After a season and a half with the Reds, Kiwi Rosie White has announced her move to NWSL side, Boston Breakers.
Red
Having only signed last July, White became a regular feature in a Liverpool team that struggled throughout the year with form, plagued with injuries. Under former Reds boss (now Breakers head coach) Matt Beard, White was usually deployed behind the front line in attacking midfield, not hugely prolific in her time with the back-to-back WSL champions, her work rate spoke for itself.
When Beard left for the US, White was given a run in the team by new boss, Scott Rogers, again consistently starting for the Widnes-based club, still not as potent in front of goal as she would have liked, her work on the pitch still invaluable to her teammates as Rogers set about rebuilding the squad. White’s input helped Liverpool to a credible fifth this season, just two points behind fourth placed Birmingham City – a significant improvement from last year – the Kiwi also carrying the distinction of being the only player to have scored past Manchester City and Karen Bardsley from open play in the league this year.
Blue
The move will see her reunited with her former coach, White the fifth former Red Beard has enlisted to the Breakers after Natasha Dowie, Libby Stout, Whitney Engen and Louise Schillgard – although Schillgard has today announced that she won’t be returning to the Breakers for personal reasons.
After a slow start to the 2016 season, Beard must have felt like he was living in his own Groundhog Day, having come from a disappointing season with Liverpool where his team struggled for points to a similar situation in the States. Not winning a game or even scoring a game until the sixth week of the season, the Breakers continued to labour, finishing dead last with just 11 points from 20 games. Very much of a slow burner, the Breakers continued to improve as the season wore on, White the latest in a list of names who will surely bolster the team.
The move comes just nine days after the Breakers announced their signing of Norwegian international, Emilie Haavi.
Black
A well-established member of the Football Ferns, at just 23 White has already amassed over 80 caps for her country since making her senior debut aged just 15. Never goal shy with New Zealand’s youth teams, White hasn’t found her time with the senior squad as fruitful and has some way to go to topple Amber Hearn as top goalscorer – Hearn currently leads the way with 50 international goals.
White has featured for the Ferns at all their recent major international tournaments, making her World Cup bow in 2011, taking part in two of the group games against England and Mexico. Selected for the team that went to Canada for the 2015 World Cup, White once again featured into two matches, after having sat out a narrow loss to Netherlands on her birthday she was a late sub in the Ferns’ draw against hosts Canada as well playing a solid 45 minutes against China. A feature at the last two Olympic tournaments too, having more joy in 2012, once more taking part in two of the three group games as well as coming off the bench in the quarter final loss to the USA. Not to buck the trend, White again featured in two of the three group games as the Ferns failed to match their success from the previous Games and failed to progress.