Shadeene "Shay" Evans (born 7 September 2001) is an Australian

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 currently plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

Early life

Born and raised in

Borroloola Borroloola () is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, Evans was introduced to soccer at age nine, by the JMF program run by

John Kundereri Moriarty John Kundereri "Jumbana" Moriarty (born ) is an Aboriginal Australian artist, government advisor and former soccer player. He is also known as founder of the Balarinji Design Studio, for painting two Qantas jets with Aboriginal motifs. Today ...

the first Indigenous footballer to be selected for Australia. Her first coach was inaugural program director Daniel Campos, a former goalkeeper who began the program in 2012. After much learning, training under the program with various coaches her game needed further development thus in 2014, Moriarty picked Evans as a maiden program candidate for a school sports scholarship. Prior to this, along with other Indigenous youth, she was part of a select group from Borroloola to visit Brazil and experience the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

. In August 2015, Evans moved to

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

where she attended

Westfields Sports High School Westfields Sports High School (abbreviated as WSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex school, co-educational Comprehensive education, comprehensive and specialist secondary school, secondary day school, ...

located 3,000 kilometers from Borroloola. "I miss family, going out bush and hunting and camping. It's bush, scrub and rivers, and we sleep outside with tents and a fire. It's really small, a really remote community, and there's not many people. But there's a lot of soccer," she says. She was coached by

Alen Stajcic Alen Stajcic ( sr-Cyrl, Ален Стајчић, translit=Alen Stajčić; born 2 November 1973) is an Australian football manager and former player, and is the current manager of Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League. He was the head coach of ...

, the head coach of 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 ...

. In addition to training at school, she also became a part of the NSW Institute of Sport.

Club career

In November 2018, Evans signed with

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, ...

ahead of the 2018-19 W-League season. She made her debut for the club during a 3–0 win against the

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

on 10 January 2019. On 17 November 2019, Evans scored her first senior goal for Sydney FC in a 3–0 win over

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 ...

in Round 1 of the

2019–20 W-League The 2019–20 W-League season was the twelfth season of the W-League, the Australian national women's association football competition. Nine teams competed in the league, with most of the players from Australia but 33 of them from 11 other cou ...

season. After the W-League season, Evans returned to the NPL, and played 5 matches for

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states o ...

. The next season she joined Northern Tigers. Ahead of the

2021–22 A-League Women The 2021–22 A-League Women, known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the fourteenth season of the A-League Women, the Australian national women's association football competition originally known as the W-League until the p ...

season, Evans returned to the top Australian league, joining

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

. In October 2022, she returned to

. In September 2023, Evans joined

International career

In March 2018, Evans was named to the Young Matildas along with ten other footballers from the NSW Institute of Sport, for a week-long training camp preceding a match against

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Shadeene Australian women's soccer players Sportswomen from the Northern Territory 21st-century Australian sportswomen Living people Women's association football forwards Sydney FC (women) players Adelaide United FC (women) players Central Coast Mariners FC (women) players 2001 births Larrakia people