General
- Monday December 1st, 2025 @ 20:30
Max Mata Is A Saint
St Patrick's Athletic are delighted to announce the signing of New Zealand international Max Mata, subject to a work permit and international clearance.
The 25-year-old arrives at Richmond Park having most recently been with Auckland FC, where he won the Australian A League last season.
Mata returns to the League of Ireland following a successful 18 months with Sligo Rovers from February 2022 to August 2023, as well as a loan spell at The Showgrounds in 2024. The striker has also played in New Zealand, America, Switzerland, Estonia and England.
Mata said:
"I'm really excited to have signed for a big club like St Pat's, obviously I've played in the League of Ireland before and Pat's have always been a club that I enjoyed playing against, home and away. I'm really looking forward to getting started and hopefully scoring loads of goals.
I know the League quite well having played there before, so I'm familiar with many of the teams, players and stadiums so that bit of familiarity for me was a big reason for wanting to come back to Ireland, connecting back up with Aidan Keena after our time together in Sligo was another big pull factor for me.
I've had some really good, promising conversations with the people at the club over the last while, we've discussed how we want to play and how I'll fit in and it seems like the right move for me. The club is ambitious, The Manager (Stephen Kenny) is ambitious and I feel we've got a really good group of people to push in the right direction.
Playing at Pat's as an away player was always a good experience and I enjoyed playing at Richmond Park, the fans get pretty rowdy which is exciting of course, it will be bit of a different experience for me now being a Saint so I'm really looking forward to that and getting going with my new teammates in the new year."
Manager Stephen Kenny has been welcoming his first new signing of the off season:
"At 25, we are getting Max at a good time in his career. He is a traditional number 9, who has a high work ethic and will lead the line and bring a physical presence to the team. Max is a different profile to what we've had in that position, he's strong, links the play really well, attacks crosses and scores headed goals.
Being part of a team that won the Australian A League is a huge success story. Max is a full New Zealand international, and played against Ireland at The Aviva a couple of years ago. It's a World Cup year too, now that he's come back from the injury that saw him miss the last couple of squads, he will be highly motivated to make a big contribution here at St Patrick's Athletic to be in the World Cup conversation.
Max has recent experience of playing in and scoring in the League of Ireland which is important, we feel he will be a really good team player who will make a positive impact here."
Sporting Director Ger O'Brien added:
"I'd like to welcome Max to St Patrick's Athletic. He has League of Ireland experience as well as in the A League in Australia more recently, as well as in Europe and the UK. He did very well in Sligo and scored some excellent goals and he is a player with international experience. Max is a proper centre forward, he is a brilliant character and we hope that he'll do really well at the club."
