It's the quintessential way to emulate your footballing heroes.
Taking a ball into the backyard, lining up a penalty kick against a sibling while wearing a jersey with your favourite player's name and number on your back.
Nowadays, replica jerseys aren't cheap, with a customised Football Ferns top - complete with name and number on the back - setting you back $170 ahead of the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup.
But some fans have been left feeling short-changed, having received shirts with 'cheap' looking numbers and letters on the back, which New Zealand football have confirmed were made in error.
Alison Gale lives in the US and bought a Ferns jersey as a nod to one of her footballing heroes, Rebekah Stott.
But their connection is more than just about the football.
"We actually both were diagnosed with the same type of cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma) in 2021," Alison explains.
"And so after that experience, you know, I felt even more connected to her as a player, and I followed her story and her recovery. And so that's like the biggest motivation of why I really wanted to get a jersey so I could support the Ferns."
She says she was pleasantly surprised by how quickly her order was delivered to Seattle, but that didn't last long.
"I opened the package, and I saw the front of the jersey. I was like, 'Oh yeah, this looks really nice'. Then I turned it around, and I was just looking at the numbers, and I don't know (...) I could tell that it just didn't look good quality."
"It looked like what I had when I was 10 years old - a big Jersey with just like generic numbers."
After comparing her jersey with those recently worn by the Ferns in international fixtures, she put her story online, which caught New Zealand Football's attention.
In a statement, NZ Football told 1News they were proactively working to resolve the issue since being made aware of it this week.
Ten shirts were identified as being printed with the incorrect font, and those affected have been offered a full refund, as well as the option of keeping the original.
They will also offer free printing on all shirts from Tuesday 06 June, for a week.
Alison's satisfied with the outcome and says she'll donate her original jersey to somebody in New Zealand when she visits for the tournament, but she feels the error was an own-goal in the first place.
"Given that they're hosting, I think this is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to sell merchandise, get all the local fans excited about the game, and so, I'm hoping that this was just a one-off."
The World Cup kicks off at Eden Park on 20 July when the Football Ferns take on Norway.
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