Kiara Shaelene "Kiki" Pickett (born April 30, 1999) is an American professional

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 plays for North Carolina Courage 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 drafted fourth overall in the

2021 NWSL Draft The 2021 NWSL Draft was the ninth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on January 13, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the first NWSL Draft to be held virtua ...

by Kansas City, who sent $175,000 in allocation money to Sky Blue FC (since renamed

NJ/NY Gotham 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 exchange for the draft pick.

Career

Pickett played collegiately at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she helped the Cardinal win the

Women's College Cup The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, sometimes known as the Women's College Cup, is an American college soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I women's national ...

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 ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. At the 2019 title game, she scored the winning penalty in the shootout against North Carolina. In April 2021, Pickett was named

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Defensive Player of the Year for the 2020 season. On May 18, 2021, Pickett signed a 3-year contract with Kansas City. She made her professional debut on June 26, 2021, coming on as a substitute in a 1–2 loss to the Washington Spirit. In the off-season before 2022, Pickett was traded to the North Carolina Courage along with a No. 3

2022 NWSL Draft The 2022 NWSL Draft was the 10th annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on December 18, 2021, and hosted remotely by CBS Sports. Format * All 12 teams of the National ...

pick in exchange for

Sam Mewis Samantha June Mewis (born October 9, 1992) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), as well as the United States national team. She played college ...

References

External links

Stanford Cardinal profile
1999 births Living people American women's soccer players African-American women's soccer players Soccer players from California Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California United States women's under-20 international soccer players Women's association football defenders Stanford Cardinal women's soccer players Kansas City Current players Kansas City Current draft picks 21st-century African-American sportspeople National Women's Soccer League players 21st-century African-American women North Carolina Courage players {{US-women-footy-bio-stub