Milly Clegg Is An Absolute Unicorn Of A Kiwi Centre-Forward Prospect
There were only a few minutes left in the first half and the Wellington Phoenix were on the prowl. Michaela Foster lined up a corner kick and her inswinging effort swirled dangerously close to the Canberra United goal before it was punched out for another corner. The second delivery was slightly deeper (but still dropping inside the six-yard box). Paige Satchell got there first to flick it towards goal. Her attempt was cleared off the line by a defender but it wasn’t cleared far enough because Milly Clegg pounced with a well-placed side-footed volley that rustled the net to put the Welly Nix into the lead.
It was Clegg’s first goal in the A-League and it made her the club’s youngest ever goal scorer aged 17 years 82 days. Just a couple of minutes later Clegg smacked a shot on target angling in from her right wing and although it was saved... Betsy Hassett tapped in the rebound to double the advantage. The Phoenix would go on to win it 5-0 in a stunning result. It was their first victory of the season after taking just one point from eight previous games and a 17 year old forward playing on an amateur deal was absolutely pivotal in that achievement.
One week later she was at it again. Despite a rancid start to the game, in which they Nix found themselves 2-0 down with a red card inside half an hour away to Brisbane Roar, somehow they hauled themselves back into the match to take a 3-2 lead with about ten to go. Brisbane did find a deserved equaliser although the Phoenix were very unlucky to have a potentially match-winning goal ruled out for offside before the final whistle brought a halt to things at 3-3.
Who, pray tell, scored the second goal in that comeback? Milly Clegg, of course. Two goals in two weeks... and she nearly won it with the last kick of the game except she and Isabel Gomez couldn’t quite execute their counter-attacking overload properly and Clegg’s shot ended up being stabbed over the top.
You could make the argument that things began to click for the Wellington Phoenix when Milly Clegg started to play a prominent role. Clegg’s a striker by trade but also has the speed and skill to play on the wing and that’s where she’s been doing the mahi lately. Her first start was in the 1-1 draw against Western Sydney. Her first goal came in their first win. Her first full game followed in the 3-3 vs Brisbane. Dunno what milestone will be next for Emily Clegg (First hat-trick? First international call-up?) but whatever it is you can bet it won’t be far away.
Clegg was the 22nd and final player signed for year two of the SheNix. Having only just turned 17 years old in the days before her amateur contract was signed, that makes her the youngest player in the squad by more than a solid year. So young that she’s only just finished year 12 at Mt Albert Grammar – lucky thing that the A-League season mostly takes place during the summer holidays.
Yet despite having signed on amateur terms she’s still using up a coveted full roster spot within the squad. The club have gone out of their way to ensure she’s a part of this season’s squad and they’ve done so because Milly Clegg is the best centre forward prospect that this country has produced in at least a decade. Not since Amber Hearn, the Football Ferns record goal-scorer, have we seen a number nine as pure as Clegg come through. And perhaps not even then.
Generational talents rise and fall with the breeze in professional sports, you can never predict these things and it’s best not to put excessive pressure on teenagers trying to figure out their place in the world. Luckily we’re talking about women’s footy in New Zealand here so it’s not like Clegg will be getting the media treatment that LeBron James got at the same age. We keep it chill.
But her emergence is a very notable thing because, dunno if you realise this... the Football Ferns don’t score a lot of goals. And one of the main reasons they don’t score a lot of goals is they don’t actually have very many top level pros who play in creative positions. Lots of defenders. An abundance of goalies. But creative midfielders and forwards? Nah not so much.
Amber Hearn played 125 times for the Footy Ferns and scored 54 goals. She retired after doing her ACL just prior to the 2018 World Cup and it’s safe to say that the Ferns have never adequately replaced her. Mostly because there hasn’t been anyone to replace her. Hannah Wilkinson and a bunch of youngsters who aren’t quite ready, that’s about it. Wilkie’s scored half as many goals as Hearn in only seventeen fewer games. A good solid player but not quite at the same reliable level as a striker who played 153 times in the German Bundesliga scoring 43 goals.
In comparison Wilkinson has bounced around clubs in Sweden, Portugal, Germany, and Australia (after playing college ball in the USA). She’s scored heaps when she’s played for good teams (Sporting CP & Melbourne City). She’s not scored very many when playing for weaker teams. A quality player, the best striker that the Ferns have right now by a comfortable margin, but perhaps not someone who can move the dial for team that’s accustomed to underdog stats such as the Football Ferns.
All this is to say that what Hearn did was rare. Think of the best kiwi players of the last decade and you’re not going to come up with very many natural goal scorers. It’s a profile of player that simply hasn’t been developed enough in New Zealand – and almost never to the scale that the Ferns need to compete with top-20 ranked opposition.
That’s why Milly Clegg is such an exciting prospect... and she’s not alone. Lest you think that Clegg is some kind of freak anomaly, let it be known that her U20 World Cup & Wellington Phoenix teammate Alyssa Whinham is another player who is totally unique compared to the players that came before her, a silky creative number ten who can play a cutting pass or dribble past a defender with equal prowess. The only other player, along with Clegg, to play at both the U20 and U17 World Cups for NZ in 2022 was Ruby Nathan. RN was also a teammate of Clegg’s at Auckland United and she’s another very skilful operator with great footwork, a silky touch, and superb passing vision which helped her lead the entire 2022 National League in assists (despite missing a full month for the U17s). And at that U17 World Cup we also saw Helena Errington who is a proper ball-playing midfielder who already understands the rhythm of a game better than most.
In five years’ time when those four are all regular selections for the Ferns, the struggle for goals will no longer feel so eternal. You can bookmark this page until then if you want to save the receipts. Times are changing and a new style of footballer is emerging from Aotearoa (the same process is already a few years ahead for the fellas) and there’ll no doubt be many more where they came from too.
Still, Clegg is the most unique because she’s a pure number nine. Someone with that precious knack for scoring goals as well as the ability to create them too. She’s got pace, skill, technique, vision... just an absolute diamond prospect. A unicorn, if you like.
So who is Milly Clegg? Hailing from Auckland, she began her footy at Ellerslie though it was playing boy’s footy at Buckland’s Beach that seems to have gotten her into the national youth team picture over the last two years. Clegg was the youngest member of the U20 World Cup squad in 2022 yet she started all three games. She backed that up at the U17 World Cup a few months later. Also won the Kate Sheppard Cup with Auckland United in between. And now she’s starting games for the Wellington Phoenix.
Plenty of achievements already for someone who only turned 17 years old last November... and that’s without mentioning what’s apparently a stellar academic record too. As well as a high performance sporting lineage – Milly’s mum Kylie Clegg (nee Foy) played hockey for the Black Sticks throughout the nineties, competing at two Olympic Games and even captaining the side for a spell. Needless to say... Kylie Foy was also a striker (also, Kylie Foy/Clegg’s brother Mark Foy also played three times for the All Whites so there’s the footballing pedigree).
The finishing is what stands out most of all when evaluating Milly Clegg as a footballer. That’s because it’s something that’s hard to teach, that ability to keep your head in front of goal and pick your spot under pressure, so to find someone who naturally possesses that skill so early in their career is basically a godsend (there’s a reason Sam Kerr was scoring ALW goals at an even younger age than Clegg). Not only is she capable of tidy placement with her shots though, she can really smack them too... as was evidenced in that second goal against Canberra where her effort was saved but not held, allowing Hassett to swoop in and score the rebound.
More than that, she knows how to get to a shot. We’re talking about that precision of touch and balance to manoeuvre into the pocket of space where a defender can’t stop her. Some of it is clever movement, some of it is sharp technique, some of it is pure opportunism. This was the goal that really put her on the scene in a 1-1 draw against the Australia U20s in a friendly game back in April 2022...
There’s no deliberate build-up to that goal. Mona Walker wins a couple tackles and the ball kinda just squirts Clegg’s way... where she reacts quicker and more ruthlessly than anyone to swing around one defender, cut back inside and dodge the other, then hit the bottom corner before the keeper’s even poised to dive. It’s so efficient. Absolute striker areas.
That clinical finishing was on display again in the U20 World Cup where she scored a beauty of a goal against Colombia in only the third minute of the game (which the Young Ferns would end up drawing 2-2 thanks to a second half banger from Charlotte Lancaster).
It starts from a smart run into the channel where she can collect the ball between two defenders – thanks to a spot-on pass from Marisa van der Meer. Clegg then lets it roll just enough to straighten up the direction of her run and at the last moment, as the defender steps across, she chops back on the inside. Next thing there’s only the keeper to beat and with an innate sense of her angles, MC’s able to strike across the goalie to tuck that sucker inside the far post. An expertly taken goal. Clinical and direct yet without being predictable.
The process of that goal was different, but the specific finish had a lot in common with one that she scored later on at the U17 World Cup against Germany. Angling in from the left edge and hitting the bottom far corner with a slight curl on the strike...
She’d already scored earlier in the tournament against Chile, this time reacting quickest as a corner kick dropped into space in the area. Not so dissimilar to the goal she scored for the Welly Nix against Canberra, which was also a poacher’s effort from a corner kick. They don’t all have to be self-created flawless finishes beating a set goalkeeper... having that tendency to pop up in the right place at the right time is another hugely useful trait and Clegg’s got a bit of that about her too, don’t worry.
Although it’s already clear what her trademark move is. Just look at the goal she scored against Brisbane Roar. Very notable that Nat Lawrence had switched her over to the left wing in the second half of that game. Clegg’s been playing on the right where her dribbling tends to lean more towards facilitating due to her right-footedness. She’s not shy of popping one off the left, don’t get the wrong idea, but from the right wing she’s mostly looking to pass or cross when she gets beyond her marker. Yet on the left wing it’s all about creating her own shooting situations and apparently the Brizzy Roar didn’t do their scouting properly…
If you want a better idea of her creative side, you only have to look as far as the Kate Sheppard Cup final from back in September. Auckland United against Northern Rovers. United lifted the trophy after a 1-0 win thanks to a Marty Puketapu goal early in the second half. A goal which was deliciously finished but certainly don’t overlook that sweeping first-touch ball over the top via the left foot of Emily Clegg...
And while she didn’t play very much National League, only lasting two games before leaving with the U17s and then swiftly lining up that Phoenix gig once she got back, we did get a different look at her in those matches. In the opening round she scored in a rematch against Northern Rovers. Yet another example of Clegg being able to create room to get a shot away...
Having said that, she didn’t have a great strike-rate in that game. Given a free reign back in the looser domestic stuff, pretty much every time she got the ball she looked to unleash a shot... giving the impression that she was forcing things rather than letting the chances come naturally.
To be fair, you don’t need to worry too much about such things with young players. What matters most, especially for attackers, isn’t whether they’re landing every pass and scoring from every shot... it’s more about how impactful they are upon the game. The consistency will come with time. The raw ability to Make Things Happen... that’s where the magic lies. Still, it’s notable that in Clegg’s second NL game she didn’t score at all despite her team winning 7-0 away to Southern United, instead bagging three assists.
All of which might have you asking why Clegg wasn’t used more prominently in a Wellington Phoenix side struggling for creativity at the start of the season. Well, she was the last player signed for one thing. Plus she’s the youngest player in the squad so it was always going to take some time. Plus she did actually get some decent minutes in the first three games of the season, subbed on each time around that 60-65 minute mark... she just didn’t get up to much with those opportunities. Didn’t help that her introduction to professional football came amidst consecutive 4-1 defeats and then a 1-0 loss in the third.
In 82 minutes across those three games, Clegg had zero shots. She was tackled on all three dribble attempts and only had 26 touches in total, completing 11/19 passes (58%) with only a couple of those passes being what you could call progressive. There were some positive flashes in there – and those numbers weren’t much worse than many others in the squad - but, still, it wasn’t surprising to see her drop out of the team for a couple weeks after that. The physicality in particular would have taken some getting used to.
Then after two games out of the squad, Clegg returned for her first A-League start in the 1-1 draw against Western Sydney. This time Clegg was specifically used as a right winger and in 67 minutes there she had more touches than she’d had in those previous three games combined and a large portion of those were at the attacking end of the pitch. Suddenly she was beating defenders when she took them on. Not only that but she was getting stuck into her defensive work with tackles and recoveries and all them good things. That led up to her breakthrough performance against Canberra United and now here we are.
Nix coach Nat Lawrence, post-Canberra: “Milly showed today how she’s progressing in the environment. She’s a goalscorer and she’s taken her slight change in position to a real advantage with being able to go 1v1 and then unleash her crazy shots. She’s still young, she’s still seventeen so I think she should get opportunities with the Ferns and learn from those players being in and around that.”
The 2023 World Cup is probably a step too soon for Milly Clegg, what with only six months left to prepare. International footy is another level entirely and Ferns attackers need to be very tactically disciplined in the mid-block, high-press system that Jitka Klimková likes to use. Having said that, Clegg may not be a starter but she’d definitely have something to offer as a roll of the dice off the bench with ten minutes to play when searching for a goal. In a team as devoid of creativity as the Fernies have been it certainly wouldn’t be crazy to bring her into a squad for a looksee at how she adapts to the environment (again, her mum’s Olympic experience gives Milly a headstart there despite her age).
We’ll see how that goes. Whether she cracks it in time for the World Cup or whether she cracks it later, it’s going to happen. What’s more interesting is where her club career goes from here. The reason that Clegg signed an amateur deal was to preserve her eligibility for the USA college system should she choose to go down that route. It was a decision that can be described as mature, astute... and entirely unnecessary.
Just to be crystal clear, Milly Clegg is already better than NCAA football. That pathway is not the best option for Aotearoa’s best prospects. Initially it’s a good standard, especially if you’re at a strong school which Clegg should be able to wrangle... but by your fourth year you’re 21 or 22 years old and still playing in what’s effectively a youth league. The free education is cool but from a footballing perspective you’ve fallen way behind the pros in Europe by then.
Now, that would still be worth it if you could be confident you’ll stroll on into the NWSL at the end of it all... but that doesn’t tend to happen either. Every year those teams prove that they don’t want to use their precious international roster spots on college draft picks unless they’re the absolute best of the best. Daisy Cleverley and Jacqui Hand are regular internationals and were ignored completely at the 2022 draft. Cleverley instead went on to sign with the reigning champions of Denmark while Hand had a brilliant season in the Finland league where she won their cup competition. Hannah Blake was the only kiwi in the latest edition and she was also passed over. Blake has since joined Perth Glory for the remainder of the season. All good enough to play professionally but the NWSL doesn’t want ‘em.
Literally the only NZer ever drafted into the NWSL was Katie Bowen back in 2016. Clegg is good enough to break that streak... but it’s a big gamble to take. Especially when she’s already making a name for herself in the A-League which has a really strong recent record of developing players who soon catch the eye of scouts in Europe. Especially in Scandinavia and in England. There are ten Australians who have played WSL this season – outside of the British Isles only Norway’s 12 can better that. That’s where the real party is.
A funky case study is Anna Leat who was the undoubted number one prospect from her age grade after starring at both the U17 and U20 World Cups in the same year (sound familiar?). Leat joined Georgetown University on a scholarship but one year into that stint the pandemic struck and she never went back. Instead she signed with West Ham and has since moved to Aston Villa and nobody can possibly claim that she’s not a better player now for having done so (this is also an example of how quickly plans and intentions can change).
All of that is for the future to take care of, at the moment it’s about Milly Clegg scoring goals for the Wellington Phoenix. A year or two of that and we don’t know what might happen. And the reason we don’t know is because it’s been a long time since a kiwi striker came along with anything close to the raw ability that Milly Clegg possesses.
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