Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2025

70 71 11TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT ASPIRE IN THE WORLD FELLOWS Back when I played there was really only one pathway. Nowadays there are more. On the women’s side Emma Hayes is doing an unbelievable job broadening the player pool, pulling from U-23, some players skipping college and going straight to the professional scene, bringing in NWSL players. I was a late bloomer, came onto the national team at 24 or 25. Shannon Box was another who was late and ended up making the team and going to her first Olympics or World Cup. So just keep working because you never know who is watching. Maybe you do not get selected now, but there may be another opportunity. We all play for the unknown. Trust the process and keep grinding. I would say preparation. Preparation is everything. It gives you confidence and prepares you for pressure and setbacks. Those moments teach you to fail and get back up. At the end of the day, it is just a soccer game. You have to work extremely hard, give it your all, and only you can measure if you have done that. As a coach, same thing: put out the best lineup, prepare tactically, motivate the team. If you prepare to the best of your ability, the results are the results. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you learn more by losing than by winning. So always prepare. What would you say to young players who feel excluded from traditional development pathways or early selection systems? From your experience in Olympic andWorld Cup finals, what key lesson should coaches and elite athletes carry into their dailywork? That is a tricky dynamic. After the first WorldCupwin in 2015, I sawa different mentality creeping in. We went from sold-out stadiums and opportunities off the field to win in epic fashion. The timing with Fox broadcasting and it being in Canada made the soccer world explode. You never want to get too cocky or complacent because that can quickly humble you. After we won in 2019, there was more focus on external factors versus what matters most: training and performance. By the 2023 World Cup, it caught up with the team. It was not just mentality, tactics, or player personnel. It was a culmination of cockiness, complacency, and forgetting what gets you those benefits. If you do not win, you do not get any of those things. I created a brand myself, but I never lost sight of training and performing. Kids now see social media, the glitz, glamour, cars, trophies, but forget how players and teams get there: by training and You’ve spoken about the risks of prioritizing branding over performance in women’s soccer. What advice would you give to the next generation about balancing image and substance? putting in the work. You have to strike the right balance. Build a brand, yes, because for women we cannot just retire and survive. We still have to earn income. I amall for creating brands but never lose sight of why you are there. That is the most important thing.