When Casey Phair was a young girl, she wanted to play soccer for one of the best colleges in the United States. Even at eight years old, that was her dream. Little did she know then that she would develop into a player so talented that she would skip that step altogether and, after becoming the youngest player in Women’s World Cup history, she’d sign for a team in the NWSL, the top-flight of U.S. women’s soccer, at just 16 years old.
It's not the only dramatic difference between Phair’s childhood ambitions and her reality today. One of the starkest will be reflected on June 1, when the U.S. women’s national team takes on South Korea in the first instalment of a friendly double-header. After growing up with aspirations of representing the USWNT, the teenager will be on the opposing side, having chosen to explore the option of declaring for the nation of her mother – and loved what she found down that path.
In a way, it is fitting that Phair has seen her soccer journey evolve in this manner because her route to this point has required a lot of that on her behalf. Be it a change of position, the adaptation needed to address a period of injuries or how she has had to embrace the quite remarkable milestones that have come her way at such a young age, every facet of her career to date is truly fascinating. Yet, what lays ahead promises to be even more so.