Melissa Barbieri is a fantastic soccer player.
She’s 33-years-old, and has one child. She first started playing soccer for Richmond FC in Victoria, and was the first female to play in the professional men’s league. After that, she became a goalkeeper for the Australian women’s national team, The Matildas.
Barbieri also signed for Melbourne Victory for the Westfield W-League (or women’s league), and won the goal keeper of the year award. In 2010, she was named as captain of The Matildas.
Recently, she relocated to continue her W-League career with Adelaide team, Lady Reds. She’ll be continuing in her position as goal keeper, even after the birth of her child earlier this year.
But here’s the thing.
She had to raise an awful lot of money in order to be able to keep playing soccer.
You see, Barbieri wasn’t issued with another Matildas contract this season, due to spending more than a year away from the game after having her baby.
While she understands the decision, it hasn’t left her with enough money in order to keep playing soccer. That’s because she now only plays for Adelaide – and Adelaide United is a club funded by the state’s football bodies, so the players are paid much lower wages than those with A-league clubs or on the national team.
As a result, Barbieri decided to auction off a number of her personal, most sentimental items, in order to raise enough funds to keep playing throughout the season.