Nadia Gomes

Nádia Gomes made her mark on college football in the United States long before her professional career took shape. At BYU she scored 23 goals in 83 appearances between 2014 and 2017, was named West Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2015 and earned a place on the NSCAA All-America Third Team the same year, while the Cougars took the WCC regular-season title in three straight seasons.

The step into the professional game came in 2018, when Orlando Pride picked her 23rd overall in the NWSL draft. She did not break into the first team and instead built her season around the Portugal national side, before returning to college to finish her studies. That same year she debuted for Portugal against Australia and scored her first international goal four days later in the same fixture, a 2-1 win. Portugal went on to take bronze at the 2018 Algarve Cup.

Gomes stepped away from the game for several years before returning in 2023 with San Francisco Glens SC in the USL W League. Wearing the captain's armband, she scored 17 goals and added 10 assists in 15 matches, a run that earned her the league's Player of the Year award and the NorCal Division Player of the Year title, with the Glens also winning the NorCal and Western Conference titles.

That form led to a 2024 move to Chicago Stars FC in the NWSL. Her route to the top level was not a straight line — a college standout who missed her first shot at the NWSL, took time away from football, and forced her way back in through a lower division before finding a permanent home in Chicago.