Sh'Nia Demetrice Gordon (born April 9, 1997) 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 French club

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

of the

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twelv ...

Youth career

Gordon played for Elite Clubs National League teams D'Feeters of

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, and Gwinnett SA of

Gwinnett County, Georgia Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020 United States census, 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the secon ...

. She was ranked 52nd in the 2015 Girls IMG Academy 150 player rankings, fifth among forwards in the Texas region, and 22nd among forwards nationally. Gordon also played high school soccer for Richmond Hill High School, where she scored a school-record 59 goals as a senior, and scored 34 goals in 13 matches as a junior.

Collegiate career

Gordon appeared in 95 matches for the

West Virginia Mountaineers women's soccer The West Virginia Mountaineers are the intercollegiate women's soccer team representing West Virginia University. The Mountaineers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) as members of the Big 12 Conference. ...

team, starting in all of them, and scored 25 goals and 15 assists. As a sophomore in 2016, Gordon was named to the

NCAA College Cup The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

All-Tournament Team and

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

All-Tournament Team.

Club career

FC Metz

Inspired by her West Virginia teammates Ashley Lawrence and

Kadeisha Buchanan Kadeisha Buchanan (born November 5, 1995) is a Canadian soccer player who plays as a centre-back for English Women's Super League club Chelsea and the Canada national team. Born in Toronto and raised in Brampton, Ontario, she is the younge ...

, who played professionally after college at

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

and

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

, respectively, Gordon also planned to play professionally in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. She also entered the 2019 NWSL College Draft but was not selected.

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

extended her an offer, and she accepted and played with the team until its relegation to

Division 2 Féminine The Division 2 Féminine, shortened as D2 Féminine, is the second division of women's football in France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas ...

after the 2019–20 season.

Dijon FCO

Following FC Metz's relegation, Gordon joined

Dijon FCO Dijon Football Côte d'Or (; literally "Dijon Football Gold Coast"), commonly referred to as Dijon FCO or simply as Dijon, is a French football club based in Dijon. The club was founded in 1998 as a result of a merger between two local clubs in ...

on a two-year contract. She played for Dijon in the 2020–21 Division 1 Féminine season, where she scored seven goals in 22 league appearances.

CSKA Moscow

In August 2021,

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

bought Gordon's contract from Dijon FCO, where she played until the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, which started while the team was training in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. One of her matches with CSKA Moscow was a

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 21st edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 13th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was the first edition to fe ...

qualification match against Apollon Ladies F.C., then managed by

Kim Björkegren Lars Kim Björkegren (born 18 December 1981) is a Swedish football manager who currently serves as the manager of Racing Louisville FC in the U.S. National Women's Soccer League. He was hired from Cyprus champions Apollon Ladies FC after the 2 ...

Racing Louisville FC

With special dispensation granted from

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

to foreign players to void overseas contracts due to the invasion, Gordon accepted a two-year contract offer on March 15, 2022, from Björkegren, now

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League team based in Louisville, Kentucky. It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team is owned by Soccer Holdings LLC, which also owns Louisville City FC of the USL Cham ...

's head coach, who was also familiar with Gordon during her career in France. CSKA Moscow had reportedly requested a large transfer fee prior to FIFA's contract exception. Gordon's move was so sudden that she left clothing and personal items behind in Russia. She debuted for Racing on March 25, 2022, as a substitute in the 80th minute of a 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup match against

Houston Dash The Houston Dash is a professional women's soccer team based in Houston, Texas. It joined the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the 2014 season, and is affiliated with the MLS team Houston Dynamo FC. History Establishment On November ...

. On July 27, 2022, Racing Louisville FC announced that Gordon had mutually terminated her contract with the club to pursue playing opportunities in Europe.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

Racing Louisville FC profile

West Virginia Mountaineers profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Sh'Nia 1997 births Living people American women's soccer players Women's association football forwards West Virginia Mountaineers women's soccer players FC Metz (women) players Dijon FCO (women) players ZFK CSKA Moscow players Racing Louisville FC players National Women's Soccer League players Soccer players from Florida Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Russia