Wini Heatley has spent nearly a decade away from home chasing professional football. She’s played in the A-League Women, Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, and Denmark’s Kvindeliga. She’s been co-captain of a top-tier European club, earned her Matildas debut, and is completing a law degree on the side.
“It’s definitely been a journey trying to figure that out,” she says about balancing study and football.
“Law and world betterment is something that I’m really passionate about and something that I really see myself doing now — even during my career, but especially post-football.”
For Heatley, the contrast between studying and playing helps keep the game in perspective.
“Football is the fun thing still… it’s something that just comes naturally and something that I don’t really have to apply the same level of focus. It’s something that I genuinely really enjoy and something that is very intuitive for me.”
She hasn’t followed a straightforward path. Her first move overseas — to Sweden during the COVID pandemic — was difficult.
“I signed to a club in the relegation spot… I only played four of eight games, which is tough when you’re away from home and you’re not playing.”
She also struggled with the language barrier:
“The coach only spoke Swedish… someone sitting next to you would give you a 10-second overview [of a 30-minute meeting] and it’s never really going to portray the whole message.”
That experience, while isolating, proved formative.
“It was the first time that I really felt very alone,” she says. “I had to learn how to perform under a coach that didn’t believe in me… it added something really important to my game.”
During that period, she joined Common Goal — a movement where players donate 1% of their salary to social justice projects through football.
“I sat down and I really thought about what I wanted from football and what I wanted from life… when I was younger, I really wanted to make a difference in the world. And I also wanted to play football and do something that I loved. And I think there’s kind of no better example of the combination of those two things than what Common Goal is doing.”
Heatley describes it as a simple but powerful commitment:
“You don’t blink at 1% of your salary, but then when you see what it adds up to, it’s really powerful.”
Her next move — to FC Nordsjælland in Denmark — was steadier.
“Signing my longest-term contract, having the stability of two years, which I hadn’t had before, was really cool. I knew, ‘Okay, I have to set down some roots here. I have to make myself a home.’”
Not long after arriving, she was voted captain.
“Nobody told us we were voting that day… we just came into training, the coach handed out paper, and said, ‘Write down the person you want to be your captain.’”
She tied in votes with a teammate (who became her co-captain) who she calls the obvious choice — someone loud and commanding on the pitch. Wini wasn’t.
“I definitely felt a little bit like an imposter there. I had this idea that a captain had to be the loudest person on the field and very demanding of their teammates, but I wasn’t like that.”
She tried to shift her behaviour.
“I think I tried to flex into being more demanding,” she says. “But I figured out that that’s not where my strength lies. My strength lies in encouraging people around me and trying to create the environment for them to perform their best. And then also leading by example and putting 100% in and showing what that looks like.”
She’s honest about her strengths, and equally honest about the mental toll of national team selection. First called into a Matildas camp in 2021, she didn’t earn her debut until 2024.
“You start second-guessing yourself when you get called into camp, you second-guess yourself when you’re playing outside of camp, because you want to be performing the best you can. And you want it so bad that you almost start overthinking it.”
Eventually, she had to reset.
That shift in mindset made her debut all the more meaningful.
“I’d been in so many camps before where I’d put the jersey on and hoped, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll play in this today,’ and I hadn’t. So the biggest thing for me was that feeling after the game of taking off a sweaty jersey and feeling like I contributed to the team.”
Now that she’s part of the squad, she says the environment is far more supportive than people assume.
“It’s really easy to put on this stereotype of hyper-competitiveness… but off the field, it doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s an extremely supportive environment.”
As for what’s next, Heatley has just left Denmark and is set to announce a new club soon. A return to the A-League Women isn’t on the cards — not yet.
“At the moment, it’s not something that any of us playing overseas can viably consider just because of the length of the contract and the level of support in place in Australia,” she says.
“The league needs to invest in the whole rest of the schedule and sign players for salaries for the whole year. Before that happens, Australia can’t compete with any leagues in Europe.”
Still, coming home eventually appeals to her.
“I’ve been away from home for eight years now… of course, retiring or playing close to home is something that appeals to me, but yeah, not at this point in my career.”
Heatley doesn’t frame her career as a straight line – and she doesn’t pretend it’s always been easy. But from moving out at fifteen to captaining in Denmark, she’s figured things out by sticking to what matters to her. Football is still the fun part. The rest – the mindset, the meaning, the decisions – is what’s kept her in it.
