On September 22, Portland Thorns defender Reyna Reyes made NWSL historical past, turning into the primary participant to signal a contract extension by 2030.
Since being drafted fifth total within the 2023 NWSL Draft, Reyes has blossomed into one of many league’s greatest fullbacks, and Portland rewarded her with a long-time deal.
“This extension speaks volumes for my perception in (the Thorns) future and the membership’s perception in me,” Reyes mentioned. “Staying in Portland and performing in entrance of our devoted followers excites me, as does watching our group develop.”
However for Carrie Reyes, Reyna Reyes’ mother and primary supporter, it has been a future she has at all times believed in.
“I’m glad they understand what I’ve recognized all her life,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “She’s positively price investing in. I’m very grateful (the Thorns) imagine in her and make her really feel at house, particularly being so far-off from (her childhood) house.”
Carrie Reyes nonetheless remembers the primary time she noticed her daughter kick a soccer ball. She was 9 months outdated and at her older brother, Alex Reyes’, soccer sport. It was then that Carrie Reyes knew she needed to get her daughter into soccer. At three-years outdated, she signed her daughter up on the native YMCA.
From there, every thing took off. Reyna Reyes stood out instantly. Carrie Reyes recalled a second the place as a substitute of following everybody within the cluster, her daughter waited outdoors the circle for the ball to return unfastened and went straight to objective.
“I feel she’s a pure,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “It was a God given expertise.”
The outdated saying “It takes a village,” has definitely utilized to the Reyes household. It might as properly have been the motto in terms of elevating knowledgeable soccer star. Rising up, each Alex and Reyna performed each sport conceivable, a routine that required each Carrie and Rene (dad) to be on-call at almost each non-school hour of the day.
“As quickly as I obtained off work, it was time to feed them one thing and get them off to follow,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “After we had been house, it was homework, tub, mattress. It was loopy, it was onerous. And you may ask any mum or dad that.”
As soon as the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación invited Reyna Reyes to be a part of their youth nationwide groups, Carrie Reyes knew she needed to do every thing it required to assist guarantee her daughter’s dream got here true. For her, these steps started off the sphere.
“It took so much to get (Reyna’s) twin citizenship – making an attempt to get her father’s delivery certificates and all these papers and all that collectively,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “I used to be going to do no matter to make her dream come true, as a result of she’s like, ‘I’m going to play within the World Cup.’”
On the age of 14, Reyna Reyes was invited to her first Mexico Youth Ladies’s Nationwide Crew Camp. She ended up making the 2016 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Jordan.
At 16, nonetheless a senior at Naaman Forest Excessive College in Garland, Texas, the defender made a second consecutive FIFA U-17 Ladies’s World Cup in Uruguay, serving to Mexico attain the finals of a U-17 event, it’s best-ever end.
As Reyna Reyes chased her desires on the sphere in South America, her mother was within the midst of an emotional rollercoaster within the stands.
“It was scary as a result of I’m sitting right here letting my 13-year-old go to a unique nation,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “Not even one nation, a number of nations. Her first large event was in Grenada and she or he simply turned 15 two days earlier than that first sport. I’ve seen all types of nations due to her. I went to Jordan. I went to all of that, and it’s given her lots of expertise. It did make her mature so much sooner.”
Whereas she was dwelling the dream as knowledgeable, Reyna Reyes rapidly discovered there can be lots of sacrifices to make to achieve her skilled aspirations. Actuality first hit in highschool, the place she couldn’t stroll at her highschool commencement or attend faculty dances. Then got here her school profession in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
After a standout collegiate profession with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Reyna Reyes was chosen fifth total within the 2023 NWSL Draft by the 2022 NWSL Champions, Portland Thorns. She joined a backline that included USWNT legends Becky Sauerbrunn and Meghan Klingenberg, Natalia Kuikka, Kelli Hubly and Emily Menges.
In 2025, Reyna Reyes has now taken on a management function with the Thorns and, together with her extension, turned one of many membership’s key constructing blocks into the long run.
Along with discovering success on the membership degree, the defender has set her sights on the upcoming 2027 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup and 2028 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles. Along with her current secured with the Thorns and the long run in sight on the membership and worldwide degree, one factor is evident: Carrie Reyes will likely be there to be her daughter’s primary fan.
“To see her dwelling out her desires and making them come true… I really feel her pleasure, as a result of that’s the one factor a mom desires for his or her little one,” Carrie Reyes mentioned. “To be a greater individual than them, to be higher than them and to see them stay out their desires and hopes.”
Carrie Reyes isn’t only a “soccer mother.” She represents each mum or dad who simply desires to see her youngsters stay out their needs, hopes, and desires.
“My mother is my rock, man” Reyna Reyes mentioned. “She’s been there since day one, pushed me, stayed with me. Been by all my ups and downs collectively. My dad and my grandparents, they’re additionally part of it. Undoubtedly gotta say my mother, she’s my primary fan.”
