Lisa De Vanna is one of the few “Golden Generation” of Matildas that has seen the team go from having a few die hard football fans to becoming one of Australia’s most respected sporting teams. She would also be on most people’s very short list for the greatest ever Matilda.
Like most elite Australian women footballers of the “Golden Generation” their club league careers are divided between playing in the Australian League and overseas leagues. Lisa began her career in the old Womens National Soccer League, firstly with Adelaide Sensation and then Perth’s Western Waves. Her debut for the Matildas in 2004 was against New Zealand. The first Matildas item in the collection is a ticket from the 2004 quarter-final Olympic match against Sweden where she scored her first goal at an Olympics. In 2006-07, Lisa spent a year at Doncaster Rovers Belles in the English Women’s Premier League National Division and played in her 1st World Cup Tournament in China in 2007. In 2008 she played for AIK in the Swedish top league Elitettan. 2008 also saw the commencement of the Australian W-League and Lisa joined her home town team Perth Glory. The collection does not any specific Lisa items from these early years,
From her two years (2009-10) at the USA Women’s professional soccer league team Washington Freedom there are three of the best items from her club career. Card company Upper Deck produced the 1st commercial Autograph and Memorabilia cards that feature a Matilda (Pictured Right) and a Matchday Programme with her on the cover. The 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany is the first time Panini produced stickers for a Womens World cup. The collection includes all three Panini De Vanna stickers from the 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cups. The most interesting is the 2011 sticker with a blonde Lisa De Vanna!
For the 2012 season Lisa returned to Sweden, this time with Linkopings and the collection includes a postcard size card of De Vanna. Domestically she played for Newcastle Jets for the 2011/12 season and from 2012 to 2015 to Melbourne Victory in the W-League. There are two Melbourne Victory programmes in the collection one with her on the cover and the Grand Final programme from Melbourne Victory’s first title. Lisa continued to play in North America for different clubs including Sky Blue FC, Boston Breakers and Washington Spirit. There are only club badge cards and stickers form those clubs.
In 2014, Tap’n Play entered the Australian card company market, owned by the Neil Armstrong! While he wasn’t the one that was the first person to walk on the moon but he was the first to give Matildas equal billing with the Socceroos. The 2014 Tap’n Play card is the first De Vanna Matilda card.