How retired Matildas striker returned to the Olympics

Five years ago, Australian striker Michelle Heyman sadly retired from international football.

But on Thursday the 36-year-old will step onto the field with the Matildas as they open their Olympic campaign, a feat that is regarded as one of the greatest comebacks in Australian sport.

Following a record-breaking performance in domestic football this season, where she became the first A-League Women’s (ALW) player to surpass the 100-goal mark, Heyman has caught the eye of a Matildas coach keen to fill the void left by the injured Sam Kerr.

But Heyman not only returned to the team, she was also considered Australia’s top scorer in France.

“There are always haters who think I’m too old to come back,” she told the BBC ahead of the tournament.

“But it’s also fun to prove a point to people… age is just a number.”

Like her return to the team in 2024, it was stellar performances in the A-League – Australia’s domestic soccer league – that propelled Heyman, then just 21, into the national team in 2010.

Heyman played 61 games and scored 20 goals for the Matildas, including appearances at the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics, but her early international career was marred by persistent struggles.

The Matildas team at the time were paid very little and had to work in a state of constant fear and stress, a team culture that was allegedly so toxic that it led to fired coach Alen Stajcic in early 2019.

But if there is little support from officials, there is even less from the public. Many Matildas matches are not even open to spectators – the costs would outweigh the ticket sales.

And then Heyman struggled with both her physical and mental health: in interviews she spoke of anxiety and frequent panic attacks, and of repeated ankle and knee injuries that made her condition worse.

By May 2019, Heyman was exhausted, injured and stressed.

Her starting spot on the team was gone and she didn’t even get to play a single minute for six months.

“I really want to fight [on]… but my body wouldn’t let me do it. My mind wouldn’t let me do it,” Heyman told Fox Sports when announcing his retirement from international football.

She said she achieved everything she set out to do, except the Olympic gold medal.

Years later, she admitted she was trying to save face when she told Australian media that she had actually been dropped from the team.

“I just pretended that I wanted to retire but mainly because I got fired,” she shared with Code Sports.

Heyman was so devastated that she also left the A-League and it looked like the final pages of her illustrious career were written.

But just 18 months later, Heyman was re-energized. returned to the A-League in glory, scoring a hat-trick in his first game back for Canberra United.

“I miss feeling like I’m part of something bigger than myself,” she shared at the time.

She has since surpassed Kerr as the ALW’s top scorer and become the first player to win a third Golden Boot. These achievements, combined with two Julie Dolan medals – the competition’s highest honour – have arguably made her the tournament’s most decorated player.

So when he was selected for the Olympic team, Heyman was ready and at his peak.

“She’s in great form, she’s scoring goals with joy,” head coach Tony Gustavsson said in February when he called her up to the squad.

The announcement quickly sent shockwaves across the country. “Quietly, this could be one of the greatest comeback stories in Australian sport in recent memory,” wrote Sydney Morning Herald football journalist Vince Rugari.

“Is that something I think will happen again? Probably not,” Heyman said with a smile.

“I still remember that day – like tears. But I didn’t cry!”

Adding to that emotion is the fact that the country she is competing in is hardly the same as the one she competed in five years ago.

Experts say the Matildas are Australia’s most popular sports team, more popular and famous than the Australian men’s cricket team.

The players are now household names, every home game since the World Cup began has been a sell-out and they hold the record for the most-watched television event in Australian history.

It’s hard to compare that to Heyman’s debut on “some baseball field in Queensland”.

“I think there were about 12 people coming to watch the game, if we were lucky,” she said.

“And then now you look at it and our last game, 77,000 people [have] Come and cheer for them. It’s a feeling I’ve wanted for years, and it’s something I never thought would happen in Australia.”

That bittersweet surprise and joy has also been felt by previous generations of Matildas, she said.

“I carry that emotion from all the other former players, and I want to do it for them. I want to show them ‘look what we created’.”

Will that – and the spectre of Kerr, the nation’s biggest sporting idol – add to the pressure to compete in France?

Heyman answered firmly no.

She and Kerr are “very different” strikers but both can do the job, she said. In her few months back on the team, she has scored six goals, double the number of any of her teammates in the same period.

“I don’t think people remember the other goals I scored for Australia, because they were so long ago that no one cared about them,” she giggled.

“[But] I am good at my job and will continue to work hard to win matches.”

Hard work will certainly be required. The Matildas have been drawn in a tough group – facing a strong USA side, Rio 2016 gold medallists Germany and Zambia for the two guaranteed places in the next round.

The team has also suffered a string of injuries. As well as Kerr, co-captain Steph Catley and key winger Caitlin Foord have both struggled in the past month. And midfielder Katrina Gorry and defender Clare Hunt have only just returned from injury.

And while their World Cup campaign – much of it spent with Kerr on the bench – might suggest otherwise, experts say the team often struggled to perform without her.

So what does Heyman want to say to those who have written off the Matildas?

“They can be quiet,” she said cheekily.

“The more supporters we have, the better we do.

“And we do it for you – we’re playing to win for the country.”