Who Is Tierna Davidson? New Details On The U.S. Women's Soccer Defender Competing In The World Cup
She's the youngest player on the World Cup roster.
getty With the first part of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup occurring from June 11th to June 20th, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team is kicking major butt! So far, they’ve defeated Thailand 13-0, and Chile 3-0, and are set to go head-to-head with Sweden on June 20th. Assuming the U.S. team makes it all the way, the final game will occur on July 7th.
Statistics indicate that the U.S. team is the most successful team in international women’s soccer. They’ve won three Women’s World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. It’s quite an impressive feat! And their recent lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for unequal pay has pointed out how unfair their pay is compared to the male counterpart team, who doesn’t win nearly as often.
Whether or not you’ve been watching the games, we’re curious to know more about the individual players we see busting their butts on the field. Specifically, the youngest player on this tournament’s roster. Who is Tierna Davidson? Here are 8 things to know about the defender on the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team.
1. She’s been playing from a young age.
At just two years old, Davidson began playing soccer, kicking around a ball with her older brother, Rory. In her youth, she played in youth leagues and on De Anza Force. “When I first switched to club soccer, I technically wasn’t very proficient. I was athletic and I liked to play and I could kick a ball and I was left-footed, but I didn’t really rein it in,” she said of her beginnings.
Because she’s left-footed, she described her early years as “bumpy,” but when she switched to center mid, that’s when she began to blossom.
According to her, “My club coach told me, ‘I really think you should look at Stanford.’ I remember thinking he was crazy and that I wouldn’t get any playing time there. I didn’t even consider it as an option. He told me they had a really good engineering program and was really pushing that whole shtick with me, so I said, ‘Fine, I’ll email them.’ Obviously, they could come to a lot of our games because we are a Northern Cal-based team. They would just kind of pop over. Then one day I got a text from my coach that said, ‘They want to meet you.’ I was like, this is not real life!”
2. Her career began in college.
From 2016 to 2018, Davidson played for Stanford University and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. In her last year, she only played in 3 games due to a fractured ankle, and when she declared for the 2019 NWSL College Draft, she ultimately left the team after three years.
3. She’s already making headlines.
Currently, Davidson plays for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, as well as for the Chicago Red Stars, which she was drafted to earlier this year. At the end of December 2018, she was named U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year, and returned to the roster for the 2019 SheBelieves Cup after recovering from an injury. She’s the youngest player on the roster for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup!
4. Soccer wasn’t her first career choice.
Davidson had plans to become an astronaut rather than an athlete! She wanted to take flying lessons and attend military school. Davidson recalled, “My mom still has the essays that you write when you’re 8 or whatever-years-old saying, ‘I want to be an astronaut, and I want to go to these schools because I think that I will be able to become one if I go there...’
I went and met the coach at Army, and I was thinking about it and wasn’t sure if this was for me. But I thought this was a good level where I could get good playing time and also pursue what I want to pursue,” she added.
And according to her bio, “Ever since she was a kid, she’d wanted to be an astronaut — she had posters in her rooms of NASA aircraft and she’d watched all the space shuttle launches. Her favorite place to go as a kid was the aviation museum, where she’d climb into the cockpits and press all the buttons. Tierna collected the maps that her aunt, a pilot at Boeing, would bring her, and she begged her parents to let her get her pilot’s license.”
5. It’s her first World Cup.
At just 20 years old, this is the first World Cup she’s appeared in, making her debut in the game against Chile. She played the entire game, too! And it’s been a surreal experience for her.
“I think maybe the 10 seconds before the game started, I was looking around, and the stadium was packed, and there were a couple of chants kind of echoing throughout, and I was kind of like, ‘Oh, wow.’ But then after that, I was like, ‘game time,’” she said. “My mindset was like, ‘If it goes well, great.’ If it doesn’t, Christen can just take them...’ It really is a special experience to play with the players I used to look up to,” she told Pro Soccer USA.
6. She’s been described as a calm player.
But where does her demeanor come from? Said Davidson to FIFA, “As far as I know, it’s always been with me. I have my own thoughts racing through my head, but I guess I look composed at all times. I probably get it from my club team as we played a very tiki-taka style of soccer, so I learned to be composed on the ball.”
7. She’s all about confidence.
Though she didn’t used to believe she had what it takes to make it on a prominent soccer team, she’s since boosted her confidence.
According to her, “You have to have the humility to get better, but also the confidence to be able to play well. I just hope that there are younger girls out there that have more confidence. As a society, we have to instill more confidence in younger players. There just aren’t that many professional athletes out there that are female. That’s part of it, but that’s changing.”
8. She has a girlfriend.
Davidson has been dating a woman named Alison Jahansouz for two years now. Alison is a longboarder and surfer. And they aren’t shy about sharing their love on Instagram. How sweet!
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.