Jennifer Michele Vasconcelos (; born May 11, 1994) 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 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 Portland Thorns FC 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 ...

Youth career

Vasconcelos played high school soccer at Alta High School in Sandy, Utah, which won three state championships during her career. She scored a total of 37 goals and 22 assists at Alta High. She also played youth soccer for Olympique Montreux, a club based in Sandy, Utah.

College career

Vasconcelos played NCAA Division I soccer at Brigham Young University, where she scored 30 goals and 27 assists in her career as an attacking midfielder and was named

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

player of the year in 2016.

Club career

Real Salt Lake Women, 2016

Vasconcelos played for

Real Salt Lake Women Real Salt Lake Women (previously known as Salt Lake United and ''Sparta Salt Lake'') was an American women's soccer team that was founded in 2008. The team was a founding member of United Women's Soccer league, in the second tier of women’s so ...

in the United Women's Soccer league during the 2016 season.

Chicago Red Stars, 2018–2020

team Chicago Red Stars selected Vasconcelos with the 11th pick in the

2017 NWSL College Draft The 2017 NWSL College Draft was the fifth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on January 12, 2017 at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention in ...

. She missed the entire 2017 NWSL season as she was pregnant with her first child. On March 25, 2018, Vasconcelos debuted for Chicago Red Stars in a 1–1 draw against Houston Dash. She appeared in 20 games for the Red Stars in 2018. In 2019, Vasconcelos appeared in 11 games and scored two goals before tearing her left anterior cruciate ligament in a match on July 6, 2019, against Sky Blue FC. She missed the remainder of the 2019 season. Vasconcelos appeared in six matches as a substitute for the Red Stars at the

2020 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup was a tournament during the 2020 National Women's Soccer League season to mark the league's return to action from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first professional team sports event to return to play in United States. ...

Utah Royals FC, 2020

On September 10, 2020, Utah Royals FC acquired Vasconcelos from the Red Stars in exchange for $55,000 in allocation money. Vasconcelos requested the trade to be closer to her family.

Kansas City NWSL, 2020–2021

On December 7, 2020, ownership of Utah Royals FC was transferred to a group in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of the ...

. The team was subsequently relaunched as an expansion team and temporarily renamed Kansas City NWSL, and the league transferred all of Royals FC's roster rights to the new club, including Vasconcelos's contract. On April 26, 2021, Vasconcelos scored the expansion Kansas City team's first home goal at Children's Mercy Park in the 77th minute of a 1-3 loss to Houston Dash in a

2021 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup was a league cup tournament that took place during the 2021 National Women's Soccer League season. It began on April 9 and ended May 8, one week before the start of the regular season. It was the second iteration of th ...

match.

Sevilla FC, 2021–2022

On September 1, 2021, Kansas City loaned Vasconcelos to Sevilla FC of the Spanish Primera División Femenina for one season.

Portland Thorns FC, 2022

On July 1, 2022, following Vasconcelos's loan to Sevilla FC, Kansas City waived her NWSL playing rights. On July 14, 2022, Portland Thorns FC announced that it had signed Vasconcelos as a national team replacement player. She debuted for Portland on July 16, 2022, as a 78th-minute substitute in a 5–0 win against

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 ...

. On July 29, 2022, Thorns FC extended her contract to the end of the 2022 season, in which Vasconcelos made three appearances for Portland. On January 27, 2023, Thorns FC announced that it had re-signed Vasconcelos to a one-year contract with an option for an additional year. On March 26, 2023, she scored her first goal for Thorns FC in the 76th minute of a 4–0 win against Orlando Pride.

International career

Vasconcelos received a call-up to the United States Under-23 Women's National Team for a training camp in November 2017.

Personal life

Vasconcelos is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She married Pedro Vasconcelos in 2014. He was a member of the

BYU Cougars men's soccer BYU Cougars men's soccer is an American soccer team based in Provo, Utah, United States. The club has won eight NIRSA national championships, and it is the only university sponsored soccer program to have ever purchased a franchise, competing in ...

team. She gave birth to their daughter, Scarlett, in 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasconcelos, Michele 1994 births Living people American women's soccer players BYU Cougars women's soccer players Chicago Red Stars draft picks National Women's Soccer League players Chicago Red Stars players Utah Royals FC players Kansas City Current players Sevilla FC (women) players Portland Thorns FC players Soccer players from Utah People from Sandy, Utah Sportspeople from Salt Lake County, Utah Women's association football forwards Latter Day Saints from Utah