U.S. women’s national team star Trinity Rodman may have a famous father, but she is already succeeding at charting her own legacy as an athlete.
Rodman is the daughter of five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman, though she opted to play a different sport from an early age. The younger Rodman was one of the most promising prospects in the U.S. women’s youth system before making her debut for the senior national team in 2022. She has been a regular since, but from an early age, she was adamant on making the last name her own.
“People do know Trinity Rodman, sometimes first before Dennis Rodman now,” she told ESPN in an interview last year. “I’m not trying to overcome what he had accomplished. I just want to build my own story.”
Here’s a glance at Rodman’s career so far.
Trinity Rodman’s career
Rodman was a highly-rated youth prospect before being drafted by the NWSL’s Washington Spirit in 2021, unconventionally skipping college soccer to go professional and becoming the youngest draft pick in the league at the time. She scored eight goals in her first season as a professional, winning NWSL Rookie of the Year honors as well as the U.S. Soccer’s Young Female Player of the Award.
She made her debut for the national team in February 2022, scoring her first international goal that April in a 7-0 win over Uzbekistan in a friendly. She has since made 40 appearances and scored seven goals so far, making the Women’s World Cup squad last year and cracking the Olympics roster this year. She was a starter at last year’s World Cup and is expected to hold the same role in France this year.
Rodman has balanced a career with the national team with success for the Spirit, amassing 26 goals in 89 game so far in her club career. She won the NWSL Championship in 2021 and also became the first NWSL player to sign a $1 million contract in 2022.
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