Daughter of former NBA player Dennis Rodman, Trinity Rodman flourished in football, trying to move away from her father’s shadow.
She is one of the faces of the new generation of American footballers, trained to rule the world in the footsteps of their elders. Holder on the side of the attack during the first two meetings of the Stars and Stripe in New Zealand, Trinity Rodman is, at 21, an essential element of the United States, who face Portugal for their last group match of the World Cup. .
You may not know Trinity Rodman, but you know her surname. The American number 20 is the daughter of former NBA legend Dennis Rodman, five championship rings including three with Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. “He’s my father, and that’s something that won’t change”she commented laconically to the Guardian in 2021.
“We don’t understand each other on a lot of things”
If the attacker approaches the subject with such detachment, it is because the relationship with her father is filled with ups and downs. As a child, Trinity and her older brother DJ were both raised by their mother, Michelle Moyer, after their parents divorced. “My mother did not play in the NBA, but she is my role model. She is my support, my best friend, my rock”thus exposed Rodman in the columns of the British daily.
Dennis Rodman is not present in the daily life of his daughter, who only sees him occasionally. In November 2021, she opened up about this particular situation on her Instagram account, when her father surprised her by coming to see her play. “It was a very emotional match. […] My father doesn’t play a big role in my life, we don’t understand each other on a lot of things”she then revealed.
Because while everyone was waiting for her on the court, in the footsteps of her father and her brother, she turned, as a child, to football, which always interested her more. Better, she finds in the round ball an outlet, the means to accomplish herself and to differentiate herself. “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to show people that I’m my own person and I’m going to prove myself in football like [mon père] did it in basketball'”she recalls.
A dazzling career start
Young Trinity plays, a lot, at a level that makes her stand out. Passionate, obsessed, she wants everything, right away, even if it means skipping steps. At 18, in 2021, when girls her age with the same dreams are enrolling in sports courses at university, she decides to present herself directly for the draft of the NWSL, the American women’s championship. “My mind was already thinking about being professional even before college. […] Why not seize the opportunity to already have better?she rewinds two years later.
He took it well, since his career took off in a dazzling way. Without a minute in the university championship in the legs, she was selected by the Washington Spirits as the second choice of the 2021 Draft, becoming at the same time the youngest player courted. Under the dark colors of the capital club, she made her hole in the starting lineup, was voted “rookie” of the 2021 season, and won the NWSL Championship. A few months later, in April 2022, she was called up to the national team for the first time, where she also made a name for herself in the rotation.
A sign of the importance she took on in the Stars and Stripes jersey, the collective thrill that ran through the bays of Eden Park when she collapsed in the first seconds of the match against Vietnam on 22 July, victim of a violent shock which gave rise to fears of a serious injury. But the young Rodman was able to hold her rank, and continue to wear hers, her eyes always turned towards a fifth historic title, to write her own story.
2023-08-01 05:07:04
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