Sophia Olivia Smith

In January 2020 the Portland Thorns used the first pick of the NWSL draft on a 19-year-old, the first teenager ever taken at number one in the league's history. Two years later she was the youngest MVP the NWSL had produced.

Sophia Smith — Sophia Wilson since her marriage in 2025 — went to Fossil Ridge High School in Colorado.

Portland won the NWSL Shield in 2021 and the Championship the following year, with Smith scoring the opening goal in the final against Kansas City Current and taking the match MVP award. The 2022 season also brought the league MVP and U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year, the youngest winner of the latter since 1994. In 2023 she added the Golden Boot with 11 goals, becoming the first Portland player to hold both that and the MVP award. She was named in the NWSL Best XI in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and in 2024 signed a two-year extension that made her the highest-paid player in NWSL history; the terms were not disclosed.

Her senior international debut came on 27 November 2020 against the Netherlands, making her the first player born in the 2000s to start for the United States. At the 2023 World Cup the Americans went out in the last 16 on penalties to Sweden, with Smith among those who missed. In Paris the following year she scored three goals on the way to Olympic gold, including the extra-time winner in the semi-final against Germany. She has 63 caps and 26 goals, and earlier represented the United States at the under-17 and under-20 World Cups.