Rashida Marie Beal (born November 18, 1994) 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 defender for

Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor is a women's association football, women's football team based in the Karadeniz Ereğli district of Zonguldak Province in Turkey. They are associated with Karadeniz Ereğli Belediye Spor Kulübü, a men's side, and pl ...

in the

Turkish Women's Football Super League The Women's Football Super League, also known as the Turkcell Women's Football Super League () for sponsorship reasons, is the top level women's Association football, football league of Turkey. In the 2024–25 Turkish Women's Football Super Leagu ...

Early years

Rashida Marie Beal was born in

Germantown, Wisconsin Germantown is a village in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 20,917 at the 2020 census. The village surrounds the Town of Germantown, and is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. History The land that became ...

, United States on November 18, 1994. She performed track athletics in the middle school. She finished Germantown High School in 2013. She studied

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

with minor in

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

graduating in December 2016.

Career

High school and college teams

Beal played two years for Germantown High School team, and four years for

North Shore United AFC North Shore United Association Football Club is an amateur football club based in the North Shore, Auckland. They compete in the NRFL Championship, after being relegated in 2022. Their home ground is Allen Hill Stadium, which is located in the ...

. She played college soccer for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

. She was named ''Academic All-District'' in 2014 and 2015 and was selected to the ''

NSCAA The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...

Scholar All-Region (Central)'' in 2015. In November 2016, she was named a First Team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are give ...

n. She enjoyed the champion title of the

Big Ten women's soccer tournament The Big Ten women's soccer tournament is the conference championship tournament in soccer for the Big Ten Conference. The tournament is single-elimination format and seeding is based on regular season records. The top four highest-seeded teams hos ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. She was named the ''2016 Big Ten Defender of the Year''.

FC Kansas City

After finishing the college, she was drafted by

FC Kansas City FC Kansas City was an American professional women's soccer club based in Kansas City, Missouri. The team was one of the eight founding clubs of the National Women's Soccer League in 2012, and began play in 2013. They were two-time NWSL champio ...

in January 2017. Beal played soccer as a professional in her country 's

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 ...

BV Cloppenburg (Germany)

Between February and June 2020, she was with the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga club

BV Cloppenburg BV Cloppenburg is a German association football club located in Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. History The club was founded after World War I in 1919 as the successor to SV Cloppenburg 1911. Through the 1950s they played in the Amateurliga Nieder ...

in Germany. By February 2021, she was called up to

Kansas City NWSL The Kansas City Current are an American professional soccer team based in Kansas City, Missouri, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was founded as an expansion team in 2021. The team plays its home games at CPKC Sta ...

for the 2021 Preseason.

FCU Olimpia Cluj (Romania)

In August 2021, she transferred to the Romanian league champion club

FCU Olimpia Cluj Fotbal Club U Olimpia Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as FCU Olimpia Cluj, or simply as U Olimpia Cluj, is a women's football team from Cluj-Napoca in Romania. It is Romania's top women's football club, having won all league titles since its incept ...

to play in the

2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds The 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying rounds began on 17 August and ended on 9 September 2021. A total of 68 teams competed in the group stage qualifying rounds of the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League, which includes two ro ...

. She appeared in two Champions League qualifying matches. She also appeared in several league games in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 season, including the 2020/21 Romanian Cup Championship.

Kdz. Ereğli Belediye Spor (Turkey)

In the beginning of 2022, she moved to Turkey and joined

to play in the second half of the 2021–22 Women's Super League. She played there for 2 more full seasons, appearing in nearly every match as a starting central defender.

Gintra (Lithuania)

In July 2024 she moved to

lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

FC Gintra FC Gintra is a Lithuanian women's football club from Šiauliai. History The club plays in the highest Lithuanian league, the A Lyga and has won 13 championships so far. The fourth one in 2005 and every championship since then. After its champion ...

. where she competed in 2 Champions League Qualifying matches and several league games. She helped FC Gintra win the 2023/24 A Lyga Championship, marking their 20th championship in a row.

Honors

Minnesota Golden Gophers *

Individual * Academic All-District (2014, 2015) *

Scholar All-Region (Central) (2015) * First Team

n (2016) * 2016 Big Ten Defender of the Year * First Team All-Great Lakes Region * First Team All-Big Ten * Second Team All-American

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beal, Rashida 1994 births Living people People from Germantown, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Washington County, Wisconsin Soccer players from Wisconsin University of Minnesota alumni American women's soccer players Women's association football defenders Minnesota Golden Gophers women's soccer players FC Kansas City draft picks American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players in Germany BV Cloppenburg (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in Romania American expatriate sportspeople in Romania FC Universitatea Cluj players Expatriate women's footballers in Turkey American expatriate soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Turkish Women's Football Super League players Karadeniz Ereğlispor players African-American soccer players 21st-century American sportswomen