Amanda Jaqueline Paswall (; born 7 October 1989) is an American-born Portuguese former 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 played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the USL W-League (1995� ...

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

and

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), Liverpool Ladies in England's

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

, the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

and

MagicJack MagicJack, stylized as magicJack, is a service that allows people in the United States and Canada to make phone calls over the Internet. This type of phone service is called Internet-based telephone service (VoIP). Originally, MagicJack req ...

in the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and for the Portuguese national team. DaCosta was recently inducted in the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame for her outstanding college career (3x All-American, 4x All-ACC, NCAA Freshman of the year, and National Finalist).

Early life

DaCosta is a native of

Somers, New York Somers is a Town (New York), town located in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 21,541. The nearby Metro-North Commuter Railroad provides service to Grand Central Terminal i ...

and attended Somers High School where she was five-year varsity soccer athlete. She earned all-section and all-league honors four times and was named league MVP twice. From 2000 to 2005, she played five years for both the ENY North ODP team as well as the Region 1 ODP team.

Florida State University

DaCosta was a four-year starter for

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...

. During her tenure with the Seminoles, she served as the team captain in 2010 and led the team to a 16–6–1 mark and a sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. She scored a total of 17 goals. She shared the FSU school record for career game-winning assists (10), ranked third in career assists (24) and is ranked fourth in career games started (94). DaCosta was a First-Team All-ACC selection and NSCAA All-Southeast Region team in 2010. She was named to the NSCAA All-Southeast Region Second Team in 2009 and NSCAA and Soccer Buzz First Team All-American in 2008. In 2010, DaCosta was named as a First Team All-ACC member, making her the first athlete in school history to garner all-ACC accolades all four years of her career. DaCosta was inducted into the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.

Playing career

Club

Washington Freedom / magicJack, 2011

In 2011, DaCosta was drafted to the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom may refer to: * Washington Freedom (cricket) * Washington Freedom (soccer) {{dab ...

in the

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

league. The team later became

after a change in ownership and move to Florida. In December 2011, she was signed to

Sky Blue FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 un ...

, however the WPS league folded before the 2012 season began.

Boston Breakers, 2012

In 2012, DaCosta joined the

in the

Women's Premier Soccer League Elite The Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL Elite) was a women's semi-professional soccer league created by the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) to support the sport in the United States, both from continued interest by WPSL teams in profes ...

Liverpool LFC, 2013–2014

In late 2012, DaCosta signed with

Liverpool L.F.C. Liverpool Football Club, commonly referred to as Liverpool or Liverpool Football Club Women if distinguishing themselves from the men's team, is a professional English women's football team based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. They have ...

for the

2013 FA WSL The 2013 FA WSL was the third season of the FA WSL, the top-level women's football league of England. The season began on 14 April and ended on 29 September. Arsenal were the defending champions, having won their ninth consecutive English titl ...

season. (Liverpool Ladies had not, as yet, made an official announcement of DaCosta's signing, however DaCosta announced the move on he
Twitter page
and subsequently played in Liverpool's first preseason match against

Manchester City Ladies Manchester City Women's Football Club (formerly ''Manchester City Ladies F.C.'') is an English women's football club based in Manchester who play in the Women's Super League. It is affiliated with Manchester City which plays in the Premier Leag ...

). She scored her first goal for Liverpool Ladies against

Arsenal Ladies Arsenal Women Football Club, commonly referred to as just Arsenal, is an English professional women's association football, women's football club based in London Borough of Islington, Islington, London, England. The club plays in the FA Women' ...

Emirates Stadium The Emirates Stadium (known as Arsenal Stadium for UEFA competitions) is a association football, football stadium in Holloway, London, England. It has been the home stadium of Arsenal F.C., Arsenal Football Club since its completion in 2006. ...

in the FA Women's Super League on 37 minutes on May 7, 2013.

National Women's Soccer League, 2015–2017

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

DaCosta played for

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

, helping the team reach the playoffs' semifinal where it lost to

Seattle Reign FC Seattle Reign FC is an American professional soccer team based in Seattle, Washington, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2012, it is one of eight inaugural members of the NWSL. Since June 2024, the Reign ar ...

. On January 25, 2016

announced the acquisition of DaCosta from Washington Spirit along with a fourth round pick in 2017 NWSL College Draft in exchange for an unnamed player. On November 3, 2016, it was announced that DaCosta was traded from Chicago to the

. On August 8, 2017, DaCosta announced her retirement from professional soccer.

International

In 2006, DaCosta was a member of the under-17 national team. In March 2008, she competed with the under-20 team at the

2008 Cyprus Cup The 2008 Cyprus Women's Cup was the inaugural edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. Six national teams, including five senior teams and one youth team, were invited: Canada, Netherl ...

. She played a key role in helping the U.S. advance to the championship final against the full Canadian National team. DaCosta was invited to participate in training camp with the U.S. U-23 Women's National Team in Cleveland, Ohio in 2009 ( June 12–19) and twice in 2010 in Carson, California ( January 13–20) and Sunrise, Florida. ( March 7–14). In 2012, she was an active member of the U.S U-23 squad, and ended her campaign netting the game winner for the U.S to beat Norway in the 3-Nations Tournament (Stjordalen, Norway). On December 1, 2015, she made her first appearance for the

Portugal women's national football team The Portugal women's national football team () represents Portugal in international Women's association football, women's football competition. The team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and competes as a member of UEFA ...

, in a Euro 2017 qualifier against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. DaCosta subbed on in the 46th minute. She represented Portugal at the final tournament in the Netherlands. DaCosta won a total of 19

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for Portugal.

Coaching career

In August 2012, DaCosta announced that she would be coaching with Tallahassee United Futbol Club (TUFC) and Cornerstone Middle School as well as for Florida State University in an outreach skills program dubbed Project 4.0.

Broadcasting career

In 2012, DaCosta did the color commentary for the Seminoles soccer team on ESPN3.

Honors

Liverpool * WSL Women's Super League (2):

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

;

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *FSU Athletics Hall of Fame: Inducted in 2022

References

External links

US Soccer Federation player profile

Washington Spirit player profile

Amanda DaCosta blog on Equalizer Soccer
{{DEFAULTSORT:DaCosta, Amanda 1989 births Living people Portuguese women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Liverpool F.C. Women players Women's Super League players Portugal women's international footballers Portuguese expatriate women's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England People from Katonah, New York Soccer players from Westchester County, New York American women's soccer players 21st-century American sportswomen Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players MagicJack (WPS) players Women's Premier Soccer League Elite players Washington Spirit players Chicago Red Stars players Boston Breakers players Women's Professional Soccer players National Women's Soccer League players United States women's under-20 international soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in England American people of Portuguese descent Sportspeople of Portuguese descent UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players United States women's youth international soccer players 21st-century Portuguese sportswomen