Shin Na-yeong (; born 9 October 1999) is a South Korean professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

USL Super League The USL Super League (USLS), officially known as the Gainbridge Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional women's soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system, alongside the National Women's Socce ...

club

Brooklyn FC Brooklyn F.C. may refer to: *Brooklyn FC (USL), American soccer club (founded 2023) *Brooklyn Field Club, defunct American soccer club (1898–1924) *Brooklyn F.C. (Dublin), defunct Irish football club (1920s) *Brooklyn F.C. (New York), defunct Am ...

and the

South Korea national team South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

Early life

Shin was born in

Chilgok County Chilgok County (''Chilgok-gun'') is in southwest North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It is near Gunwi County to the east and adjoins Gimchon-si, Seongju County Seongju County (''Seongju-gun'') is a county in North Gyeongsang Province, South K ...

and became interested in football in elementary school. Despite her parents' initial objections, in the sixth grade of elementary school she left her family home and stayed with a relative in

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

in order to attend Hwawon Elementary School, a school with a girls' football team.

Youth career

While attending Pohang Hangdo Middle School, Shin was part of the team that won the 14th Unification National Women's Football Tournament, where she was also honoured with the 'Fair Play' award. She continued to play football at Chungju Yesung Girls' High School, helping take her team to the final of both the 2015 Spring KWFF Tournament and semi-final of the high school girls' football tournament at the 96th National Sports Festival. She went on to play for Daeduk College, who won two national championships and a bronze medal at the National Sports Festival in 2018. They finished as runners-up in the 2019 Spring KWFF Tournament, where Shin won the 'Best Defender' award. In the 2019 Autumn KWFF Tournament, Daeduk again finished as runners-up, and Shin was named the MVP.

Club career

At the

2020 WK League The 2020 WK League was the twelfth season of the WK League, the top division of women's football in South Korea. The regular season ran from 15 June to 15 October 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the total amount of rounds were reduced from 28 ...

new players' draft, Shin was signed by Seoul City Amazones on a one-year contract. She then played for

Changnyeong WFC Changnyeong Women's Football Club () is a South Korean women's football team based in Changnyeong County. The team joined the WK League, the top division of women's football in South Korea, in 2018. History Foundation The foundation of a ne ...

for two seasons before transferring to Hwacheon KSPO in 2023. In July 2024, Shin became the third Korean footballer to play in the US, signing a contract with

Lexington SC Lexington Sporting Club is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 2021 as an expansion side in USL League One (the third division of the United States soccer league system), the clu ...

. After making 19 appearances in her first season with Lexington, she transferred to fellow

club

on July 28, 2025.

International career

In 2017, while still at high school, Shin was named in the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

U-19 squad for the

2017 AFC U-19 Women's Championship The 2017 AFC U-19 Women's Championship was the 9th edition of the AFC U-19 Women's Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the women's under-19 national teams o ...

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

. She also represented South Korea at the

2019 Summer Universiade The 2019 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXX Summer Universiade () and also known as Naples 2019, or Napoli 2019, was held in Naples, Italy, between 3 and 14 July 2019. It was initially scheduled for Brasília, Brazil in July 201 ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Italy. Shin received her first senior call-up for the 2025 Pink Ladies' Cup in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

References

External links

*
Nayeong Shin profile
at lexsporting.com {{Brooklyn FC (women) squad 1999 births Living people South Korean women's footballers South Korea women's youth international footballers South Korea women's international footballers WK League players Women's association football defenders USL Super League players 21st-century South Korean sportswomen South Korea women's under-20 international footballers Lexington SC (women) players Brooklyn FC players South Korean expatriate sportspeople in the United States South Korean expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States