Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 to 2004. In her 192 caps on the team, she scored 30 goals playing primarily in the defender and midfielder positions. She scored a World Cup-winning penalty shootout goal against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final. Chastain played professionally for Shiroki FC in the Japan Women's Football League, the

San Jose CyberRays San Jose CyberRays was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of San José State University in San Jose, California. Stars included U.S. National ...

of the

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the Un ...

, FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer, and California Storm of Women's Premier Soccer League. Chastain was named to the

USWNT All-Time Best XI In December 2013, the USWNT All-Time Best XI was named by the United States Soccer Federation. A committee of 56 former soccer players and administrators, as well as media members, voted for the team. 11 United States women's national soccer team pl ...

in 2013. In March 2017, she was inducted into the

National Soccer Hall of Fame The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a private, non-profit institution established in 1979 and currently located in Toyota Stadium (Texas), Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The Hall of Fame honors Association football, soccer ...

. In 2018 she was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life

Chastain was born and raised in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

and began playing soccer at the age of eight. Because there was no girls soccer team available for her to play on at Davis Junior High School, she played for the boys' soccer team after a successful tryout. Chastain attended Archbishop Mitty High School and helped lead the team to three consecutive Central Coast Section championships.

Playing career

Collegiate

California Golden Bears, 1986

Chastain attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

where she played as a forward for the Golden Bears and scored 15 goals as a freshman. Following her first and only year with the Bears, she was named All-American and earned Freshman Player Of The Year honors by Soccer America. Soon after, she underwent reconstructive

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formati ...

(ACL) surgeries on both knees which caused her to miss the 1987 and 1988 seasons.

Santa Clara Broncos, 1989–1990

After transferring to

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

ahead of the 1989 season, Chastain helped lead the Broncos to two consecutive Final Four

NCAA College Cup The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

appearances (for the first time ever) in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

. Chastain scored ten goals for the Broncos during the regular season. In 1990, she was a national scoring leader with 22 goals (50 points) and helped the Broncos to a record. The same year, she was named the

ISAA Player of the Year The ISAA Player of the Year was an annual U.S. college soccer award presented by the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America (ISAA) between 1984 and 1995. In 1984, the ISAA began recognizing outstanding men's NCAA soccer players with an annu ...

. She also won the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

as the nation's top soccer player.

International

Of her 192 international career caps, Chastain played 89 primarily as a defender but occasionally as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. On June 1, 1988, she earned her first cap for the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles ( 1991, 1999, 2015, an ...

during a match against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. She scored her first international goal on April 18, 1991. After coming in as a substitute forward, she scored five consecutive goals in the team's 12–0 win against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

during the 1991 CONCACAF Women's Championship.

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup

The U.S. went on to win the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

Chastain was not called for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, in which the U.S. won the bronze medal.

1996 Summer Olympics

Playing as a defender, Chastain competed with the national team at the 1996 Women's Olympic Football Tournament in Atlanta, the first Olympic tournament to include women's soccer. She played every minute of the U.S.' games despite suffering a third serious knee injury during the semifinal against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. The Americans won the gold medal after defeating

2–1 in the final.

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup

In the quarter-finals of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain scored an own goal in the fifth minute for

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. However, she redeemed herself by scoring the second equalizing goal for the U.S. in the 49th minute, finishing a corner kick that was taken by Mia Hamm. The match ended with a 3–2 win to the U.S. to advance to the semi-finals against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, which they won 2–0. Later on, Chastain who had missed a penalty kick in the Algarve Cup against

months earlier, scored the deciding penalty against the same opponent in the final, clinching the World Cup title for the U.S. in the Rose Bowl, Pasadena.

Club

Shiroki FC, 1993

In 1993, Chastain played club soccer for one season in Japan's L.League for Shiroki FC. She earned team

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a partic ...

(MVP) honors and was the only foreigner to be named one of the league's top 11 players.

San Jose CyberRays, 2001–2003

Following the success of the 1999 FIFA Women's Cup, Chastain was a founding player in the

, the first professional women's soccer league in the United States. She played for the

all three years of the league's existence. During the league's inaugural season, she helped the team finish second in the regular season with a record securing a berth to the playoffs. The team eventually won the league's championship title after defeating the Atlanta Beat in penalty kicks. Chastain started in all 19 games in which she played during the regular season, scored 2 goals, and provided 5 assists. During the playoffs, she started in both games and scored two goals. The CyberRays finished in fifth place during the 2002 season with a record. Chastain started in all 18 games in which she played, scored 4 goals, and provided 3 assists. During the 2003 season, Chastain started in all 15 games as a defender, scored 1 goal, and provided 4 assists. San Jose finished in sixth place during the regular season with a record.

FC Gold Pride, 2009

In 2009 at age 40, Chastain played as a midfielder for FC Gold Pride in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), the second professional women's soccer league in the United States. She was selected in the seventh round of the

2009 WPS Draft The 2009 WPS Draft took place on January 16, 2009. It was the first draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of college players to the American-based teams, though other players not previously assigned could be drafted as ...

. She started in five of the ten games in which she played. The Pride finished in last place during the regular season with a record. Chastain was released by the team in February 2010.

Coaching

In 2014 Chastain started coaching soccer at Bellarmine College Preparatory where she assisted the head coach. In 2018 she assisted in leading Bellarmine to their first CCS open division championship title.

Career statistics

International

Clubs

In popular culture

Goal celebration

On July 10, 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

, after scoring the fifth kick in the penalty shootout to give the United States the championship, and the win over

in the final game, Chastain celebrated by spontaneously whipping off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra, her fists clenched, flexing her arms. Removing a jersey in celebration of a goal is so common in men's soccer that it has, at times, been cause for an automatic yellow card caution, according to the Laws of the Game. The image of her celebration was described in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "most iconic photograph ever taken of a female athlete", and it has been considered one of the more famous photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory. Chastain described the celebration as "momentary insanity, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't thinking about anything. I thought, 'This is the greatest moment of my life on the soccer field.'" The next year, FIFA made it a yellow card offense for men or women to celebrate by removing their jerseys. In 2019, her celebration was commemorated with a bronze statue by

Brian Hanlon Brian Hanlon is a classically trained master sculptor and founder of Hanlon Sculpture Studio. He has created over 400 public and private art pieces since 1987. Hanlon is a nationally acclaimed artist from Toms River, New Jersey, specializing in com ...

outside the stadium where it occurred. In the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 Final at Wembley,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

striker

Chloe Kelly Chloe Maggie Kelly (born 15 January 1998) is an English professional footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Manchester City W.F.C., Manchester City in the FA Women's Super League, FA WSL and the England women's nat ...

celebrated her 110th-minute goal against Germany in the same way. Like Chastain, Kelly's goal was a match and tournament winner – in Kelly's case, securing not only the Lionesses' first ever major trophy but the first England senior team major trophy (men's or women's) since the men's team won the 1966 World Cup as hosts. Chastain acknowledged and congratulated Kelly, saying it put "a big smile on my face" and jokingly telling her to "enjoy the free rounds of pints and dinners for the rest of erlife" from England fans. Chastain and Kelly later also swapped shirts after the United States' friendly against England at Wembley that October.

Television and film

Chastain has been featured on numerous television shows including ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn ''The Late Late Show'' is an American late-night television talk and variety comedy show on CBS. It first aired in January 1995, with host Tom Snyder, who was followed by Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and current host James Corden. The show or ...

'', ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

'', ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production ...

'', and ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

''. In February 2001, Chastain appeared on an episode of '' Celebrity Jeopardy!'' and won with one dollar. The children's cancer research organization that she played for received $15,000. In 2007, Chastain appeared in the HBO documentary '' Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team.'' The 44-minute film, ''Brandi Chastain: A Tribute to a Champion'' was broadcast on

Fox Soccer Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australia ...

in December 2010 and focused on Chastain's testimonial game that occurred in October of the same year. Chastain appeared as Candy in the season 6 premiere of '' Fresh Off the Boat'', an episode which also included her World Cup winning goal in 1999.

Magazines and books

Following the 1999 World Cup, photos of Chastain's goal celebration were featured on the covers of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' as well as numerous newspapers around the world. In 2015, the ''Sports Illustrated'' cover was voted as the second most iconic cover in the history of the magazine. The same year, she posed nude except for soccer cleats and a strategically placed soccer ball for '' Gear Magazine''. In November 2008, she was featured in '' Runner's World''. In 2005, Chastain's book, ''It's Not About the Bra: Play Hard, Play Fair, and Put the Fun Back Into Competitive Sports'' () was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

Endorsements

Following the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain signed a number of endorsement deals, including Nike. She was the official spokesperson for

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfize ...

's (legacy

Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...

)

multivitamin A multivitamin is a preparation intended to serve as a dietary supplement with vitamins, dietary minerals, and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids, or injecta ...

product Centrum Ultra. In July 2016, she partnered with pharmaceutical company

AbbVie Inc. AbbVie is an American publicly traded biopharmaceutical company founded in 2013. It originated as a spin-off of Abbott Laboratories. History On October 19, 2011, Abbott Laboratories announced its plan to separate into two publicly traded compani ...

to promote education and awareness about

inflammatory bowel disease Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis being the principal types. Crohn's disease affects the small intestine and large intestine, as well ...

(IBD). In 1999, she was featured on the

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Meda ...

box. She has appeared in television commercials for Nike,

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in oth ...

, and

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was first develo ...

Broadcasting career

Chastain has worked as a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for soccer matches on two networks. She broadcast for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

during the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Summer Olympics. Her work with ABC/

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

has included

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

matches and being part of a rotation of studio commentators for the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the event ...

Personal life

Chastain married Santa Clara Broncos head coach Jerry Smith on June 9, 1996. Their son, Jaden Chastain Smith, was born in June 2006. She is

stepmother A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a non-biological female parent married to one's preexisting parent. A stepmother-in-law is a stepmother of one's spouse. Children from her spouse's previous unions are known as her stepchildren. Culture Step ...

to Smith's older son, Cameron. In March 2016, Chastain announced that she would donate her brain after death for concussion research. On December 10, 2019, Chastain was inducted into the

California Hall of Fame The California Hall of Fame honors individuals and families who embody California's innovative spirit and have made their mark on history. The hall and its exhibits are housed in The California Museum in Sacramento. The hall of fame was conceiv ...

by governor Gavin Newsom.

References

External links

*
FC Gold Pride player profile
(archived)
San Jose CyberRays player profile
(archived) * * *
The goal against China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chastain, Brandi 1968 births Living people Association football commentators California Golden Bears women's soccer players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in soccer Olympic silver medalists for the United States in soccer Women's Olympic soccer players of the United States Soccer players from San Jose, California United States women's international soccer players Santa Clara Broncos women's soccer players Women's United Soccer Association players San Jose CyberRays players FC Gold Pride players American women's soccer players FIFA Century Club 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players Participants in American reality television series Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Shiroki FC Serena players Nadeshiko League players American expatriate women's soccer players Expatriate women's footballers in Japan American expatriate sportspeople in Japan Women's association football utility players Women's association football midfielders Women's association football defenders Major League Soccer broadcasters Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Women association football commentators National Soccer Hall of Fame members California Storm players Women's Premier Soccer League players Women's Professional Soccer players

Early life

Playing career

Collegiate

California Golden Bears, 1986

Santa Clara Broncos, 1989–1990

International

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

1996 Summer Olympics

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup

Club

Shiroki FC, 1993

San Jose CyberRays, 2001–2003

FC Gold Pride, 2009

Coaching

Career statistics

International

Clubs

In popular culture

Goal celebration

Television and film

Magazines and books

Endorsements

Broadcasting career

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading

External links