{"id":475205,"date":"2026-06-13T09:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/475205\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T09:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:49:09","slug":"michael-boxall-on-family-life-and-focus-ahead-of-all-whites-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/475205\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Boxall on family life and focus ahead of All Whites World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I look back, there aren\u2019t a lot of positive moments from the first half of my career,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re young and starting a professional contract, they\u2019re not too interested in developing you, so it took time to step up to the level I needed to be at. Most of my career has been figuring it out as I go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StarStar defender and longtime Minnesota United FC player Michael Boxall. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that maturity, with 19 years of experience, that Michael will bring to the All Whites\u2019 World Cup team, which also includes fellow Kiwi star Chris Wood, who has found success playing for Premier League club Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m one of the more senior guys, I\u2019ll be focusing on helping the younger ones enjoy the moment and try to make others proud of our performances,\u201d Michael explains. \u201cSome of the games are in the US, so it\u2019ll be cool to have Libby and the kids there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael grew up in One Tree Hill<\/a> and met fellow Aucklander Libby through mutual friends in 2014, when he was based in Wellington. They married at their local courthouse in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust us, our daughter and a photographer in the garden,\u201d smiles Libby. \u201cZero stress. It was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family loves life in Minnesota, which is known for its nature and more than 10,000 lakes.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Boxall with his family. Photo \/ Sarah McClure<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very outdoorsy here,\u201d says Libby. \u201cIt\u2019s freezing in winter \u2013 it can get to minus 50 \u2013 and hot in summer with 30-degree days. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael adds, \u201cIt\u2019s great for raising kids. Our daughter can ride her bike around the neighbourhood, people are really friendly, the schools are great, and it\u2019s nice and quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool how supportive Minnesotans are of their sports. They recently built a new football stadium and we pretty much get sell-out crowds of 20,000 each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the realities of being married to a pro athlete, Libby confesses it\u2019s not all sunshine and rainbows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think it\u2019s glamorous and it really isn\u2019t,\u201d she laughs. \u201cWe\u2019re living away from home and raising our kids somewhere foreign, and because my husband\u2019s often away, I do a lot of it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur keeps herself busy with her Kiwi-made skincare business Milou Beauty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started as a naturopath and I\u2019ve always been into health. I wanted to make a skincare line that\u2019s premium but at a reasonable price point. The brand is super-sustainable and mostly plastic-free, with New Zealand ingredients, like seaweed, in every single product.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s about to add beauty supplements to the range \u2013 something she has experience in from her previous business Dose & Co, a collagen and protein powder that found a fan in Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian, who became an ambassador and investor.<\/p>\n

Libby shares, \u201cI flew over to meet Khlo\u00e9 and Kris Jenner<\/a>. Kris is nice, but Khlo\u00e9 went beyond in everything we asked her to do. She seems super-grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily is what matters most to Michael. Photo \/ Sarah McClure<\/p>\n

When Michael\u2019s not playing, the family makes the most of Minnesota\u2019s parks and food scene but say life is pretty chill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re taxi drivers most of the time, driving our kids to sports five nights a week,\u201d Michael laughs. \u201cWhen I don\u2019t have games, we like being at home, kicking balls around or playing board games with the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout football season, I live a hectic life, but the four of us tend to be together the majority of the time \u2013 family is what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen I look back, there aren\u2019t a lot of positive moments from the first half of my career,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9331,3017,5263,95,3390,128033,10542,51126,17515,2109,9517,36862,1888,1958,305,1360,302,194,424,5494,5978,130,111,139,69,1118,90,5351,12886,213,7187,131,165,5662,2044,5264,102,377,1530,9184,2963],"class_list":["post-475205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-chance","tag-ahead","tag-all","tag-and","tag-best","tag-boxall","tag-cup","tag-eras","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-fans","tag-fifa","tag-first","tag-focus","tag-have","tag-having","tag-its","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-michael","tag-might","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-previous","tag-professional","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-than","tag-their","tag-think","tag-time","tag-whites","tag-with","tag-world","tag-years","tag-yet","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}