Northland Football Ferns hotshot Hannah Wilkinson shows her artistic flair with Eden Park mural

Northland Football Ferns star Hannah Wilkinson shows her flair for art with this mural at Eden Park to showcase the three world cups being played at the venue - this year's ICC Cricket World Cup and Rugby World Cup, and next year's Fifa Women's World Cup. Photo / Photosport

Northland Football Ferns star Hannah Wilkinson is a proven goal scorer renowned for her creativity and flair on the pitch.

Now the Ferns veteran - who played her 100th match for New Zealand during the 2020 Summer Olympics - is displaying her creativity off the field too: she's painted a massive mural at Eden Park to commemorate the three world cups being played at the venue - this year's ICC Cricket World Cup and Rugby World Cup, and next year's Fifa Women's World Cup.

Wilkinson said she painted the mural to showcase the three women's world cups being hosted in New Zealand this year and next, which were great opportunities to promote women's sport in the country and to the world.

She said she had been creating art since before she started playing football, and with a brother that also drew, they'd spend time drawing together.

She'd been hoping to do a mural for some time and when the "cool opportunity" came up to showcase her talents at Eden Park - in effect the country's national stadium - she jumped at the chance.

Northland Football Fern Hannah Wilkinson swapped her boots for spray cans to paint this mural at Eden Park. Photo / Photosport

Wilkinson created her design, then once she had the right space, took photos of the wall and digitally laid her design onto the wall to see how it fitted and to get the scale right.

"That [the scale] was the most important part, how to get it from really small to really big," she said.

Wilkinson said her art helped her with football because it was a good distraction.

"As an elite athlete it's always pretty intense and art helps me recover physically and mentally."

She said she and her brother grew up watching Dragonball Z and her art style was very much anime, which she enjoyed doing.

Now her artwork - like her footballing prowess - will be on display to the world when the matches at the three world cups are played at Eden Park.

Hannah Wilkinson was proud of her creativity in producing the Eden Park mural. Photos / Photosport

After almost a decade in the Northern Hemisphere that included stints at Swedish, Portuguese and German clubs and a four-year spell with the University of Tennessee, the Ferns veteran returned to Australasia in 2020, and linked with Melbourne City in the Australian Women's A-League competition this season.

The team finished in the competition and Wilkinson was the league's top scorer with 14 goals in 14 games - a demonstration of her scoring prowess and on-field flair and scoring return as good as any footballer in the world. She also equalled an A-League record with five goals in one game - in the 5-1 derby win over Melbourne Victory.