.jpg) Chastain in 2010 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Brandi Denise Chastain[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1968-07-21)July 21, 1968 (age 57) | ||
| Place of birth | San Jose,California, U.S. | ||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender,Midfielder,Forward | ||
| College career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1986 | California Golden Bears | (15) | |
| 1989–1990 | Santa Clara Broncos | (32) | |
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1993 | Shiroki FC Serena | ||
| 2001–2003 | San Jose CyberRays | 52 | (7) |
| 2009 | FC Gold Pride | ||
| 2010 | California Storm | ||
| International career‡ | |||
| 1988–2004 | United States | 192 | (30) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of October 14, 2009 ‡ National team caps and goals as of October 14, 2009 | |||
Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retiredsoccer player, two-timeFIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for theUnited States national team from 1988 to 2004. In her 192 caps on the team, she scored 30 goals playing primarily in the defender and midfielder positions. She scored a World Cup–winningpenalty shootout goal againstChina in the1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final.
Chastain played professionally forShiroki FC in theJapan Women's Football League, theSan Jose CyberRays of theWomen's United Soccer Association,FC Gold Pride ofWomen's Professional Soccer, andCalifornia Storm ofWomen's Premier Soccer League.[2]
Chastain was named to theUSWNT All-Time Best XI in 2013.[3] In March 2017, she was inducted into theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.[4] In 2018 she was inducted into theBay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Chastain was born and raised inSan Jose, California and began playing soccer at the age of eight.[5] Because there was no girls' soccer team at Davis Junior High School, she played for the boys' soccer team after a successful tryout.[6]Chastain attendedArchbishop Mitty High School and helped lead the team to three consecutive Central Coast Section championships.[6][7]
Chastain attendedUniversity of California, Berkeley where she played as aforward for theGolden Bears and scored 15 goals as a freshman.[8] Following her first and only year with the Bears, she was named All-American and earned Freshman Player Of The Year honors bySoccer America.[6][8] Soon after, she underwent reconstructiveanterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgeries on both knees which caused her to miss the 1987 and 1988 seasons.[6]
After transferring toSanta Clara University ahead of the 1989 season, Chastain helped lead theBroncos to two consecutive Final FourNCAA College Cup appearances (for the first time ever) in1989 and1990. Chastain scored ten goals for the Broncos during the regular season. In 1990, she was a national scoring leader with 22 goals (50 points) and helped the Broncos to a18–1–1 record. The same year, she was named theISAA Player of the Year.[8] She also won theHonda Sports Award as the nation's top soccer player.[9][10] She graduated from SCU with a degree in communications in 1991.[11]
Of her 192 international careercaps, Chastain played 89 primarily as a defender but occasionally as amidfielder.[12] On June 1, 1988, she earned her first cap for theUnited States women's national soccer team during a match againstJapan. She scored her first international goal on April 18, 1991. After coming in as a substitute forward, she scored five consecutive goals in the team's 12–0 win againstMexico during the1991 CONCACAF Women's Championship.[citation needed]
The U.S. went on to win the inaugural1991 FIFA Women's World Cup inChina.
Chastain was not called for the1995 FIFA Women's World Cup inSweden, in which the U.S. won the bronze medal.[13]
Playing as a defender, Chastain competed with the national team at the1996 Women's Olympic Football Tournament in Atlanta, the first Olympic tournament to include women's soccer.[14] She played every minute of the U.S.' games despite suffering a third serious knee injury during the semifinal againstNorway.[12] The Americans won the gold medal after defeatingChina 2–1 in the final.[14]
In the quarter-finals of the1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain scored an own goal in the fifth minute forGermany. However, she redeemed herself by scoring the second equalizing goal for the U.S. in the 49th minute, finishing a corner kick that was taken byMia Hamm.[15] The match ended with a 3–2 win to the U.S. to advance to the semi-finals againstBrazil, which they won 2–0. Later, Chastain, who had missed a penalty kick in theAlgarve Cup againstChina months earlier, scored the deciding penalty against the same opponent in the final, clinching the World Cup title for the U.S. in theRose Bowl,Pasadena.[16] Chastain celebrated by removing her shirt, exposing her sports bra. This led to both praise and criticism from spectators and sports commentators, and the image of the celebration is considered a key symbol of women's athletics worldwide.[17]
In 1993, Chastain played club soccer for one season inJapan's L.League forShiroki FC. She earned teammost valuable player (MVP) honors and was the only foreigner to be named one of the league's top 11 players.[18]
Following the success of the 1999 FIFA Women's Cup, Chastain was afounding player in theWomen's United Soccer Association, the first professional women's soccer league in the United States. She played for theSan Jose CyberRays all three years of the league's existence. During the league'sinaugural season, she helped the team finish second in the regular season with a11–6–4 record securing a berth to the playoffs. The team eventually won the league's championship title after defeating theAtlanta Beat in penalty kicks.[19] Chastain started in all 19 games in which she played during the regular season, scored 2 goals, and provided 5 assists.[1] During the playoffs, she started in both games and scored two goals.[1]
The CyberRays finished in fifth place during the2002 season with a8–8–5 record.[20] Chastain started in all 18 games in which she played, scored 4 goals, and provided 3 assists.[21]During the2003 season, Chastain started in all 15 games as a defender, scored 1 goal, and provided 4 assists.[22] San Jose finished in sixth place during the regular season with a7–10–4 record.[23]
In 2009 at age 40, Chastain played as a midfielder forFC Gold Pride inWomen's Professional Soccer (WPS), the second professional women's soccer league in the United States.[24] She was selected in the seventh round of the2009 WPS Draft.[25] She started in five of the ten games in which she played.[26] The Pride finished in last place during the regular season with a4–10–6 record.[27] Chastain was released by the team in February 2010.[28]
In 2014, Chastain started coaching soccer atBellarmine College Preparatory where she assisted the head coach.[29] In 2018, she assisted in leading Bellarmine to their first CCS open division championship title.[30]
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| Nation | Year | International Appearances | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Starts | Minutes | Goals | Assists | ||
| United States | 1988 | 2 | 0 | 87 | 0 | 0 |
| 1991 | 13 | 4 | 546 | 7 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 2 | 0 | 84 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 23 | 23 | 1,961 | 2 | 7 | |
| 1997 | 15 | 15 | 1,319 | 2 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 24 | 22 | 1,891 | 5 | 4 | |
| 1999 | 27 | 21 | 2,035 | 5 | 5 | |
| 2000 | 34 | 32 | 2,520 | 4 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 3 | 3 | 250 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2002 | 15 | 14 | 1,061 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2003 | 14 | 13 | 1,080 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 20 | 13 | 1,149 | 0 | 2 | |
| Career Total | 12 | 192 | 160 | 13,983 | 30 | 26 |
| Team | Season | League | Domestic League | Domestic Playoffs | Total | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Starts | Minutes | Goals | Assists | Apps | Starts | Minutes | Goals | Assists | Apps | Starts | Minutes | Goals | Assists | |||
| Shiroki F.C. Serena | 1993 | L. League | |||||||||||||||
| Total | |||||||||||||||||
| Bay Area CyberRays | 2001 | WUSA | |||||||||||||||
| San Jose CyberRays | 2002 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2003 | |||||||||||||||||
| Total | |||||||||||||||||
| FC Gold Pride | 2009 | WPS | 10 | 5 | 450 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 10 | 5 | 450 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 10 | 5 | 450 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | 10 | 5 | 450 | 0 | 0 | ||
| California Storm | 2010 | WPSL | 5 | – | – | 3 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | 5 | – | – | 3 | 5 |
| Career Total | – | 15 | 5 | 450 | 3 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | 15 | 5 | 450 | 3 | 5 | |
On July 10, 1999, at the1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final at theRose Bowl inPasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick in thepenalty shootout to give the United States the championship, and the win overChina in the final game, Chastain celebrated by spontaneously taking off her jersey and falling to her knees in asports bra, her fists clenched, flexing her arms.[31] Removing a jersey in celebration of a goal is so common in men's soccer that it has, at times, been cause for an automatic yellow card caution, according to the Laws of the Game.[32] The image of her celebration was described inThe New York Times as the "most iconic photograph ever taken of a female athlete",[33] and it has been considered one of the more famous photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory.[34][35] Chastain described the celebration as "momentary insanity, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't thinking about anything. I thought, 'This is the greatest moment of my life on the soccer field.'"[36]
In 2019, her celebration was commemorated with a bronze statue byBrian Hanlon outside the stadium where it occurred.[37][38]
In theUEFA Women's Euro 2022 Final atWembley Stadium,England strikerChloe Kelly celebrated her 110th-minute goal against Germany in the same way. Like Chastain, Kelly's goal was a match and tournament winner – in Kelly's case, securing not only the Lionesses' first ever major trophy but the first England senior team major trophy (men's or women's) since the men's team won the1966 World Cup as hosts. Chastain acknowledged and congratulated Kelly, saying it put "a big smile on my face" and jokingly telling her to "enjoy the free rounds of pints and dinners for the rest of [her] life" from England fans.[39][40] Chastain and Kelly later also swapped shirts after the United States' friendly against England at Wembley that October.[41][42]
Chastain has been featured on numerous television shows includingThe Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn,[43]The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[44]Late Show with David Letterman,[45] andGood Morning America.[46]In February 2001, Chastain appeared on an episode ofCelebrity Jeopardy! and won with one dollar.[47] The children's cancer research organization that she played for received $15,000.[48] In 2007, Chastain appeared in theHBO documentaryDare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team.[49] The 44-minute filmBrandi Chastain: A Tribute to a Champion was broadcast onFox Soccer in December 2010 and focused on Chastain's testimonial game that occurred in October of the same year.[50]
Chastain appeared as Candy in the season 6 premiere ofFresh Off the Boat, an episode which also included her World Cup–winning goal in 1999.[51]
Following the 1999 World Cup, photos of Chastain's goal celebration were featured on the covers ofSports Illustrated,Time, andNewsweek[52][53] as well as numerous newspapers around the world.[54] In 2015, theSports Illustrated cover was voted as the second most iconic cover in the history of the magazine.[55] The same year, she posed nude except for soccer cleats and a strategically placed soccer ball forGear magazine.[12] In November 2008, she was featured inRunner's World.[56]
In 2005, Chastain's bookIt's Not About the Bra: Play Hard, Play Fair, and Put the Fun Back Into Competitive Sports (ISBN 006076600X) was published byHarperCollins.[57]
Following the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain signed a number of endorsement deals, includingNike.[34][58] She was the official spokesperson forPfizer's (legacyWyeth)multivitamin productCentrum Ultra.[59] In July 2016, she partnered with pharmaceutical companyAbbVie Inc. to promote education and awareness aboutinflammatory bowel disease (IBD).[60] In 1999, she was featured on theWheaties box.[61] She has appeared in television commercials for Nike,[62]Bud Light,[63] andGatorade.[64]
Chastain has worked as acolor commentator for soccer matches on two networks. She broadcast forNBC Sports during the2008[65] and2012[66] Summer Olympics. Her work withABC/ESPN has includedMajor League Soccer matches and being part of a rotation of studio commentators for the2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.[67]
Chastain married Santa Clara Broncos head coachJerry Smith on June 9, 1996.[68] Their son was born in June 2006.[69] She isstepmother to Smith's older son, Cameron.[70] In March 2016, Chastain announced that she would donate her brain after death for concussion research.[71] On December 10, 2019, Chastain was inducted into theCalifornia Hall of Fame.[72]
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