Beattie Goad has found her love of the game after returning to her home.
Goad arrived at Melbourne Victory for a second stint following an honest conversation with Head Coach Jeff Hopkins, having experienced a difficult tenure in Spain, where she played limited minutes off the bench.
“I laid it all out for him (Hopkins). I was like, this is where I am, I’m going to be starting medical school,” Goad said.
“He was like, ‘I’ll take it’. Coming off that (Spain) it’s been a huge surprise, but I think it’s because I had no expectations of myself.
“I just wanted to have fun again as simple as that sounds, I think it kind of has worked out for me.
“Also I think a huge thing that has helped me is having Chids (Alex Chidiac) in the team because we played together when we were really young, like 14 and 15. I remember back then I just loved soccer.
“Having Chids here now (this season) it was really nice because she just exudes this great energy.”
While being a standout in Victory’s push for an A-League Women’s Finals spot, the flying winger has been able to embrace her other passion off the pitch: medicine.
Having completed a four year undergraduate at Stanford University, Goad is embarking on a four year postgraduate medicine degree.
“It’s definitely been overwhelming and it has been stressful, I’m not gonna lie,” she said.
“But it’s actually where soccer really helps because I can have a designated time where I have to focus on something else.”
She said her dream job would be doing aid work for organisations such as Doctors Without Borders.
“That’s the end goal, I’ve got a long way to get there,” Goad said.
Along with the support of her mum and dad, Goad said the Club have been accommodating of her studies within her football commitments.
“It’s really nice because I know it’s not just me, Lia (Privitelli) is a teacher, so Jeff and the Club understand our situation. At this point in time and in the A-League in Australia, we can’t bank on football being our career, but we’d like to get there one day.
“So he understands that, and he’s super supportive of us going off, and developing other careers, which we’re very grateful for Jeff.”
Ahead of Monday’s Derby against Melbourne City, Goad said they were now looking at each of the remaining games as finals.
“We were hit at the beginning of the week with KK going down and I think it definitely took some processing, but also it just adds to the flame,” she said.
“We’ve got another player to play for and we’ve got lots to play for.”
