Gema Simon (born 19 July 1990) is a former Australian international

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played for

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

, Ottawa Fury,

Suwon Suwon (; ) is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population of 1.2 million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan, tho ...

Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy (island), Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund (town), Hauge ...

Þróttur Reykjavík Þróttur may refer to: * Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur Knattspyrnufélagið Þróttur (, ), also referred to as Þróttur Reykjavík or Throttur, is a professional sports club from Reykjavík in Iceland. The club runs a association football, f ...

, and the

Australia women's national soccer team The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

Early life

Simon was born in

Armidale Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 23,967 as of the 2021 census. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands reg ...

. She is an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

, and grew up the eldest of three siblings. Her cousin,

Kyah Simon Kyah Pam Simon (born 25 June 1991) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a striker. She has represented Australia from 2007 to 2023, making 111 caps and scoring 29 goals. In 2011, Simon became the first Indigenous Australian ...

, is also an Australian international footballer. Gema started playing football aged five.

Playing career

Club

Simon was a member of the inaugural

team in the W-League in 2008–09. In May 2013, Simon joined

USL W-League USL W-League may refer to: * USL W League * USL W-League (1995–2015) The USL W-League was a North American amateur women's soccer developmental organization. The league was a semi-professional, open league, giving college players the oppor ...

side Ottawa Fury. She was not paid for her time at the club, but did receive off-field assistance. She suffered an injury one month into the season and did not recover during her remaining two months with the side. In 2013, Simon was given the captaincy of the Jets. She was awarded the Jets' Player of the Year award for the 2013–14 season After captaining

in the 2013–14 season, Simon joined

alongside Hannah Brewer. In October 2015, Simon re-joined the Newcastle Jets. After a rewarding season with Newcastle Jets, Simon signed a deal to play the winter season with

in the

WK League The WK League (Hangul: WK리그) is a semi-professional women's football league, run by the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the Korea Women's Football Federation (KWFF), which represents the sport's highest level in South Korea. Icheon D ...

. After her loan at Suwon, Simon was announced as captain of Newcastle Jets once more. In September 2023, Simon returned once more to

, where she retired at the end of the season.

International

In mid-2009, Simon was called up to the Australia under-20 team for the

2009 AFC U-19 Women's Championship The AFC U-19 Women's Championship 2009 was the fifth edition of the AFC U-19 Women's Championship. It was held from 1 to 12 August in Wuhan, China. The top 3 teams qualified for the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Qualification Qualified ...

. She made her debut for the side in a pre-tournament friendly against

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 ...

in July 2009. Simon was first called up to the Australian senior side for the

2014 Cyprus Cup The 2014 Cyprus Women's Cup was the seventh edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational Women's association football, women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place between 5–12 March 2014. France women's national foot ...

. She made her debut for the team in March 2014, playing a full match in a loss to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in the group stage of the tournament. She was again included in the Australia squad for the

2015 Cyprus Cup The 2015 Cyprus Women's Cup was the eighth edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational Women's association football, women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. It took place from 4–11 March 2015. Venues Squads Group stage Te ...

Honours

Australia *

Tournament of Nations The Tournament of Nations was a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's soccer in non-World Cup and non-Olympic years hosted by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in several American cities. The inaugural tournamen ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 2009–10, 2013–14

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Gema 1990 births Living people Australian women's soccer players Indigenous Australian soccer players Newcastle Jets FC (women) players Melbourne Victory FC (women) players Suwon FC Women players Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Australia women's international soccer players Sportspeople from Armidale Sportswomen from New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales Avaldsnes IL players Toppserien players Ottawa Fury (women) players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Expatriate women's soccer players in Canada Australian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Australian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Australian expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland 21st-century Australian sportswomen