Joanne "Joey" Elsa Peters (born 11 March 1979) is an Australian former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who last played for the

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 ...

in the Australian W-League. She played for Brazilian club,

Santos Santos may refer to: People *Santos (surname) * Santos Balmori Picazo (1899–1992), Spanish-Mexican painter * Santos Benavides (1823–1891), Confederate general in the American Civil War Places *Santos, São Paulo, a municipality in São Paulo ...

(2002), becoming the first Australian woman to play professional football in South America. Peters also was one of the first Australians to represent a team in the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Uni ...

in 2003, when she joined

New York Power The New York Power was an American professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional soccer league for women in the United States. The team played at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale ...

. Internationally she represented Australia as a

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for the

Matildas The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

from March 1996 to February 2009 for 110 games and scored 28 goals.

Biography

Early years

Joanne "Joey" Elsa Peters was born on 11 March 1979 in

Leeton, New South Wales Leeton is a town located in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. It is the administrative centre of the Leeton Shire, Leeton Shire Council Local government in Australia, local gov ...

. Her father is a

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost a ...

minister. From five years old she played football in a boys team, following her older brother. Peters captained Leeton Public School's team, which won the 1990 New South Wales Primary Schools Girls knockout tournament. Her first club, Leeton United Juniors, played in the Griffith District Football Association. As a teenager, the family moved to Sydney, where her father was reassigned.

Club career

After attending the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

and the NSW Institute of Sport (1997), Peters was signed by Northern NSW Pride in the Australian

Women's National Soccer League The Women's National Soccer League (WNSL) was Australia's top women's soccer league. Originally known as the Ansett Australia Summer Series for sponsorship reasons, the WNSL began in 1996 consisting of six clubs and continued through until 200 ...

(WNSL). She played for NSW Sapphires from 1999 and won the

Julie Dolan Medal The Julie Dolan Medal is awarded annually to the player voted to be the best player in the highest women's soccer league in Australia. The medal has been presented to players in the W-League (retitled A-League Women) and previously in the Women's ...

for the best player in the WNSL for the 2001/2002 season. From August to December 2002 she had a stint with Brazilian club

, becoming the first Australian woman to play professional football in South America. She signed with the

in the

in February 2003. Peters last played with the

in the Australian W-League's inaugural year, 2008–2009.

International career

Peters made her debut for Australia in March 1996 in a friendly against

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 Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in Auckland, where she scored her first goal for the Matildas in their 0-3 victory over the hosts. At the

1998 OFC Women's Championship The 1998 OFC Women's Championship, also known as the VI Ladies Oceania Nations Cup was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 9 October & 17 October 1998. It was the sixth staging of the OFC Women's Championship. The 1998 OFC Women's Championship, ...

, held in Auckland in October, the midfielder kicked four goals in Australia's 17-0 victory over

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. For the

2003 OFC Women's Championship The 2003 OFC Women's Championship was held in Canberra, Australia from 5 to 13 April 2003. It was the seventh staging of the OFC Women's Championship. Originally scheduled for 19–29 November 2002, the tournament was postponed after withdrawal ...

she scored another four goals in a game against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

(19-0) held in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

in April 2003. She played her last international football match in February 2009 against Italy in Canberra. She had played 110 times for the Australian team, scoring 28 times. The retiring Matilda had attended three Women's World Cups (1999, 2003, 2007) and one Olympic Games (2004). Peters recalled her fondest international memories, "Personally, scoring a goal in the Athens Olympics against the USA, that drew the game and that's the best result we've had with them. We were playing the Dream Team, if you like. They had the world’s best player, Mia Hamm, and it was their last tournament with that team. From a team perspective, the last World Cup was a definite highlight."

International goals

Coaching career

In 2009 Peters was a coach with the Australian under-16 women's national team.

Honours

: WNSL 2001/2002. *Australian Women's Footballer of the Year: 2009 *Football Australia Hall of Fame inductee: 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Joanne 1979 births Living people Australian women's soccer players Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Newcastle Jets FC (women) players Women's United Soccer Association players New York Power players Expatriate women's footballers in Brazil FIFA Women's Century Club New South Wales Institute of Sport alumni Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic soccer players for Australia Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Australia women's international soccer players Women's association football midfielders Santos FC (women) players Damallsvenskan players KIF Örebro DFF players Sportswomen from New South Wales Australian expatriate women's soccer players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Soccer players from Newcastle, New South Wales Charlotte Lady Eagles players USL W-League (1995–2015) players 21st-century Australian sportswomen