Olivia Moultrie honored as 2023 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year
Capping off a year in which she made her international debut for the U.S. Women’s National Team and set personal bests at the club level for Portland Thorns FC, midfielder Olivia Moultrie has been voted as the winner of the 2023 Young Female Player of the Year Award.
One of the USA’s top players at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, the 18-year-old Moultrie joins a long line of talented players to win the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Award, which was first awarded in 1998 to current U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone.
“I’m just super exited and thankful to everyone who voted for me for this award, it’s really special,” said Moultrie. “To see the list of those players who have won it before, and what they’ve gone on to accomplish in their careers, is inspiring and motivating for me. It was a hard year but a fun year and I’m so appreciative of all the older players on the Thorns and the National Team who embraced me and helped me along the way. To grow as a person and a player, you really need your teammates, your coaches and your family, so thanks to all of them. It was a big year of growth for me, and I just hope it’s a step in the right direction. I promise I’m going to work even harder in the coming years.”
One of the top players for the U.S. at last year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, Moultrie kicked off 2023 in a January training camp with the Under-18/Under-19 Women’s Youth National Teams and closed out the year making two appearances for the senior National Team. Moultrie earned her first USWNT cap on Dec. 2, 2023, coming on in the second half of the USA’s win over China PR in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. At 18 years and 76 days of age, she became the 72nd teenager all-time to earn a cap for the USWNT. She also played the final 22 minutes of the USA’s Dec. 5 win in Frisco, Texas.
Having now completed her third season of professional soccer with Portland Thorns FC, Moultrie more than doubled her NWSL starts from each of the previous two seasons while showing savvy and professionalism beyond her years, appearing in all 22 regular season matches for Portland while making 12 starts and logging over 1,200 minutes of action. She tallied two goals and three assists during the regular season, helping Portland finish second in the NWSL standings, and also made six appearances – five of which were starts – during the NWSL Challenge Cup while tallying one assist.
Moultrie is the fifth-youngest player to win the award after Sophia Smith, Mallory Pugh (now Swanson), Ashley Sanchez, Kristie Mewis and last year’s winner Jaedyn Shaw.
For the second time, fans were able to vote for the U.S. Soccer Player and Young Player of the Year Awards with those votes weighted at 15% of the total. Moultrie earned 38.3 percent of the overall vote for the Young Female Player of the Year, just ahead of forward Alyssa Thompson (31.5%), who was the youngest player on the USA’s roster at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Twenty-three of the 26 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year winners have earned caps with the full USWNT and 15 of them have gone on to play in a FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year has been awarded since 1985, when midfielder Sharon Remer earned the first Female Player of the Year honor. Abby Wambach won it six times, the most of any player. Mia Hamm won it five times.
The all-time winners for both awards are below.
