One of the top players for the U.S. at last year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Moultrie kicked off 2023 in a January training camp with the Under-18/Under-19 Women’s Youth National Teams and closed out the year making two appearances for the senior National Team. Moultrie earned her first USWNT cap on Dec. 2, 2023, coming on in the second half of the USA’s win over China PR in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. At 18 years and 76 days of age, she became the 72nd teenager all-time to earn a cap for the USWNT. She also played the final 22 minutes of the USA’s Dec. 5 win in Frisco, Texas.
Having now completed her third season of professional soccer with Portland Thorns FC, Moultrie more than doubled her NWSL starts from each of the previous two seasons while showing savvy and professionalism beyond her years, appearing in all 22 regular season matches for Portland while making 12 starts and logging over 1,200 minutes of action. She tallied two goals and three assists during the regular season, helping Portland finish second in the NWSL standings, and also made six appearances – five of which were starts – during the NWSL Challenge Cup while tallying one assist.
Moultrie is the fifth-youngest player to win the award after Sophia Smith, Mallory Pugh (now Swanson), Ashley Sanchez, Kristie Mewis and last year’s winner Jaedyn Shaw.
For the second time, fans were able to vote for the U.S. Soccer Player and Young Player of the Year Awards with those votes weighted at 15% of the total. Of the five finalists for the Female Player of the Year Award, Girma garnered 61.6 percent of the overall tabulated votes followed by midfielder Lindsey Horan (23.2%).
Votes for U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year and Young Female Player of the Year awards are collected from respective National Team coaches, National Team players who earned a cap in 2023, members of the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors, U.S. Soccer Athletes’ Council, National Women’s Soccer League head coaches and select media members and administrators.
Moultrie earned 38.3 percent of the overall vote for the Young Female Player of the Year, just ahead of forward Alyssa Thompson (31.5%), who was the youngest player on the USA’s roster at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Twenty-three of the 26 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year winners have earned caps with the full USWNT and 15 of them have gone on to play in a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year has been…
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