Estelle Laura Johnson (born 21 July 1988) is a Cameroonian 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 defender for

NWSL 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 ...

club

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York F ...

and the Cameroon national team. She previously played for

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 Profess ...

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 ...

, and Gotham FC in the NWSL,

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played its home games at West ...

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), and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

of Australia's W-League.

Early life

Johnson was born in

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 ...

to an American father and

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

an mother. She moved to multiple countries for her father's job but her family eventually settled in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

when she was in elementary school. She grew up in

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

where she was a four-year letterwinner at Rocky Mountain High School. As a freshman, Johnson was named the best defensive player by the team. She earned all-conference first team honors as a freshman, sophomore and junior and was named all-state during her junior and senior years. She was named team MVP as a sophomore and a junior. Johnson was a member of the Olympic Development Program (ODP) Region IV pool. She also captained the club team, Fort Collins Arsenal.

College career

University of Kansas

Johnson attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

where she played for the Jayhawks from 2006 to 2009. During her freshman season, she appeared in all 19 matches with 18 starts. She ranked fifth on the team with 1445 minutes played and helped the Jayhawks shut out eight opponents and hold 0.98 goals against average. She was named to the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team and was selected to the Cal Invitational All-Tournament Team. As a sophomore, she started all 21 matches for a total of 1,883 minutes – third most on the team. She was named Third Team All-Central Region by Soccer Buzz. During her junior season, Johnson started all 23 matches, playing a program-record 2,110 minutes. She was named All-Central Region by Soccer Buzz and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) as well as to the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team and academic all-conference team.

Club career

2013-07-04 Redstars v Flash FlashSideOfMidfield 1

Philadelphia Independence

Johnson was selected by the

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Blue Star, LLC and AEG, a subsidia ...

during the

2010 WPS Draft The 2010 WPS College Draft took place on January 15, 2010. It was the second college draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of college players to the American-based teams. Format Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played its home games at West ...

as part of the

2010 WPS Dispersal Draft The 2010 WPS Dispersal Draft was a special draft for Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) after the Los Angeles Sol withdrew from the league. Players from the team were dispersed to the remaining seven teams in the league via the draft. Background Whe ...

. She made 16 appearances for the club, including 13 starts. Johnson joined the Independence for the 2011 season. She made 15 starts in 17 appearances for a total of 1,403 minutes and scored one goal.

Western New York Flash, 2013–2014

In 2013, Johnson was drafted to the

in 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 ...

. She was selected during the first round (seventh overall) of the 2013 NWSL Supplemental Draft.

Washington Spirit, 2015–2018

Johnson was traded to the Spirit on February 24, 2015, in exchange for defender

Toni Pressley Toni Deion Pressley (born February 19, 1990) is an American professional soccer defender. She previously played for the Orlando Pride, Western New York Flash and Washington Spirit of the NWSL, Ryazan VDV in the Russian Women's Football Champion ...

. In her first season with the Spirit, she played in all but one game (due to personal commitment), logging 1685 minutes. In 2016, Johnson played in eleven matches, totaling 990 minutes. She has started in 30 of her combined 31 appearances over the two seasons.

Sky Blue FC, 2019–2022

In January 2019, Johnson was traded to

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 ...

along with teammates

DiDi Haracic Didi may refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Didi" (song), a song by Khaled * Didi, the principal character in '' Didi's Comedy Show'', a German comedy television show * Didi Pickles, mother of Tommy and Dil in the cartoons ''Rugrats'' and ''Al ...

and

Caprice Dydasco Caprice Ka'anohikula Dydasco (born August 19, 1993) is an American soccer defender who plays as an right back for the Houston Dash in the National Women's Soccer League. She previously played for Pali Blues, the Washington Spirit, and Newcastl ...

for the third overall and 29th picks of the

2019 NWSL College Draft The 2019 NWSL College Draft was the seventh annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select newly eligible college players for the 2019 NWSL season. It was held on January 10, 2019 in conjunction with the United Socc ...

. On July 12, 2021, Johnson reached 10,000 minutes played in the NWSL.

NC Courage, 2023–present

On December 1, 2022, Johnson signed a two year free agent deal with the North Carolina Courage, becoming one of the first few players to sign a contract under the NWSL's new free agency rules.

International career

Johnson became interested in playing for

, her country of birth, after watching the team reach the Round of 16 in the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

. She struggled to work out the details with the team, until coach Alain Djeumfa joined the team in January 2019 and her place on the team was finalized. Johnson was named to the Indomitable Lionesses' squad on 1 May 2019 and made her debut 16 days later against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in a 0–4 friendly loss. The same month, she was named to the final roster for Cameroon for the

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 ...

in France. At the 2019 World Cup, Johnson played every minute in the Lionesses' four matches, spanning three group stage games as well as the team's 0–3 loss to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the Round of 16.

Honours

;Individual * IFFHS CAF Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020 *

NWSL Team of the Month The National Women's Soccer League Team of the Month is a monthly soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League. The NWSL Media Association, composed of journalists who regularly cover the league, select a Best XI o ...

: April 2017, June 2017, April 2018, September 2021

References

External links

Western New York Flash player profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Estelle 1988 births Living people People from Maroua Cameroonian women's footballers Women's association football defenders Sydney FC (A-League Women) players A-League Women players Cameroon women's international footballers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Cameroonian expatriate women's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Cameroonian people of American descent Cameroonian people of Malian descent Sportspeople of Malian descent American women's soccer players Soccer players from Colorado Sportspeople from Fort Collins, Colorado Kansas Jayhawks women's soccer players New York Fury players Women's Professional Soccer players Philadelphia Independence players National Women's Soccer League players Western New York Flash players Washington Spirit players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Australia American people of Malian descent African-American women's soccer players NJ/NY Gotham FC players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women