Jasmine Pereira

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Jasmine Henrietta Pereira (born 20 July 1996 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a football forward who plays for Three Kings United and the New Zealand women's national team, the Football Ferns. She comes from a sports-minded family and is the youngest of four children. Her father Joseph was a rugby league player, and she’s cousin to actors Joe and Rene Naufahu. Growing up in West Auckland, Pereira loved sports, especially WWE wrestling and netball. At Avondale College she moved from netball to football, starting as a goalkeeper before switching to forward after coaches noticed her speed. She finished school at 18, after enduring family losses, and began studying psychology at Massey University with government support.

Pereira began representing New Zealand at youth level. She played for the under-17 team at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan, appearing in all three matches. With the U-17s she finished as runner-up in the 2014 National Women’s League. In 2014 she moved up to the under-20s, helping New Zealand win the OFC U-20 Women's Championship and playing in all four games at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. In 2015 she captained the U-20s to another OFC title and earned the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player. Pereira made her senior debut for the Football Ferns in the 2014 OFC Women’s Nations Cup. She was part of the squad for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, playing in two of New Zealand’s three matches, and she was the youngest player in the 2016 Olympic team.

After the Cyprus Women’s Cup in 2017, where she scored her first international goal, Pereira stepped away from the national team to balance football with financial responsibilities. She moved back in with her mother, worked two jobs, and later became a qualified builder, while continuing her club career.