recently in the CommBank Matildas squad that claimed the 2023 Cup of Nations title in February, building a rich tradition of nurturing the country’s best young talent.

CommBank Matildas defender and Future Matildas Program graduate Charli Grant praised the Program for the foundations it provided.

“I was part of the Future Matildas Program for two years before moving to Sweden. This Program really helped me prepare for being overseas. It was a good stepping stone to now living on my own and doing things for myself,” said Grant.

“Another important aspect was being in that full-time football environment around high-quality staff and high-quality players. It has really assisted me in meeting the mental and physical demands that are required to play full-time professionally. I am grateful to the Program as it helped me grow as a player and person and made the transition smooth when heading overseas to play in Sweden.”

Blayney expounded on the Program’s player-centric approach and focus concurrently establishing a growth environment for technical and non-technical staff.

“The Program has a resolute focus on developing players holistically for future national team programs, professional contracts and endeavours outside of football,” Blayney explained.

“For the time period, they are outside of the Liberty A-League Women’s environment, we work to provide continuity of that high-performance setting with access to the high-quality coaching staff, individual programming related to identified player strengths and areas of improvement, opportunities to gain higher level match minutes including, Future Matildas internal Elite Games and international opponents training in Australia, plus athlete wellbeing and educational resources.

“We are also proud of the professional development openings available to identify and advance potential future national team staff across coaching, management, sports science, and sports medicine. This year’s staffing includes former CommBank Matildas, CommBank Young Matildas and Liberty A-League Women’s players as we look to engage and incorporate their knowledge in the pathway programs.”

While the full scholarship list for 2023 is yet to be finalised, the Future Matildas Program is scheduled to commence in early April with staggered entry following players’ completion of their Liberty A-League Women’s commitments.

INITIAL 2023 SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS