Shadeene "Shay" Evans (born 7 September 2001) is an Australian

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. She currently plays for Central Coast Mariners and for the

Australia women's national under-20 soccer team The Australian women's national under-20 soccer team represents Australia in international women's under-20 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Federation Australia (FFA), which is currently a ...

Early life

Born and raised in

Borroloola Borroloola ( local Aboriginal languages: ''Burrulula'') is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about 50 km upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional c ...

, Northern Territory,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Evans was introduced to soccer at age nine, by the JMF program run by John Kundereri Moriarty the first Indigenous footballer to be selected for Australia. Her first coach was inaugural program director Daniel Campos, a former goalkeeper who began the program in 2012. After much learning, training under the program with various coaches her game needed further development thus in 2014, Moriarty picked Evans as a maiden program candidate for a school sports scholarship. Prior to this, along with other Indigenous youth, she was part of a select group from Borroloola to visit Brazil and experience the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. In August 2015, Evans moved to New South Wales where she attended

Westfields Sports High School , motto_translation = Courage and Valour , established = , location = 406A Hamilton Road, Fairfield West, Western Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , type = Government-funded co-educational comprehensive a ...

located 3,000 kilometers from Borroloola. "I miss family, going out bush and hunting and camping. It's bush, scrub and rivers, and we sleep outside with tents and a fire. It's really small, a really remote community, and there's not many people. But there's a lot of soccer," she says. She was coached by

Alen Stajcic Alen Stajcic (born 2 November 1973) is a former Australian soccer player and is the head coach of the Philippines women's national football team. While as a footballer he was a NSW Premier League player and an Australian Youth Representative. S ...

, the head coach of the Australia women's national soccer team. In addition to training at school, she also became a part of the NSW Institute of Sport.

Club career

In November 2018, Evans signed with

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

ahead of the 2018-19 W-League season. She made her debut for the club during a 3–0 win against the Western Sydney Wanderers on 10 January 2019. On 17 November 2019, Evans scored her first senior goal for Sydney FC in a 3–0 win over Melbourne Victory in Round 1 of the

2019–20 W-League The 2019–20 W-League season was the twelfth season of the W-League, the Australian national women's association football competition. Nine teams competed in the league, with most of the players from Australia but 33 of them from 11 other cou ...

season. After the W-League season, Evans returned to the NPL, and played 5 matches for

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club, based in Belmore, New South Wales, Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan- ...

. The next season she joined Northern Tigers. Ahead of the

2021–22 A-League Women The 2021–22 A-League Women, known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the fourteenth season of the A-League Women, the Australian national women's association football competition originally known as the W-League until the pr ...

season, Evans returned to the top Australian league, joining Adelaide United. In October 2022, she returned to

. In September 2023, Evans joined Central Coast Mariners.

International career

In March 2018, Evans was named to the

Young Matildas The Australian women's national under-20 soccer team represents Australia in international women's under-20 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Federation Australia (FFA), which is currently ...

along with ten other footballers from the NSW Institute of Sport, for a week-long training camp preceding a match against Thailand.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Shadeene Australian women's soccer players Sportswomen from the Northern Territory 21st-century Australian women 21st-century Australian people Living people Women's association football forwards Sydney FC (A-League Women) players Adelaide United FC (A-League Women) players Central Coast Mariners FC (A-League Women) players 2001 births