Thais Reiss de Araújo (born 9 December 1999) is a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

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for USL Super League club Spokane Zephyr FC. She has been capped internationally for Brazil at youth level.

Early life

Born in

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Reiss attended Marista Santa Maria high school and captained the school's football team for four years. She played club football with Coritiba, winning five youth championships.

North Florida Ospreys

In 2017, Reiss emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

to study for a degree in sport management at the University of North Florida. She played five seasons of

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

for the

North Florida Ospreys The North Florida Ospreys are the athletic teams of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. The Ospreys compete in the ASUN Conference in NCAA Division I. UNF became a full-fledged member of Division I in 2009; previously, the Osp ...

, scoring 42 goals and 18 assists in 77 career appearances. Reiss was named

ASUN Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...

Freshman of the Year in 2017, ASUN Player of the Year in 2020, and earned ASUN All-Conference first-team honours four times. At the time of her departure she ranked second all-time in school history and 10th in ASUN Conference history for goals.

Club career

Orlando Pride

Having gone undrafted in the

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 ...

, Reiss trialled with Orlando Pride for preseason ahead of the 2022 season. She continued to train with the team and eventually signed a contract for the remainder of the season on 11 June 2022. She made her professional debut the following day as an 82nd-minute substitute in a 1–0 defeat away at Chicago Red Stars in the first game under interim head coach

Seb Hines Sebastian Tony Hines (born 29 May 1988) is an English former professional footballer and current head coach of Orlando Pride. Playing career Middlesbrough Born in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, Hines' youth team before playing for Middlesbrough was ...

. She was released upon the expiry of her contract in November 2022 having made five appearances for the club. Having returned to Orlando as a trialist during preseason including scoring during a 2–0 friendly win over UCF Knights, Reiss re-signed with the club on a one-year contract on 7 April 2023. Her contract option was declined at the end of the 2023 season.

Villarreal

On 10 January 2024, Reiss signed a contract with Spanish

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's La Lig ...

club Villarreal.

Spokane Zephyr FC

On 18 June 2024, Reiss signed with Spokane Zephyr FC for the inagural season of the USL Super League.

International career

In 2016, Reiss was a member of the Brazil under-17 squad at the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournam ...

, playing the full 90 minutes of a group stage win over

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. In 2018, she was called up to the Brazil under-20 squad for the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

and played in all three group games. Brazil failed to progress from the group stage in both tournaments.

Career statistics

College

Club

Honours

Individual *

Freshman of the Year: 2017 *ASUN Conference Player of the Year: 2020

References

External links

*
North Florida Ospreys
Due the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA postponed the 2020 season to spring of 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Thais 1999 births Living people Footballers from Curitiba Brazilian women's footballers Women's association football midfielders North Florida Ospreys women's soccer players Orlando Pride players Villarreal CF (women) players National Women's Soccer League players Liga F players Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain