Mia Taylin Justus (born September 3, 2002) is an American professional

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 plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for the

Utah Royals The Utah Royals (formerly Utah Royals FC) are an American professional soccer team based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion team, ...

of 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 ...

(NWSL). She played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

for the

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 ...

and the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

. She was part of the Florida State team that won the 2021 national championship before transferring to Texas, which she led to two conference titles. She represented the United States at the youth level, appearing at the

2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup () was the 10th edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its ...

Early life and college career

Justus was born and raised in the

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

suburb of

Lakewood, Ohio Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Established in 1889, it is one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs and part of the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area. The popula ...

, one of six children born to Lauren and Leon Justus. She is a cousin of longtime United States men's national team goalkeeper

Tim Howard Timothy Matthew Howard (born March 6, 1979) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He is the part-owner of club Dagenham & Redbridge as well as an international ambassador in the United States for Premie ...

. She attended

IMG Academy IMG Academy is a University-preparatory school, preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. The organization is set across over 600 acres (243 ha) and features programs consisting of sport ca ...

and first committed to

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

before switching to

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

Florida State Seminoles

Justus spent two years as the understudy to

Cristina Roque Cristina Roque (born November 6, 2001) is a professional footballer who plays for Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Born in the mainland United States, she plays for the Puerto Rico national team. She played co ...

for the

. She kept five clean sheets in her eight starts in the 2021 season, being named to the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

all-freshman team. She was an unused substitute as Florida State won the ACC and

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

s with Roque in goal. She kept four shutouts in six starts as a sophomore in 2022, helping the team win the ACC regular-season title. Roque played as the Seminoles won another ACC tournament and reached the NCAA semifinals. After the season, she transferred to the

to get more playing time.

Texas Longhorns

Justus started every game for the Longhorns in her junior season in 2023, being named second-team All-Big 12 with 9 shutouts in 26 games. She led the team to the Big 12 championship as the tournament's most valuable player. Texas reached the third round of the NCAA tournament, where they fell to Florida State. With the program's move to the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

in 2024, Justus kept a program-record 12 clean sheets and was named to the All-SEC third team. She led the Longhorns to the SEC championship as the tournament's most valuable player, posting a career-high 14 saves in a 2–1 win against

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

in the semifinals.

Club career

Utah Royals

The

announced on December 30, 2024, that the club had signed Justus to her first professional contract on a three-year deal.

International career

Justus trained with the United States youth national team beginning at the under-14 level in 2015. She traveled for international friendlies with the under-16 team in 2017 and 2018, the under-17 team in 2018, the under-18 team in 2019 and 2020, and the under-19 team in 2018 and 2020. She started for the under-20 team through the quarterfinals of the

2022 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship The 2022 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-20 national teams of the North, Central ...

, a tournament the United States won. She started two games at the

, but the team did not make it out of the group stage. She played friendlies for the under-23 team against NWSL clubs in the 2023 preseason. She was called into Futures Camp, practicing alongside the senior national team, in January 2025.

Honors

Florida State Seminoles *

NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, sometimes known as the Women's College Cup, is an American college soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I women's natio ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* ACC women's soccer tournament:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Texas Longhorns * Big 12 Conference women's soccer tournament:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

* SEC women's soccer tournament:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

United States U-20 *

CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship The CONCACAF Women's Under-20 Championship is an association football competition for women's national under-20 teams in the North America, Central America and Caribbean region. It serves as the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 Women's ...

Individual *Second-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

: 2023 *Third-team All- SEC: 2024 * Big 12 tournament Most Outstanding Defensive Player:

* SEC tournament Most Valuable Player:

* ACC all-freshman team:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Justus, Mia Living people 2002 births Sportspeople from Lakewood, Ohio Soccer players from Cuyahoga County, Ohio Soccer players from Cleveland American women's soccer players Women's association football goalkeepers United States women's youth international soccer players United States women's under-20 international soccer players Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players Texas Longhorns women's soccer players 21st-century American sportswomen Utah Royals players