Rashida Marie Beal (born November 18, 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 defender for Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor in the Turkish Women's Football Super League.

Early years

Rashida Marie Beal was born in Germantown, Wisconsin, United States on November 18, 1994. She performed track athletics in the middle school. She finished Germantown High School in 2013. She studied

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

with minor in

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

graduating in December 2016.

Club career

High school and college teams

Beal played two years for Germantown High School team, and four years for

North Shore United AFC North Shore United Association Football Club is an amateur football club based in the North Shore, Auckland. They compete in the Northern League, where they last won the competition in 2019. Their home ground is Allen Hill Stadium, which is lo ...

. She played college soccer for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

. She was named ''Academic All-District'' in 2014 and 2015 and was selected to the ''

NSCAA The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than 30 ...

Scholar All-Region (Central)'' in 2015. In November 2016, she was named a First Team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

n. She enjoyed the champion title of the Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

. She was named the ''2016 Big Ten Defender of the Year''.

FC Kansas City

After finishing the college, she was drafted by

FC Kansas City FC Kansas City was an American professional women's soccer club based in Kansas City, Missouri. The team was one of the eight founding clubs of the National Women's Soccer League in 2012, and began play in 2013. They were two-time NWSL champions ...

in January 2017. Beal played soccer as a professional in her country 's

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 ...

BV Cloppenburg (Germany)

Between February and June 2020, she was with the

2. Frauen-Bundesliga The 2. Frauen-Bundesliga is the second league competition for women's association football in Germany. For its first 14 seasons the league was divided into two groups: Nord and Süd. The winner and the runner-up are promoted to the Bundesliga (unle ...

club BV Cloppenburg in Germany. By February 2021, she was called up to Kansas City NWSL for the 2021 Preseason.

FCU Olimpia Cluj (Romania)

In August 2021, she transferred to the Romanian league champion club

FCU Olimpia Cluj Fotbal Club U Olimpia Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as FCU Olimpia Cluj, or simply as U Olimpia Cluj, is a women's football team from Cluj-Napoca in Romania. It is Romania's top women's football club, having won all league titles since its incep ...

to play in the

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds began on 17 August and ended on 9 September 2021. A total of 68 teams competed in the group stage qualifying rounds of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League, which includes two rou ...

. She appeared in two matches.

Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor (Turkey)

In the beginning of 2022, she moved to Turkey and joined Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor to play in the second half of the 2021-22 Women's Super League.

Honours

Club

; Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament :;

:: ''Champions'' (1):

Big Ten Women's League Winners

Individual

;

* ''Academic All-District'' (2014, 2015) * ''

Scholar All-Region (Central)'' (2015) * ''First Team

n'' (2016) * '' 2016 Big Ten Defender of the Year '' * '' First Team All-Great Lakes Region '' * '' First Team All-Big Ten'' * '' Second Team All-American ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beal, Rashida 1994 births Living people People from Germantown, Wisconsin Soccer players from Wisconsin University of Minnesota alumni American women's soccer players Women's association football defenders Minnesota Golden Gophers women's soccer players FC Kansas City draft picks American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate soccer players in Germany BV Cloppenburg (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in Romania American expatriate sportspeople in Romania FC Universitatea Cluj players Expatriate women's footballers in Turkey American expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Turkish Women's Football Super League players Karadeniz Ereğlispor players African-American women's soccer players