Max Andrew Mata (born 10 July 2000) 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 forward for club

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

and the New Zealand national team.

Club career

New Zealand

After shining in New Zealand as the youngest goalscorer in the country's top-flight at 15, Mata travelled to Switzerland to train with

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

. After an impressive trial period, he signed for the club.

Grasshoppers

After scoring four goals in his first seven games for the reserves, he was loaned to Estonian side, Nõmme Kalju, in 2019 to further his development in a first-team environment. Mata never established himself with Zurich's first-team.

Loan to Nõmme Kalju

After joining on loan, Mata made his professional debut for Nõmme Kalju in their 5–0 loss to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round on 24 July 2019. Mata would make 20 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring 12 times.

Real Monarchs

Mata left Switzerland on a free transfer in December 2020 and signed for American second-tier side,

Real Monarchs Real Monarchs is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is an affiliate of the Major League Soccer (MLS) club Real Salt Lake. Real Monarchs are based in the Real Salt Lake ...

Sligo Rovers

On 15 February 2022, it was announced that Mata had signed for

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Men's Premier Division (), also known as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Republic of Ireland and the highest level of the Republic of I ...

club

Sligo Rovers Sligo Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional association football, football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 and have been in ...

. He was named Sligo Rovers' Young Player of the Year in the same year. He finished the 2022 season with seven goals and four assists in sixteen appearances in the league, as well as scoring twice in the Europa Conference League. In July 2022, he signed a contract extension until at least the end of the 2024 season. In February 2023, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in a 3–2 win away to UCD at the

UCD Bowl The UCD Bowl, also known as the Belfield Bowl, is a rugby union and football stadium in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is the home ground of University College Dublin R.F.C. in the AIB All Ireland League and League of Ireland Premier ...

Shrewsbury Town

On 3 August 2023, Mata signed for League One club

on a three-year deal.

Loan to Sligo Rovers

On 15 February 2024, it was announced that Mata had returned to

, on loan until the summer. He scored 4 goals in 14 appearances during his time back on loan with the club.

Loan to Auckland

On 3 June 2024, it was announced that Mata had joined newly formed

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

side

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 ...

on loan.

International career

Youth

Mata was named in the New Zealand U-20 side for the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 a ...

. He was picked for the tournament even though he would be unavailable for the first two games of the tournament due to a red card that he picked up in the final of the OFC U-19 Championship qualifiers. Mata ended up making two appearances for the U-20s, first in the last group game against

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, where he captained the team, and in the round of 16 penalty shootout loss to

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Senior

Mata made his international debut on 15 November 2019, coming on as a substitute for

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 their 0–1 loss to

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. After a long spell out of the national team, he earned a call up in March 2023 for two friendly fixtures against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, followed by another callup in June for friendlies against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

Personal life

Mata is of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

and Cook Island Māori descent. His older brother,

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

, is a footballer playing for Wellington Olympic and the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

national team.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Auckland FC * A-League Premiership: 2024-25 New Zealand U17 *

OFC U-17 Championship The OFC Men's U-16 Championship is a biennial football tournament for players under the age of 16. The tournament decides the only two qualification spots for the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and its representatives at the FIFA U-17 World ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

New Zealand U19 * OFC U-19 Championship:

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 Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

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 *

OFC U-19 Men's Championship The OFC U-19 Championship is a tournament held once every two years to decide the under-19 champions of Oceania and also decides who will represent Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) at the biennial FIFA U-20 World Cup. Between 1974 and 2012, t ...

Golden Boot:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mata, Max 2000 births Living people Men's association football forwards New Zealand men's association footballers New Zealand men's under-20 international footballers New Zealand men's international footballers New Zealand Māori people Wellington Phoenix FC players Real Monarchs players Nõmme Kalju FC players Sligo Rovers F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Auckland FC players New Zealand National League players Meistriliiga players USL Championship players League of Ireland players New Zealand expatriate men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Estonia Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland Expatriate men's footballers in England New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Estonia New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Ireland New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England English Football League players 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup players OFC Nations Cup–winning players 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen