Angela Marguerite Salem (born July 24, 1988) is an American soccer coach and former professional player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. She is currently an assistant coach for the

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

of the NWSL. In 2016–17, she played for the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

. She previously played for the Spirit, the

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australian ...

in the Australian W-League, the Atlanta Beat and

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

in the

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

(WPS) league,

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Pro ...

in the NWSL, and the Finnish club Åland United of the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

Early life and education

Born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

Salem attended

Copley High School Copley High School is a public high school in Copley Township, just west of Akron, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Copley–Fairlawn City School District and competes athletically in the American Division of the Suburban Le ...

Copley, Ohio Copley is an unincorporated community in Summit County, in the U.S. state of Ohio. History Variant names were Greenfield and Copley Center. The first settlement at Copley Center was made around 1819. The community was named for its location near ...

where she ended her high school career with 81 goals and 46 assists. She scored 23 goals and recorded 13 assists in her senior year alone, leading Copley to its fourth straight Suburban League title. Salem also played club soccer for Cleveland FC and was a member of the Ohio Olympic Development Program (ODP) team.

Francis Marion University

Salem attended

Francis Marion University Francis Marion University is a public university near Florence, South Carolina. It is named in honor of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion. History The university dates back to 1957, when the University of South Caro ...

. During her freshman year, she tied the school record by recording 11 assists. As a sophomore, Salem was ranked third in scoring on the team. The midfielder was named team

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

during her sophomore and junior years. She was a co-captain and the team's leading scorer during the 2008 season. She is the first female alumna from Francis Marion University to play professional soccer.

Springfield College

While playing professional soccer for

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

, Salem earned a master's in education in clinical mental health from Springfield College, graduating in May 2020. During her masters education, she was the graduate assistant coach for three years under head coach, John Gibson, within the Springfield's women's soccer program.

Playing career

Club

Sky Blue FC (WPS)

Salem signed with the

for the

2010 WPS season The 2010 Women's Professional Soccer season was the second season for the WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. Regular season champion FC Gold Pride won the WPS Championship on September 26 with a 4-0 victor ...

. She played three games for the club. Sky Blue won the WPS Championship.

Åland United (Naisten Liiga)

In 2011 Salem played for Åland United, a Finnish club that plays in the top national women's league, the

Atlanta Beat (WPS)

In 2011 Salem also played for the Atlanta Beat in the WPS. She started 9 of the 11 games she played.

Western New York Flash (WPSL Elite)

Salem appeared in all 16 matches for the Western New York Flash in the 2012 WPSL Elite season. She helped the team to its third consecutive championship, scoring the game-winning penalty kick after double overtime in the championship game against the

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

Newcastle Jets (W-League)

Salem played in the Australian W-League for the

during the 2012–13 season.

Western New York Flash (NWSL), 2013–2014

In 2013, Salem signed with the

for the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

Return to Newcastle Jets

In September 2014 Salem joined

together with fellow Americans Katherine Reynolds and

Tori Huster Victoria Lauren Huster (born September 23, 1989) is an American soccer midfielder currently playing for Washington Spirit of the NWSL. In 2020, she was elected president of the National Women's Soccer League Players Association. Early life Bo ...

Washington Spirit (NWSL), 2015

Following the 2014 NWSL season, the Flash traded Salem and Kat Reynolds to the

for

Jordan Angeli Jordan Leigh Angeli (born May 31, 1986) is an American former soccer player from Lakewood, Colorado. She last played in 2015 for the Western New York Flash in the National Women's Soccer League after a preseason trade with the Washington Spiri ...

and a first-round pick—sixth overall—in the 2015 NWSL College Draft. That pick was later used to select Lynn Williams.

Boston Breakers (NWSL), 2016–17

On November 19, 2015, Salem was acquired by the

in exchange for two second-round

2016 NWSL College Draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...

picks (12 & 20 respectively) from the Washington Spirit. She played for the Breakers in the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and 2017 seasons.

Portland Thorns (NWSL), 2018–2021

On January 30, 2018, the Portland Thorns selected Salem as the number fifteen pick in the

dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in North America. ...

following the Breakers' cessation of operations. She scored her first goal for the Thorns, her first goal since 2016, on June 5, 2021, against

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League team based in Louisville, Kentucky. It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team is owned by Soccer Holdings LLC, which also owns Louisville City FC of the USL Cham ...

. Salem scored her second goal for the club against rival OL Reign on August 29, 2021, at Lumen Field in Seattle. In February 2022, Salem announced her retirement from professional soccer.

Coaching career

Washington Spirit (NWSL), 2022–

On March 23, 2022, the

named Salem, who holds a

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

B license, as an assistant coach. After the Spirit fired head coach Kris Ward, Salem acted as ''de facto'' head coach for one game on August 27, 2022.

Honors

Portland Thorns FC *

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup, currently known as the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tournament organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-tier women's league in the United States soccer league system. T ...

* NWSL Community Shield :

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

International Champions Cup The International Champions Cup (ICC) was an annual club association football exhibition competition. In 2020, it was abolished due to COVID-19 pandemic. Format The format has changed in each competition. Subsequent tournaments have had diffe ...

Individual * NWSL Best XI: 2021

References

External links

Western New York player profile

Newcastle Jets player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salem, Angela Living people 1987 births Soccer players from Akron, Ohio American women's soccer players American women's soccer coaches Female association football managers Women's Professional Soccer players Atlanta Beat (WPS) players NJ/NY Gotham FC players National Women's Soccer League players Western New York Flash players Francis Marion Patriots women's soccer players Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Newcastle Jets FC (A-League Women) players Åland United players Kansallinen Liiga players Expatriate women's footballers in Finland Women's association football midfielders Washington Spirit players Boston Breakers players Portland Thorns FC players Washington Spirit non-playing staff Washington Spirit coaches National Women's Soccer League coaches