Gema Simon (born 19 July 1990) is an Australian international

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who played for

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 Australia ...

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

, Ottawa Fury,

Suwon Suwon (, ) is the capital and largest city of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea's most populous province which surrounds Seoul, the national capital. Suwon lies about south of Seoul. It is traditionally known as "The City of Filial Piety". With a populati ...

Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund. The village was an ancient ...

Þróttur Reykjavík Þróttur may refer to: * Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur, also referred to as Þróttur Reykjavík or Throttur, is a sports club from Reykjavík in Iceland. The club runs a association football, football department ...

, and the

Australia women's national soccer team The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

Early life

Simon was born in

Armidale, New South Wales Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...

. She is an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

, and grew up the eldest of three siblings. Her cousin,

Kyah Simon Kyah Pam Simon (born 25 June 1991) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a striker for Tottenham Hotspur of the FA Women's Super League. In 2011, Simon became the first Indigenous Australian player to score a goal in a FIFA ...

, is also an Australian international footballer. Gema started playing football aged five.

Playing career

Club

Simon was a member of the inaugural

team in the W-League in 2008–09. In May 2013, Simon joined

USL W-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

side Ottawa Fury. She was not paid for her time at the club, but did receive off-field assistance. She suffered an injury one month into the season and did not recover during her remaining two months with the side. In 2013, Simon was given the captaincy of the Jets. She was awarded the Jets' Player of the Year award for the 2013–14 season After captaining

in the 2013–14 season, Simon joined

alongside

Hannah Brewer Hannah Elizabeth Brewer (born 16 April 1993) is a soccer player who last played for Newcastle Jets in the Australian W-League. Playing career Club career In 2008, Brewer was a member of the Newcastle Jets team in the inaugural Australian W-L ...

. In October 2015, Simon re-joined the Newcastle Jets. After a rewarding season with Newcastle Jets, Simon signed a deal to play the winter season with

in the

WK League The WK League (Hangul: WK리그) is a semi-professional women's football league, run by the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the Korea Women's Football Federation (KWFF), which represents the sport's highest level in South Korea. The regular ...

. After her loan at Suwon, Simon was announced as captain of Newcastle Jets once more. In September 2023, Simon returned once more to

International

In mid-2009, Simon was called up to the Australia under-20 team for the

2009 AFC U-19 Women's Championship The AFC U-19 Women's Championship 2009 was the fifth edition of the AFC U-19 Women's Championship. It was held from August 1 to 12 in Wuhan, China. The top 3 teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Qualification Qualified ...

. She made her debut for the side in a pre-tournament friendly against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in July 2009. Simon was first called up to the Australian senior side for the

2014 Cyprus Cup The 2014 Cyprus Women's Cup was the seventh edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place between 5–12 March 2014. France won the final over defending champions England. Fo ...

. She made her debut for the team in March 2014, playing a full match in a loss to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the group stage of the tournament. She was again included in the Australia squad for the

2015 Cyprus Cup The 2015 Cyprus Women's Cup was the eighth edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place from 4–11 March 2015. Venues Squads Group stage Teams were placed into three gr ...

Honours

International

Australia *

Tournament of Nations The Tournament of Nations was a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's soccer in non-World Cup and non-Olympic years hosted by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in several American cities. The inaugural tournament ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Individual

Player of the Year: 2009–10, 2013–14

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Gema 1990 births Living people Australian women's soccer players Indigenous Australian soccer players Newcastle Jets FC (A-League Women) players Melbourne Victory FC (A-League Women) players Suwon FC Women players A-League Women players Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Australia women's international soccer players People from Armidale Sportswomen from New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales Avaldsnes IL players Toppserien players Ottawa Fury (women) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Expatriate women's soccer players in Canada Australian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Australian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Australian expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland

Early life

Playing career

Club

International

Honours

International

Individual

See also

References

External links