Chinyelu Bessum Asher (born 20 May 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 ...

who plays 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 ...

for

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

, as well as the Jamaica women's national team.

Early life

Chinyelu Asher started playing football at age 9, was taught how to play by her father, Kevin Asher, who is Jamaican. Asher ran track and cross country throughout high school, making repeated appearances to Nationals and Junior Olympics. Simultaneously, Asher played with Freestate United and would play in her school's boys' team during trainings.

College career

Between 2011 and 2013, Asher played for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname is also used as colloquial designation ...

. She later transferred to

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

in 2014.

Club career

Asher joined BIIK-Kazygurt in 2016 and played 7 matches of the

2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 16th edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 8th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. The final was held at the Card ...

. She later joined Santa Fe, where her team won the 2017 season and post-season tournament and played all games in the

2017 Copa Libertadores Femenina The 2017 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina was the ninth edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina (also referred to as the ''Copa Libertadores Femenina''), South America's premier women's club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. Th ...

. In 2018, Asher was invited to attend preseason and was a non-roster player for

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 ...

. Asher joined Stabæk in January 2019. Asher re-joined

on 8 April 2021.

International career

Although born in the United States, Asher qualified to represent

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

through her father, who is Jamaican. Asher made her debut with the Jamaica U-20 in 2012 during the 2012 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship. Asher made her senior debut in the

2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship qualification The 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship qualification was a women's football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship. A total of eight teams qualified to play ...

, on 25 August 2015 versus the Dominican Republic. Asher 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. I ...

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

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in Grenoble.

International goals

''Scores and results list Jamaica's goal tally first''

Personal life

Asher's mother is of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

ian descent and father is of

Afro-Jamaican Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant Sub-Saharan African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country. Most Jamaicans of mixed-race descent self-report as just Jamaican. The ethnogenesis of the Black Jamaican people ste ...

descent, and played soccer collegiately at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

. Asher has an older brother named Daniel Asher, who played soccer at

Saint Leo University Saint Leo University is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts university in St. Leo, Florida. It was established in 1889. The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine mon ...

. Asher is the second youngest of five siblings.

References

External links

* 1993 births Living people Citizens of Jamaica through descent Jamaican women's footballers Women's association football midfielders BIIK Kazygurt players Independiente Santa Fe footballers Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players Toppserien players Jamaica women's international footballers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Jamaican people of Cameroonian descent Sportspeople of Cameroonian descent Jamaican expatriate women's footballers Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Expatriate women's footballers in Kazakhstan Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Expatriate women's footballers in Colombia Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Norway People from Silver Spring, Maryland Sportspeople from Montgomery County, Maryland Soccer players from Maryland American women's soccer players Purdue Boilermakers women's soccer players Louisville Cardinals women's soccer players Washington Spirit players African-American women's soccer players American sportspeople of Jamaican descent American people of Cameroonian descent American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan American expatriate sportspeople in Colombia American expatriate sportspeople in Norway 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women National Women's Soccer League players {{US-footy-midfielder-stub