Abby Erceg's Bold Decision to Walk Away from World Cup
Abby Erceg has never been one to follow the script.
When the World Cup finally came to New Zealand – the dream scenario for any Fern – their most decorated defender was watching from afar, having turned her back on what many would call the perfect farewell. For Erceg, it was anything but.
Walking away from the dream
“It was a really tough decision,” she admitted. She knew exactly what she was giving up: a home World Cup, a likely final chapter in a storied international career, the kind of send-off most players can only imagine.
“You want to play a World Cup at home and it would have been towards the end of my international career as well, so kind of a perfect send-off. But it just didn’t sit right with me personally and professionally.”
That feeling gnawed at her. She sat on the decision for a “long, long time”, turning it over in her mind, sounding out people she trusted, weighing legacy against honesty.
“So I just had to put that first, rather than just doing something where my heart was never going to be in it. I didn’t think that was fair to the group or to myself to do something like that.”
To outsiders, stepping away looked bold, even defiant. Erceg doesn’t quite see it that way.
“It was brave in the sense that you have to go through with it, yes,” she said. “A lot of people would think, it’s a World Cup, you have to represent your country. But people also forget that I was in one of the best club environments in the world at North Carolina.”
At North Carolina Courage she was winning, thriving, pushed every day in a high-performance setting she trusted. Leaving that behind for an international setup she felt no longer served her as a player was a compromise she refused to make.
“We were so successful and it was very difficult to leave that environment, and go into an environment that I didn’t feel ... was serving me as a player. I had to make that decision for my career, in that way.”
What might have been for the Ferns?
When New Zealand stunned Norway 1-0 in their opening game of the tournament, the country dared to believe. The platform was there. The momentum was real.
Then it slipped away.
A shock 0-1 defeat to the Philippines. A tense, goalless draw with Switzerland. One point from the final two matches. Group-stage exit.
It’s impossible not to wonder how different things might have looked with Erceg’s experience, organisation and presence at the back. She has anchored New Zealand through three World Cups and three Olympics, captained her country 49 times and became the first Fern to reach 100 caps, finishing with 146.
Yet her relationship with the national team has always been complicated. She retired in 2017, then again in 2018, driven largely by what she saw as New Zealand Football’s lack of support and resources for the women’s game. Each time, the pull of the Ferns – and a World Cup on the horizon – dragged her back, most notably ahead of France 2019.
Commitment wavered. Standards, in her view, did not. When they didn’t align, she walked.
A career built on hard choices
Strip away the retirements and returns and the picture is clear: Erceg is one of New Zealand’s finest. Her international record speaks loudly enough, but her club career underlines it.
Three NWSL Championships – 2016 with Western New York Flash, 2018 and 2019 with North Carolina Courage – placed her at the heart of one of the strongest club environments in the women’s game. Twelve years in the United States hardened her, sharpened her, and raised expectations of what “professional” should look like.
Then came a change of scenery and pace. Mexico, and Toluca.
After more than a decade in the US, Erceg threw herself into a new culture and came away glowing.
“It was phenomenal,” she said. “The culture, the food, the people, the football, the excitement around it. Such an incredible country.”
At 36, with a body of work most players can only envy, she stands at another crossroads. Offers are on the table. Plenty of them.
“There are offers from everywhere,” she said. “In New Zealand, the A League, back in Mexico and clubs in America. But you get to that point in your career where family does become important.
“I’ve missed a lot of my family’s life. I’ve missed a lot of my nephews’ lives. So you do have to start taking those things into consideration.”
The next move, she hints, might bring her closer to home. Not just geographically, but emotionally.
Chelsea on the horizon
Before any long-term decisions, there is a more immediate assignment: Chelsea.
Eight-time English champions. One of the powerhouses of the women’s club game. And Erceg will line up with a scratch New Zealand-based side that has had only a few weeks together.
“It’s going to be a challenge – and that’s a polite word,” she said.
This is the kind of fixture that exposes a footballing nation’s reality. Talent, depth, conditioning, tactical sharpness – all laid bare against a team that lives at the sharp end of the Champions League.
“It’s going to be a real education for a lot of people about where New Zealand football sits because we are playing one of the best female club teams in the world.
“We don’t have a lot of preparation so our work is going to be cut out for us. But at the same time, it’s good to have such a high calibre team in New Zealand and the exposure is great.”
Erceg has spent a career demanding more – from herself, from her clubs, from her country. Now, as she stares down Chelsea and weighs up what comes next, the question lingers: will New Zealand rise to meet the standards she’s been chasing all along, or will she have to go find them elsewhere one last time?
