Anna Jessica Leat (born 26 June 2001) is a New Zealand professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

and the New Zealand women's national team.

Personal life

Leat was born in

Arrowtown Arrowtown () is a historic gold mining town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. Arrowtown is located on the banks of the Arrow River ( Māori: ''Haehaenui'') approximately 7.5 km from State Highway 6. Arrowtown is loc ...

. She attended

Rangitoto College Rangitoto College is a state coeducational secondary school, located on the North Shore City, North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Serving years 9 to 13, Rangitoto has a school roll of as of making it the largest "brick-and-mortar" school in ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and was named the school's Sportswomen of the Year in 2017 and 2018.

College career

In February 2019, Leat started studying at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

and joined the

Georgetown Hoyas The Georgetown Hoyas are the collegiate athletics teams that officially represent Georgetown University, located at Washington, D.C. The Georgetown's athletics department fields 24 men's and women's varsity level teams and competes at the Natio ...

as a freshman. she would play 18 games, starting in 16 and only allowing 19 goals, helping the Hoyas to 10 wins. She returned to New Zealand after the coronavirus pandemic began.

Club career

Leat played for both

East Coast Bays East Coast Bays is an urban area along the east coast of the North Shore, New Zealand, North Shore in New Zealand. First established as independent borough during the 1950s, East Coast Bays became contiguous with the Auckland urban area and wa ...

and

Glenfield Rovers Glenfield Rovers was a semi-professional football club based in Glenfield, New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Isla ...

while at high school. While playing for East Coast Bays, she became the first female to be named in a

Chatham Cup The Chatham Cup is New Zealand's premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout tournament in men's association football. It is held annually, with the final contested in September. The current champions of the Chatham Cup are Wellington Olymp ...

squad in the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

edition. On 7 August 2021 it was announced that Leat had signed with

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

who play in the

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

. On 11 May 2022, West Ham United confirmed that Leat was not offered a new contract and would depart at the end of the season. On 13 July 2022

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

announced the signing of Leat for the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season. Leat made her Villa debut on 1 October 2022, in a

FA Women's League Cup The Women's League Cup, also known as the Subway Women's League Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since t ...

game against Manchester United. After the match ended in a 1–1 draw, Aston Villa won on penalties thanks to four saves by Leat. She left Aston Villa through mutual consent on 12 January 2025. On 20 March 2025, Leat signed for

NRFL Women's Premiership The Northern Regional Football League Women's Premiership, currently known as Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Women's Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a semi-professional New Zealand association football league competition. Up until 2022, the comp ...

club

Hibiscus Coast The Hibiscus Coast is a populated area on a stretch of the Hauraki Gulf coast in New Zealand's Auckland Region. It has a population of making it the List of New Zealand urban areas by population, 10th most populous urban area in New Zealand, ...

as an outfield player. On 9 July 2025, Eastern Suburbs announced they had signed Leat for the remainder of the 2025 season as a goalkeeper.

announced on 25 July 2024. that Leat had signed for the 2025–26

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Fe ...

season.

International career

Leat made her senior starting début at 16 years old, in a 5–0 win over

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

on 28 November 2017. On 25 November 2018, Leat was part of the New Zealand U17 side who became the first New Zealand team in either women's or men's football to qualify for a semi-final at a World Cup. Leat helped the team win its quarter-final against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

at the U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay by saving two penalties and scoring the winning goal. Her final penalty goal won the public vote as the favourite sporting moment at the 2018

Halberg Awards The Halberg Awards are a set of awards, given annually since 1949, recognising New Zealand's top sporting achievements. They are named for New Zealand middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist Sir Murray Halberg. The initial award was han ...

. The team would then lose 0–2 to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the semi-final but win New Zealand's first ever medal at a World Cup by beating

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the third place match. Leat has also played at the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international Women's association football, women's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national t ...

in Jordan, the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

in France, the 2019 FFA Cup of Nations, the

2020 Algarve Cup The 2020 Algarve Cup was the 27th edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place from 4-11 March 2020. The final was scratched and Germany was awarded the Algarve Cup as Italy had ...

. and the

2020 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo. Leat was called up to the New Zealand squad for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

. On 4 July 2024, Leat was called up to the New Zealand squad for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

New Zealand U-17 *3rd place U-17 World Cup:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

New Zealand * OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Individual *

: 2018 Favourite Sporting Moment

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leat, Anna 2001 births Living people New Zealand women's association footballers New Zealand women's international footballers Expatriate women's footballers in England Women's association football goalkeepers Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic association footballers for New Zealand People educated at Rangitoto College New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Aston Villa W.F.C. players West Ham United F.C. Women players East Coast Bays AFC players Newcastle Jets FC (women) players New Zealand expatriate women's association footballers Georgetown Hoyas women's soccer players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Sportspeople from Otago People from Arrowtown 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century New Zealand sportswomen