Max Mata (St Patrick's Athletic | Ireland)

From this week's Flying Kiwis.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuDDFpel0bB/?utm_sourc...

• wellingtonphoenixsoccerschoolSIGNING | Congrats to WPSS elite school graduate @_maxmata_ who has signed a professional contract for @gc_zuerich_offiziell ?⚽️?
• rikichet_fitness

  Heritage? Tahiti? Tongan? Awesome news!!

• benmata98

  @rikichet_fitness Cook Island Maori

• rikichet_fitness

  @benmata98 that's great news!!!

• kidrey__

  blessings on blessings ?

• t.proffit

  Great news @_maxmata_ ???

7 HOURS AGO

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Max Mata: “I feel I’m settling in well but I think a lot of that has to do with the attitude I came here with. I was determined that I was going to show everybody here that just because I come from New Zealand it doesn’t mean I won’t be on the pitch ahead of them and I think about that every day. I know that’s exactly their mindset too. I have found the players are very friendly off the pitch which is good and I am making some good relationships with team mates which is important… My main goal is that I am going to be the hungriest player every day in the gym and on the pitch. I believe if I can achieve that then my footballing career will be successful as I will have no regrets. Also being a striker I want to score as many goals as I can and a goal I have in my mind is to score the most goals in the league for the 2nd half of the season.”

Nothing quite like the feeling of seeing a kiwi player make the leap to professional footy, particularly when it’s at a club with a fair bit of prestige like this one. GC Zurich, of course, being one of the teams that Wynton Rufer built his legend at back in the day. Mata trialled with the club in the middle of last year and the 18 year old was one of the more notable missing names from the latest Premiership after doing some fine things with Eastern Suburbs the season before. Suggests he had something lined up and here we go, bloody excellent.

GC Zurich are currently bottom of the table in Switzerland so they could use some help, though it remains to be seen if he’ll go straight into the first team as a teenager. Not always the way it works for young kiwis overseas but this is an exciting one. For a bit of context, Marco Rojas’ best spell in Europe came playing for FC Thun in this same division.

Well that's outstanding news. Hopefully he carves a bit of space for himself

How long is the contract for?

on tvnz site mentioned 2.5 yrs. Good amount of time to break into side. 

grasshoppers used to be a big side in Switzerland and in regular european competition - I looked up the league table when I saw this news and they are in big relegation trouble - and the next league down (the challenge league) is not fully professional.

Grasshopper draw 1-1 with Thun and remain bottom.

No match day squad for Mata. 

Grasshopper with a 1-3 home loss verus Luzern to remain bottom of the Swiss League.

No Mata. He may have to prove himself in reserve/youth team before getting close to any first team action.

Also game fitness? He hasn’t played for awhile.

U21s play their first game after a massive 5-month break at 4am NZT tomorrow, so hope we'll see him there - U21 team is where he's listed on the club's website. They play in the 3rd tier of Swiss football, so Mata will have a shot against senior players

90 mins in the U21’s 2-1 loss to Solothurn.

Grasshopper U21s play in the 3rd tier of Swiss football, awesome seeing that he’s already the starting striker there

The first team has also sacked their head coach, replacing him with Eintracht Frankfurt’s youth manager. Positive sign for Mata?

When signing Mata mentioned he hoped to be the leading scorer in 2nd half of the season, or something. Did think that was a pretty ballsy comment, but he must have meant the U21s.

Anyway positive signs for him. He's still only 18.

Subbed off in injury time as GC U21 win 4-2 against Zug. No goals or assists

10 mins off the bench in a 0-0 draw with Langenthal. Grasshopper U21 had a number of first team players who had moved down for the match, including Swiss international Shani Tarashaj who played in Mata's usual striker position.

Love hearing about Mata - what a natural talent - prepared to chuck in his Phoenix scholarship to be nearer whanau and still got a gig - probably thru his Wynrs connections - but still. Imagine Eastern Suburbs with Mata off the bench - yikes. Great to see him get a pro-gig at a young age.

Bagged his first goal on Thursday playing 43 minutes against Old Boys, followed by a 23-minute cameo yesterday where he got himself a brace. Great to see him off the mark

The club’s U21’s side?

Yep, forgot to mention

A bit late, but he's bagged a 4th goal of the season last Sunday in a 1-1 draw with SC Zofingen. Was subbed on at H/T.

Grasshopper U21 1 - 1 SC Zofingen

Grasshopper now officially relegated to the second tier. Bit weird to see a team of their stature go down - most titles in Swiss history. Hopefully gives Mata a chance though.

Mata hasn't made any matchday squads for the past three weeks, at senior or U21 level. Think he's been back in New Zealand recently before heading off to Poland? Weirdly, the U21 team's only had four subs on the bench recently.

Holeee sheeeit

https://twitter.com/AlexStone7/status/112761053687...

Fans demanded players hand over their shirts, socks and shorts after 4-0 drubbing. Game abandoned

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/112489560/ban-no-barrier-to-kiwi-striker-max-mata-making-fifa-under20-world-cup-squad

Nõmme Kalju has signed New Zealand U20 international Max Mata on loan from Grasshopper Zürich. #PremiumLiiga pic.twitter.com/rZMqtFCMcC

— Mattis (@MM_Mattis) July 19, 2019

This Estonian team face Celtic in Champions League Qualifying, so this might be a good opportunity for the kid.

Already made his debut too. Got half an hour off the bench in a 1-1 draw with Paide.

Thought the season might be almost over as it's only a 10 team league. But they crack on with 36 match-days, so currently just over halfway through. Good chance for him to get some first team minutes as well.

On the bench in Champions League qualifier at Celtic. 3-0 down at HT.

Came on HT. 5-0 to Celtic now.

Subbed on in the 38th minute as Nomme Kalju fall 2-0 to Celtic in Tallinn (7-0 on aggregate). 

Mata easily looking one of their most talented players even though the team didn't get the ball much. A step ahead of any other attacker

Scored 3 goals in an Estonian league game as Nomme Kalju beat Kuressaare 7-2. 

Official crowd 155 souls. So quality may not be rated highly by the locals.

Estonian league is terrible. Probably worse than Handy Prem.

still he playing and scoring which is what he needs to be doing. 

Must be terrible if it worse then Handi... 

Totally agree, play the games, score his goals, prove his worth and move up the ranks. 

Feels like he's been around forever, but he's still only 19, so plenty of time on his side. Don't imagine he'll get too much of a look in back in Switzerland while Grasshopper are chasing promotion back into the Super League, so hopefully he just ticks off his boxes, does the little things well and makes the most of the opportunities that come his way. Earning his stripes that's for sure.

Goals on his Instagram story. First one a header from an inch out, second a fantastic volley, third a great juke in the box and far post curling effort

Football is not the most popular sport in Estonia - Ice Hockey is and then Basketball I think

I went there in 2003 to see NZ v Estonia crowd was 800 - 54 Kiwi's in it though and it was an awesome trip (despite losing 3-2 thanks to Jason Batty dropping the ball at the feet of an Estonian striker!)

Not so sure about that - Estonia's not particularly good at either of those two sports (although ice hockey is quite popular in Latvia, and basketball in Lithuania). They're just not very good at any of the traditional European team sports, and I'm not really sure why.

The only decent Estonian sports people I can think off the top of my head are rally drivers. I get the impression that traditional winter sports may be more of a thing there, but that's just an impression, I don't actually know.

they don't have to be good at the sports for them to be more popular than football - both of them (Ice Hockey and Basketball) played indoor which is probably a big factor as its not the warmest of places!

you must remember Matt Poom, the Estonian goalkeeper who used to play for Derby - most famous for playing and getting injured in an unofficial friendly game with Iron Maiden and friends!

Interesting. I guess they're also a pretty small country (population of 1.3m), so the talent base is pretty thin across the board.

And yep, totally forgot about Poom, and also forgot about Ragnar Klavan who had a couple of seasons with Liverpool in the Premiership and a decent track record in the Bundesliga too. Currently with Cagliari in Serie A.

To bring this back on topic, yes good on Max for doing what he needs to do (and really should be doing) in this league, but not sure that it's helping him a lot development-wise. 

Nomme Kalju involved in Europa League qualifying this morning, playing Dudelange in Luxembourg. 2-1 down currently, Mata's just come on for the last half hour of the game.

Finished 3-1 to Dudelange. Return leg in Estonia next week.

Mata got another 25 minutes as Nomme Kalju lost the return leg 1-0 and are out of Europe now.

Started his first game today in the Estonian league against Tulevik, decided to watch it and he was pretty good. Missed a penalty though while 2-0 up, and Tulevik scored twice in the last 8 minutes to tie it up.

Doesn't sound great to be honest!!! :))