Rebecca Smith (footballer)

Rebecca (Bex) Katie Smith (born 17 June 1981) is an internationally successful footballer who's transitioned to a global executive in sports and business.

Rebecca Smith
Personal information
Full name Rebecca Katie Smith
Date of birth (1981-06-17) 17 June 1981
Place of birth Los Angeles, California, United States[1]
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Palos Verdes Breakers
South Bay Gunners
Fram-CQ Soccer Club
1995–1999 Chadwick School
1999–2003 Duke Blue Devils
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2003–2004 Ajax America Women
2004 1. FFC Frankfurt
2005 FSV Frankfurt
2005–2008 Sunnanå SK
2008 Newcastle Jets
2009–2013 VfL Wolfsburg
National team‡
2003–2013 New Zealand 74 (6)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 October 2013

Bex first came to prominence as a World Cup and Olympic footballer captaining the New Zealand women's national football team,[2] and culminating her club career winning The Triple with VfL Wolfsburg as UEFA Champions League, German League, and German Cup Winners up until her retirement in 2013 (due to a knee injury). During her time as a professional footballer she earned her degrees in Economics, Spanish, an MBA and Masters in Psychology and speaks four languages.

She managed the FIFA Women's World Cups from 2013-2018 and is the Global Executive Director of the Women's Game at COPA90.

Throughout her football and post football career, she's worked in multiple industries globally, including consulting, law, marketing, governance, and media and is now the host of the newly launched multi-platform podcast called The Players, where she hosts a laid-back chat with the biggest names and personalities in women's football and life on topics that extend far beyond football.

Early life

Rebecca was born in Los Angeles, California to kiwi parents and attended high school at Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, California and played soccer there during her freshman year.[3] She lettered in basketball, waterpolo and softball all years at Chadwick. She graduated in 1999 with the highest honor in her class, The Headmaster's Award.[4]

Football career


A natural leader and an international traveller, Rebecca captained NCAA Div 1 Duke University side and graduated with an Economics and Spanish degree before deciding to pursue her football career abroad, landing a professional contract in Germany with then European Champions, FFC Frankfurt.

Smith then played for the Sunnanå SK in Sweden and then Newcastle Jets in the inaugural W-League in Australia, before being signed by VfL Wolfsburg[5] on 2 February 2009.[6] While at VfL Wolfsburg, Smith helped the club win the coveted Treble (Triple), the Frauen-Bundesliga in 2012–2013, the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2012–2013 with a 1–0 win over Lyon in the finals, and the DFB Pokal as well as the Ladies First Cup in 2013 with a 2–0 win over Barcelona in the finals.

In 2013, she ended her career due to knee problems.[7]

International

Smith made her Football Ferns debut in a 15–0 victory over Samoa on 7 April 2003, and captained New Zealand at the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup finals in China,[8] where they lost to Brazil 0–5, Denmark (0-2) and China (0-2).

Smith was also included in the New Zealand squad for the 2008 Summer Olympics where they drew with Japan (2-2) before losing to Norway(0-1) and USA (0-4).[9] Smith's solid performances in New Zealand's rearguard earned her a FIFA Women's World Player of the Year nomination in 2007 and New Zealand Player of the Year in 2007.[10] She was also named Oceania's Player of the Year twice in both 2011 and 2013.

Smith played her 50th international in a friendly against Australia on 12 May 2011.[11]

Smith captained New Zealand for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup finals in Germany.[12]

Smith again captained the New Zealand team that reached the quarter-finals at the 2012 Summer Olympics.[13]

On September 18, 2013, Smith announced her retirement from football.[14]

Professional Life

During Smith's time as a professional footballer she earned her degrees in Economics, Spanish, an MBA and Masters in Psychology, and speaks four languages. She has experience in strategic planning, sponsor relations, media relations, public speaking, moderating, and strategic brand and player consulting.

She also has a truly international perspective; she was born and raised in the United States and Christchurch, New Zealand where her parents are from.

FIFA

When Bex retired from football, she transitioned into managing FIFA's Women's World Cups and her last year she managed Strategic Planning in Women's Football. Her time there saw her managing the FIFA U17 WWC in Costa Rica in 2014, the FIFA U20 WWC in Canada in 2014, the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015, FIFA U17 WWC Jordan 2016, FIFA U20 WWC Papua New Guinea 2016 and much of the planning for the FIFA U20 WWC in France 2018 and the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019.

JAMAA Productions

She then co-founded JAMAA Productions, a production company in LA that was built to include JAMAA Sports to honor the entire athletic journey - not just the game. The mission was not to clutter the sports space with more boilerplate films and tv series - but instead to celebrate all aspects of the athletes they work with. JAMAA is an award winning, full-service production company that specializes in creating unforgettable film, TV, digital and commercial sports content. They use the power of creativity to challenge convention, re-invent the status quo and create the unexpected. We are united by one mission; to bring inspiring sports stories to life.

COPA90

After consulting and working to build JAMAA Productions, Bex joined COPA90 the world's largest independent football media business, in December of 2018 as the Global Executive Director of Women's Game for COPA90. COPA90 is the global authority on football culture elevating and championing the names and voices in the game with world class storytelling and unrivalled fan perspective. At COPA90 in London, Smith oversees the commercial, editorial, strategic, and marketing delivery of a business-wide initiative of the women's proposition to change the face of football to include the women's game as part of the definition of 'football' normalising women's football, fans, and women in football into coverage of the sport. She developed COPA90’s women's football proposition broadly as well as for potential partners and brands for the 2019 Women’s World Cup and a larger future-facing women’s football initiative involving world-renowned footballers.

She works with some of the world’s largest brands connecting brand values to football, and her favorite part, working with and storytelling with the world’s top players.

The Players Podcast

COPA90 has recently launched The Players Podcast, with BBC, which Bex hosts and sits down with some of the biggest players and personalities in the sport and beyond to talk about topics through the lense of football but that go way beyond football. Topics like determination, resilience, relationships, and competitiveness are just a few with some of the world's biggest footballers, coaches, male players, and surprise guests.

The Players Podcast is across all COPA90 platforms as well as BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, and the players' platforms as well.

Board Positions

Bex Smith sits on the board of the Isokinetic Medical Group since the health and safety of players is extremely important to Bex, having had to end her own football career due to a knee injury where she didn't feel she had the right support around her. She works hard to improve the health and safety conditions for players globally and has written a published article in the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal.

She is also a board member of The London Football Awards, celebrating the very best of London football.

She also works as a consultant with Zone 7 a data-driven Artificial Intelligence system that enables high performance of athletes by early injury detection.

Honours
Individual

References
  1. "Rebecca Smith". Sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
  2. "Caps 'n' Goals, New Zealand Women's national representatives". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  3. "Compass Fall 2011". Content.yudu.com. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  4. "Rebecca "Bex" Smith '99 Leads New Zealand Women's World Cup Team". Chadwickschool.org. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  5. "Bundesliga: Rebecca Smith wechselt zum VfL Wolfsburg". FOCUS Online. 1 February 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  6. "Frauenfuball 1. Bundesliga 2. Bundesligen Nord und Sd Wechselbersicht Winterpause 2009". Fansoccer.de. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  7. "Rebecca Smith und Eve Chandraratne verlassen Wolfsburg". Womensoccer.de. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  8. "New Zealand Squad List, 2007 Women's World Cup". FIFA. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  9. "Olympic Football Squads Named". New Zealand Olympic Committee. 4 July 2008. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 4 July 2008.
  10. "Hearn gets Football Ferns' greenlight". Stuff.co.nz. NZPA. 8 June 2008. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  11. "Football Ferns drop first Aussie test". NZ Football. 13 May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  12. "New Zealand [Women] - Squad Women World Cup 2011 Germany". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  13. "Women". New Zealand Olympic Team. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  14. "Rebecca Smith announces retirement". NZ Football. 13 May 2011. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  15. "IFFHS WOMAN TEAM - OFC - OF THE DECADE 2011-2020". IFFHS. 31 January 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.