Yazmeen Ann Ryan (born February 25, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

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 201 ...

of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

Early life

Ryan grew up in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...

, and attended

Norman North High School Norman North High School is a public, co-educational secondary school in Norman, Oklahoma. It was established on August 21, 1997, on the grounds of what had been Longfellow Middle School since 1972. Longfellow Has now been relocated to the build ...

. She played for the club team Norman Celtic. As a freshman, she led Norman North to their first-ever girls soccer state championship.

TCU Horned Frogs

Ryan joined TCU as an attacking midfielder in 2017 and captained the team in 2020. She led the team to their first-ever

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 f ...

conference championship; however, Ryan missed the championship-clinching game due to injury.

Club career

Ryan played for

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

and was named to the club's all-time Best XI.

Portland Thorns

Ryan was drafted at No. 6 overall by the Portland Thorns in the

2021 NWSL Draft The 2021 NWSL Draft was the ninth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on January 13, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the first NWSL Draft to be held virtu ...

. Ryan was the Thorns' "top target". After they attempted to trade into the #4 draft position, the Thorns eventually traded two later picks plus an international slot to move up to select Ryan. Ryan appeared in the starting lineup for the Portland Thorns in the 2022 NWSL Championship Final on October 29, 2022.

NJ/NY Gotham FC

On January 5, 2023, Ryan was traded to

as part of a three-team trade.

Honors

Portland Thorns FC *

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games can ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

References

External links

TCU profileYazmeen Ryan on FBRef
American women's soccer players Portland Thorns FC draft picks TCU Horned Frogs women's soccer players Living people 1999 births African-American women's soccer players 21st-century African-American sportspeople National Women's Soccer League players 21st-century African-American women Women's association football midfielders Portland Thorns FC players Sportspeople from Norman, Oklahoma Soccer players from Oklahoma {{US-women-footy-bio-stub