Naomi Girma: The brilliant scientist at the heart of USA’s defense

Original Story Published by: Jeff Kassouf, https://www.theguardian.com
Photo Source: Brad Smith / ISI Phots/Getty Images

(Above) Naomi Girma just turned 23 years old and has already positioned herself to be one of
the next great defenders for the United States.

After a formidable academic and athletic career at Stanford University, the Californian is an integral part of the defending champions’ World Cup campaign

Jeff Kassouf
Fri 14 Jul 2023 03.00 EDT

Each Saturday morning as a young child growing up in San Jose, California, Naomi Girma would show up to the park to play a version of soccer that was “as informal as you can think”, she says now.

The children were divided by the adults into three groups: little, medium, and big. From there, the kids would scrimmage, their voices cutting through the crisp, California air uninterrupted by any formal coaching.

Girma never made it to the big-kids group – which still upsets her, she jokes – but for good reason. By the time she reached third grade, Girma’s talent had become clear. She entered the formal, competitive US youth soccer landscape, ascending from the complicated system that she and her parents learned on
the fly to her position today as a budding star for the United States women’s national team. “I kind of just walked into [soccer], and I’m very grateful I did,” Girma tells the Guardian. “It’s always just been around.”

Girma will most likely play an integral role at center-back for the USA this summer in the team’s bid to win an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup. She only turned 23 last month but has already positioned herself to be one of the next great center-backs for the United States by combining her
exceptional one-on-one defending with a calmness on the ball to spark attacks.

Who Girma is today – as a player and a person – was shaped by her formative years growing up in the Bay Area. Her father, a refugee from Ethiopia who arrived in San Francisco in the early 1980s, established those Saturday morning gatherings in the park as the basis of the Maleda Soccer Club,
“maleda” meaning “dawn” in one of Ethiopia’s languages.