Fifteen-year-old Kyra Cooney-Cross could potentially be one of the Matildas’ future stars as she currently trains with 17 other Australians in the AIS in Canberra from 11-14 July.
Former City striker and current Matildas co-captain Lisa De Vanna has taken to social media to show the teenager is in good hands.
Born in February 2002, Cooney-Cross has scored 14 goals in 20 games for Senior National Training Centre (NTC) in National Premier League Women (NPLW) this season.
She joins uncapped teenagers Princess Ibini-Isei, Grace Maher, Karly Roestbakken, Alyssa Rose, Remy Siemsen in the Matildas setup as coach Alen Stajcic has a glimpse of future talent before the 2017 Tournament of Nations in USA.
Former Melbourne City W-League coach Joe Montemurro brought Cooney-Cross in at just aged-12 when he was the NTC coach
“Kyra had a fantastic technical ability (at 12), solved problems technically and she was very smart on the pitch,” Montemurro told FourFourTwo.
“She just had a knack of orientation on the park to understand where she needed to be. She’s a dynamic player and can definitely hurt you if you give her time and space.”
Cooney-Cross also impressed in last year’s 2017 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship Qualifiers where she netted six goals – four of them coming in Australia’s 28-0 win over Palestine.
Montemurro, who is now City’s A-League assistant coach, also predicts she’ll be a part of the club in the future.
“Kyra will be involved somewhere within the City family, she’s a very important part,” he said.
“She’s very mature for her age and effectively we started bringing her in the development squads within City.
“She’s definitely been on our radar and she will definitely be a fantastic player in the future.
“I think it’s important she stayed in the NTC program for development and didn’t go out into NPL in terms of club land, she was still getting the right information and all credit to her.”
The AFC U-16 Women’s Championship is set to begin in September in Thailand where Australia face Japan, North Korea and Bangladesh. The top three teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2018 U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
Main Photo: Rachel Bach, ByTheWhiteLine
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