Estelle Laura Johnson (born 21 July 1988) is a Cameroonian 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 defender. She previously played for

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American women's soccer club based in Elma, New York, that most recently competed in the United Women's Soccer league in 2018. They won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-Leag ...

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� ...

, and

Gotham FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional Association football, 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 Sk ...

in the NWSL,

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played ...

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 ...

(WPS), and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

of Australia's W-League.

Early life

Johnson was born in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

to an American father and

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

an mother. She moved to multiple countries for her father's job but her family eventually settled in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

when she was in elementary school. She grew up in

Fort Collins A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

where she was a four-year letterwinner at Rocky Mountain High School. As a freshman, Johnson was named the best defensive player by the team. She earned all-conference first team honors as a freshman, sophomore and junior and was named all-state during her junior and senior years. She was named team MVP as a sophomore and a junior. Johnson was a member of the Olympic Development Program (ODP) Region IV pool. She also captained the club team, Fort Collins Arsenal.

College career

Johnson attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

where she played for the Jayhawks from 2006 to 2009. During her freshman season, she appeared in all 19 matches with 18 starts. She ranked fifth on the team with 1445 minutes played and helped the Jayhawks shut out eight opponents and hold 0.98 goals against average. She was named to the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team and was selected to the Cal Invitational All-Tournament Team. As a sophomore, she started all 21 matches for a total of 1,883 minutes – third most on the team. She was named Third Team All-Central Region by Soccer Buzz. During her junior season, Johnson started all 23 matches, playing a program-record 2,110 minutes. She was named All-Central Region by Soccer Buzz and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) as well as to the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team and academic all-conference team.

Club career

2013-07-04 Redstars v Flash FlashSideOfMidfield 1

Philadelphia Independence

Johnson was selected by the

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Anschutz E ...

during the

2010 WPS Draft The 2010 WPS College Draft took place on January 15, 2010. It was the second college draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of college players to the American-based teams. Format Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played ...

as part of the 2010 WPS Dispersal Draft. She made 16 appearances for the club, including 13 starts. Johnson joined the Independence for the 2011 season. She made 15 starts in 17 appearances for a total of 1,403 minutes and scored one goal.

Western New York Flash, 2013–2014

In 2013, Johnson was drafted to the

in the

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 ...

. She was selected during the first round (seventh overall) of the 2013 NWSL Supplemental Draft.

Washington Spirit, 2015–2018

Johnson was traded to the Spirit on February 24, 2015, in exchange for defender

Toni Pressley Toni Deion Pressley (born February 19, 1990) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Afturelding in the Icelandic Besta deild kvenna. She previously played for the Orlando Pride, Western New York Flash and Washing ...

. In her first season with the Spirit, she played in all but one game (due to personal commitment), logging 1685 minutes. In 2016, Johnson played in eleven matches, totaling 990 minutes. She has started in 30 of her combined 31 appearances over the two seasons.

Sky Blue FC, 2019–2022

In January 2019, Johnson was traded 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 ...

along with teammates DiDi Haracic and

Caprice Dydasco Caprice Ka'anohikula Dydasco (born August 19, 1993) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a right back for Bay FC of the National Women's Soccer League. She previously played for Pali Blues, the Washington Spirit, Newcastle J ...

for the third overall and 29th picks of the

2019 NWSL College Draft The 2019 NWSL College Draft was the seventh annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select newly eligible college players for the 2019 NWSL season. It was held on January 10, 2019, in conjunction with the United S ...

. On July 12, 2021, Johnson reached 10,000 minutes played in the NWSL.

NC Courage, 2023–2024

On December 1, 2022, Johnson signed a two year free agent deal with the North Carolina Courage, becoming one of the first few players to sign a contract under the NWSL's new free agency rules.

International career

Johnson became interested in playing for

, her country of birth, after watching the team reach the Round of 16 in the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the f ...

. She struggled to work out the details with the team, until coach Alain Djeumfa joined the team in January 2019 and her place on the team was finalized. Johnson was named to the Indomitable Lionesses' squad on 1 May 2019 and made her debut 16 days later 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 ...

in a 0–4 friendly loss. The same month, she was named to the final roster for Cameroon for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

in France. At the 2019 World Cup, Johnson played every minute in the Lionesses' four matches, spanning three group stage games as well as the team's 0–3 loss to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the Round of 16.

Honours

Western New York Flash *

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

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 ...

;Individual * IFFHS CAF Women's Team of the Decade 2011–2020 *

NWSL Team of the Month The National Women's Soccer League Team of the Month, also called the Best XI of the Month since 2022, is a monthly women's soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Selection This award began in 20 ...

: April 2017, June 2017, April 2018, September 2021

References

External links

Western New York Flash player profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Estelle 1988 births Living people People from Maroua Sportspeople from Far North Region (Cameroon) Cameroonian women's footballers 21st-century Cameroonian sportswomen Women's association football defenders Sydney FC (women) players Cameroon women's international footballers 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Cameroonian expatriate women's footballers Cameroonian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Cameroonian people of American descent Cameroonian people of Malian descent Sportspeople of Malian descent American women's soccer players Soccer players from Colorado Sportspeople from Fort Collins, Colorado Kansas Jayhawks women's soccer players New York Fury players Women's Professional Soccer players Philadelphia Independence players National Women's Soccer League players Western New York Flash players Washington Spirit players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Australia American people of Malian descent African-American soccer players Gotham FC players 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen Rocky Mountain High School (Colorado) alumni North Carolina Courage players