Marco Rojas

What do you do when you’ve done nothing really for 11 odd months. Jump straight in 😅

Life in Melbourne has brought up some beautiful opportunities, and in order to take full advantage of them, I’m walking the space back to a level of fitness that allows me to embrace it all.

I’ve spoken a lot about the mental thoughts I’ve had, and the emotions coming from leaving the pro game; even separating a bit from the game all together.

In the future I’d love to talk about our spiritual well-being, and the importance of this for me, and us as human beings! but for now the journey posted is the physical wellbeing;

to improve levels once again so i can balance everything in and out of football - post professional career.

Great to be working with @marcorrrrrojas looking forward what we can do together in this training camp awesome to have u board 🔥🔥

The acknowledgement of an era. I'm feeling very grateful for the love.

It's not often I write small posts, haha, but for me here, it's only about saying thank you.

Not the end of my connection with the club, nor the fans, but just a transition into something else. Another way.
and I can't wait.

Melbourne Victory
And the fantastic Anita on the photos. Thank you 😊

Please always come up and say hi. It took me all of my 15 years as a professional to be ok with lots of social anxiety.

Your interaction could mean so much to that person you were going to talk to, including if it is me.

So cool you came up and said hello, Han. Awesome awesome work.

Melbourne Victory fan day 💙🤍

Cannot wait to a be part of this

T-minus 2 hours to get back out there, put the boots on 😍

The wait is almost over… just ONE MORE SLEEP!!! 😍

Saturday 27 September, Porritt Stadium will come alive as the Goals for Good 2025 Football Fundraiser kicks off! A full day of football, community spirit, and plenty of FUN - all in support of two truly amazing people, Johnny Konings and Rachel Weatherly.

From the opening whistle to the final match, you can expect:
⚡ Action-packed fixtures featuring local legends and all-star talent.
🎟️ Raffle draw, Silent Auction and LIVE Auction later in the evening.
🫶🏼 A chance to connect, celebrate, and give back together as a community.

IMPORTANT DETAILS 📣
This event is happening rain or shine - it will not be postponed. So, bring a jacket, pack an umbrella if needed, and get ready to enjoy an unforgettable day regardless of the weather.

💵 Cash is preferred on the day. But there will be limited EFTPOS available, so plan ahead to keep things smooth.

Rally the crew! Friends, family, teammates, workmates - and join us for a day that promises to deliver football, fun, and plenty of good vibes, all for a great cause!

We can’t wait to see you there! ❤️🩵

How very cool.

Feeling very grateful to have pulled on the NZ jersey.
Wishing it had of been a better result for the team over the two games, but nonetheless watching ever so closely like every other passionate fan.

If at times I played alongside them vicariously in my head, I am deeply settled into routine of post professional football, and have had the chance to work through and on some really cool collaborations.

I haven’t written much, because I’ve been pretty busy watching the new path, el
Nuevo Camino grow.

I’ll be sure to share some of the journey once it all forms and takes place into things that are official, but I love waking up each day and thinking about how we can make the world of football and our communities a safer space.

I wrote a brief Instagram post a few weeks back on the paramount notion that people feel safe.
And I’m really fortunate to be working in spaces that promote safety in play, and safety in being.

More to come. But for now, thank you NZ football community

😊

Before I go to bed today, I'd just like to touch on some things I've come across in the last months and weeks. A reocurring theme. A heightened state of violence in football stadiums. In sports and the world, a prominence of verbal and physical abuse.

In South America most recently this has meant lost lives, on more than one occasion. It saddens me so much to hear this news. In a world where there is so much war. Incitation of violence,
we cannot continue to treat, and kill people, like we are doing.

In sport we must make our stadiums safer places. In the world, we must respect and stop disregarding human life and the right to each individual's own life and their safety.

We must keep safe their cultures not taking their words and their customs just because they are different to ours.

We must keep them safe from fear of dying, and the reality of extreme hunger within their own country.

When someone goes to a game they cannot be concerned for the loss of their own life.

It's not possible to disregard people like they don't have a right.

I know for most of my life i have kept publicly quiet. But i am gaining strength from my Grandma's story,

and where she would be demonstrating down the street, i choose, to do it through my writing of words.

The right to life. The right to feel safe. The dignity in one's own culture and the security to believe you can wake up and not fear impending death.

The things she would always fight for. And that is what i want to spend my time standing up for too.

My deepest condolences for all loss. My heart is broken.

Grandma, if you are up there looking down on us. Help me to really make a difference. The world needs your kindness. It needs your empathy, and it needs your love. All of your strengths. ❤️

Not me in the foreground, but in the back (yellow boots). Having arrived in Melbourne from Chile, I decided that there’s was a scratch I needed to itch. Decided that I needed to go and train like a pro just one more time and put the curiosity and the question to bed, can I/do I want to do it again?

Now I can put the curiosity to bed, and acknowledge that it’s time for me to move on. I am ready. I will not be playing anymore week in and week out like the professionals do.
I’m yet to know what type of football I might play down the line, although I really love the idea of keeping fit for the odd charity or community game, if there are any out there that you’d like to make me aware of!

As you are well aware (and thank you for tuning in) I’ve been pretty honest with the transition. I’d like to continue to share what the next phase will look like for me, and I top of writing and sharing a few photos here and there, I’ve set up a YouTube channel where I’ll try and posts a mix of some shorts of what I do now, and some longs of family time and future footballing events.

It’ll be very raw, much like my writing. Real and I think, probably full of so many mistakes for sure, but it will get better over time the more I practice.

My hope with everything I do is to help ease the space for others when they retire, it’s a long time we don’t play after our 30’s and there’s so much we can do. We must try.

Also just to reconnect with everyone from a different perspective.
celebrating moving, writing about family and doing what I can to help the future generations and our communities.

We will see how it goes. And shout out to Melbourne Victory. Thank you for letting me train. Scratch that last itch

A day not to forget.
Solidaridad. Comunidad. Y la protección de nuestras poblaciones y los niños y niñas.

Because they are our future.

……….

Desde el rincón más profundo de nuestros corazones, la organización social y familiar Ayün Pichikeche, junto a Marco Rojas y familia, queremos extender un abrazo inmenso de agradecimiento a cada una de las personas que, con su invaluable colaboración, hicieron realidad nuestro reciente encuentro social. ¡Fue una jornada verdaderamente inolvidable, tejida con hilos de alegría y amor comunitario!

El aire se llenó de risas y magia con el taller de atrapasueños, ¡que fue un éxito rotundo, creando pequeñas obras de arte que ahora adornarán muchos hogares! La pasión brilló en la clínica de fútbol para nuestros entusiastas deportistas, las caritas se iluminaron con la magia del pintacaritas, y el alma vibró con la música en vivo que nos unió en un solo ritmo.

El verdadero latido de esta actividad es el anhelo profundo de generar espacios colectivos, donde cada sonrisa compartida nos permita conocernos un poco más, donde cada conversación fortalezca los lazos que nos unen como habitantes de este hermoso y único pueblo del desierto. Es el impulso de compartir risas, abrazos y momentos especiales con toda la familia lo que nos mueve y nos llena de vida.

Ver la alegría reflejada en los ojos de cada asistente, sentir la energía de la unión, nos deja con el corazón desbordante de felicidad. Soñamos y anhelamos que este hermoso encuentro sea solo el comienzo, el punto de partida para muchísimas otras instancias gratuitas y colaborativas. Queremos seguir construyendo juntos, explorando diferentes temáticas que nutran y beneficien a nuestra querida comunidad sanpedrina.

Un agradecimiento a los fotógrafos y fotógrafas, quienes con su talento capturaron la esencia y el amor de cada instante, guardando para siempre estos preciosos recuerdos.
¡Nos vemos en la próxima, con los brazos abiertos y el corazón listo para seguir compartiendo!

San Pedro de Atacama 📍

A bag of balls. Some bibs to distinguish the teams, and a field to play on.

Sometimes that’s all you need.

……..

The first photo from the activity in San Pedro. More to come 😊

Someone once asked me this great question

Where does the dream to be a footballer begin?

And here’s what I think. Well, For me.

It begins with a dad. A dad who has love for the game. A dad who plays the game. A dad who passes on his love for the game to his boy.

It comes from the joy of watching dad and my uncles suit and up play.

From the times us members of the family would get together around the tv to watch the games. From the New Zealand Kingz to Colo Colo Ivan Bam Bam &the Chilean national team.

Extending into Europe; watching the likes of Ronaldinho, Robinho, kaka and then Messi in the champions league.

Back in Hamilton it grew again and again the more I kept playing. From the early early stages at Melville & west Hamilton, to Mike Groom’s Samba Fustal schools, to again dad and the teams he coached that I was in, to finally the few academies I participated through adolescence (the Pete Moxham’s and the Hamilton Wynrs) dad again and the wanderers u-17’s/reserves team.

From representing Waikato, to signing as a professional. It grew and grew and grew.

It grew when my grandfather built me a goal out of wooden planks to put in the backyard (you know those goals that the posts are flat so if you hit the posts it just smacks straight back! 🤣)

It grew each and every time I kicked the ball. To say I kicked enough is probably an understatement. I was always with it, and it was always with me.

Professional football hasn’t always been kind to me. Not anything I have described in here is a structured inspiration or a tailored vision of goal setting.

It’s a love for the game. The reason I can highlight my dad, the Mike Groom’s and
The Peter Moxham’s is because they were the ones who only wished us to play.

Mixing music and fun with football and training, we grew, we played, we laughed and we sang. And it was and has always been a beautiful thing.

Academies have never felt like my thing, matter of fact, in NZ, academies were most of the source of my rejection. I can’t even count the amount of times I was first sent away and not chosen to be in a team. Of course mostly in tears. But these people never waivered to support me. (I’m sure I’ve missed some too) like ngarauwahia - which was where dad played and I spent many many a Saturday and Tuesday/Thursday night playing with whoever would come and kick the ball with me. Endless amounts of chips and soft drink too.
Or Fraser High School coaches (dad was one of them too) but the likes of Brian Webb and few others that I’ve forgotten - sorry.

…….

I haven’t been writing much of late. The reasons - well I’ve been reading Grandma’s book and typing that up to post it.
But two, I quietly have been trying to recover and heal. Using the support of dad again, when he can,
And Dave McLean and CARS (Controlled Articular Rotation’s), I have been trying to nurse an ankle joint and some hip joints that have been a bit worse for wear. Four major injuries and two surgeries on that lower right leg, means for me, that when I did it again recently, I was doing more than just rehabbing the latest injury, I was trying to cure years and years of physical inequity and trauma.

Where am I at now, and why would I be working hard to do this now,
Because the longer I sat and chilled and contemplated letting go and retiring,

The more the voice inside me seems to call to me. The dream returns and it speaks, slowly but surely.
And I don’t know what that means for my future, but I know that it means I must keep moving. Either I can go or succeed or I can go until I cannot no more, but I must keep moving.

Perhaps I’m not finished yet. We will see. And that kid who grew up with football in his family, and loved the game with his friends, can be a man who still gets inspired by his dreams.

And if anyone happens to read this far (amazing, thank you)
Tell me what football can mean to you?

I’ve always wondered what it’s like for the supporters. See, once you play professionally, I think you can blur what used to be when you were a fan, to what it is when you do it professionally (well for me anyway) so I’m curious to hear what you say and what you think?!

(Send it here in the comments or by message on insta - you know where to find me 😊)

To leave. I leave a photo with the emoji of a cloud, signifying dreams.
(And a photo that was just what triggered this thinking - nothing more that)

Much love.
Speak again soon.

And ps: If you can; don’t forget to chase your dreams. Whatever they may be