Lily Yohannes, 16, Scores In Her U.S Women’s Soccer Team Debut: What We Know About Her

 

Lily Yohannes, the youngest athlete to play for the United States women’s national soccer team in more than two decades, caught the eye of fans around the world Tuesday when she scored a goal during her international debut to become the third-youngest scorer in squad history.

Yohannes, a midfielder who will turn 17 next week, scored within 10 minutes of coming on the field in a friendly match with South Korea on Tuesday.

The Virginia-born athlete is the eighth-youngest player ever to debut for the women’s national team and the youngest person to play for the team since 2001.

Yohannes has played for Ajax, a Dutch women's soccer club since she was 15 years old, and in November became the youngest player to ever start a UEFA Women's Champions League group stage match—and the youngest American to ever play in the Champions League.

The Yohanneses, who are Eritrean-American, moved to the Netherlands when Lily was 10 to pursue her soccer career.

If Yohannes keeps playing for the United States. The young soccer player is currently in the process of applying for citizenship in the Netherlands, according to the Athletic, which would make her eligible to play for the Dutch national team. Because she has only played for the U.S. in a friendly, and not an official match, she is eligible to switch teams.

Yohannes scored in the first game under U.S. women's soccer's new head coach, Emma Hayes. Hayes, who previously coached at Chelsea in England, signed a deal with the U.S. team in November to become the highest-paid coach in women’s soccer. She replaces Vlatko Andonovski, who stepped down as head of the team after the United States was eliminated earlier than expected in the Women's World Cup last year and fell short at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The two less-than-stellar international performances came after years of global dominance by the Americans—the team has four World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals.