Cheyna Lee Matthews (; born 10 November 1993) is an American-born Jamaican professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Racing Louisville 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 ...

of the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

(NWSL) and the Jamaica women's national team.

College career

Vanderbilt

In 2012, Williams attended Vanderbilt University, where she would make 17 appearances, score six goals and register six assists her freshman year. Building on a successful season, she started all 18 games her sophomore year, scoring 16 goals and registering five assists. Her performance in 2013 named her First-Team All-SEC.

Florida State

In 2014, Williams transferred to

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

, where she would continue her form. She made 24 starts (26 appearances) and helped the Seminoles win their first NCAA National Championship in program history. Williams would finish her season year with an additional 25 games played and scoring 10 goals.

Club career

Washington Spirit (2016–2019)

Matthews was drafted by Washington Spirit in the 1st round of the

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 di ...

. She signed with the Spirit in April 2016. In her rookie season, Matthews played in 17 regular season games, 8 starts, totaling 779 minutes and scored three goals. The Georgia native scored her first professional goal on 31 July 2016 against Sky Blue FC. The team went on to make its first ever NWSL Championship appearance, ultimately losing on penalties to Western New York Flash. Matthews dressed but served as an unused substitute. The Spirit would struggle in the 2017 season but Matthews became a regular contributor making 21 appearances and scoring 5 goals (tied for second on the team). Matthews sat out the 2018 season due to pregnancy. Ahead of the 2020 season, the Spirit announced that Matthews would be taking a paid leave of absence to focus on her family situation, notably the potential for her husband,

Jordan Matthews Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan River ...

, to relocate within the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

. The paid leave was anticipated to last until May of the year and stipulated that Matthews could continue her career elsewhere, if necessary. In October 2020, Matthews was placed on the NWSL Re-Entry Wire by the Spirit.

Racing Louisville FC (2020–present)

In November 2020, Matthews was selected off the NWSL Re-Entry Wire by Racing Louisville FC.

International career

Matthews represented the United States at under–23 level in 2015. She was also eligible to play for Jamaica through her mother, who was born in Portland Parish. In January 2019, she was called up by the ''Reggae Girlz'' for the first time, joining the team in a training camp to prepare the first

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

appearance in Jamaica history. She made her debut in a 1–0 friendly win against Chile on 28 February 2019. Matthews was selected for Jamaica's

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

squad. She made her World Cup debut during the team's first group stage match against Brazil in Grenoble.

Personal life

Matthews married San Francisco 49ers wide-receiver

in February 2018 having met while both attended Vanderbilt University. The couple have two sons together, Josiah and Lionel. Matthews is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

. In March 2022, Matthews announced they were expected a third son.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Cheyna 1993 births Living people Citizens of Jamaica through descent Jamaican women's footballers Women's association football forwards Jamaica women's international footballers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players People from Hampton, Georgia Sportspeople from Lynn, Massachusetts Soccer players from Georgia (U.S. state) Soccer players from Massachusetts American women's soccer players Vanderbilt Commodores women's soccer players Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players Washington Spirit draft picks Washington Spirit players National Women's Soccer League players 21st-century African-American sportspeople African-American women's soccer players American sportspeople of Jamaican descent Racing Louisville FC players 21st-century American women 21st-century African-American women