Brianna Alexis Smalls Pinto

Brianna Pinto's résumé took shape early: at sixteen she became the youngest player ever named to a United States senior national team roster for a tournament, called into the squad for the SheBelieves Cup. That milestone came a year before she captured continental honours with the U-20s, winning the CONCACAF Women's U20 Championship and the Sud Ladies Cup in 2018.

College football sharpened the case for her. Pinto was voted the nation's top young player in 2019, made First-Team All-American in both 2019 and 2020, and was picked for the All-ACC team three times over her career.

Her professional path has run entirely through the NWSL. She started with NJ/NY Gotham FC before moving to North Carolina Courage, where she stayed from 2022 to 2025 and won the NWSL Challenge Cup twice, in 2022 and 2023. A serious setback came in September 2024, when a knee injury suffered against the Chicago Red Stars ended her season early.

That same opponent later became her employer. Pinto signed with Chicago Stars FC as a free agent in December 2025 on a two-year deal, joining the club against which her Courage career had been interrupted a year earlier. A forward who plays with her right foot, she now carries the number 10 shirt in Chicago.