Christen Press American Footballer From Los Angeles

Early life

Christen Press was born on 29 December 1988 in Los Angeles and grew up in the suburb of Palos Verdes Estates. She began playing soccer at the age of five. At Chadwick School she captained the team for two years, started for four, and led it to two Southern Section Division IV titles, while also competing in track and tennis. In 2006 she was named a high school All-American by both the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and Parade magazine. She scored 128 goals for the school, including a record 38 in her junior year. Away from school she played club soccer for Slammers FC and won the Golden Boot at the national youth championship tournament.

Press then attended Stanford University, playing for the Cardinal from 2007 to 2010. She finished as the program's all-time leading scorer, with 71 goals, and set school records for career points, assists and shots. In 2010 she led the nation in goals and points and won the Hermann Trophy as the top player in college soccer. Stanford reached the College Cup final in both 2009 and 2010 but lost each time.

Career

Press was taken fourth overall by the Washington Freedom in the 2011 Women's Professional Soccer draft. The franchise moved and became magicJack, and she scored eight goals in her first season, including a hat trick, and was named the league's rookie of the year. When the league folded, she signed in 2012 with the Swedish club Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC, finishing as the second-highest scorer in the Damallsvenskan with 17 league goals. She helped the club win the Swedish Cup that year.

In 2013 she moved to Tyresö FF. She scored 23 goals and finished as the Damallsvenskan's top scorer, the first American to win the league's Golden Boot. Her nine goals in the 2013-14 UEFA Women's Champions League helped Tyresö reach the final, which they lost 4-3 to VfL Wolfsburg. She joined the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League in 2014 and stayed through 2017, captaining the team in 2016 and 2017. In 2017 she was the club's top scorer with 11 goals.

After a trade to the Houston Dash in January 2018, she did not report to that club and instead returned to Sweden for a spell, winning the league's player of the month award for April. That June she moved to Utah Royals FC, where she played until 2020. In 2020 she signed a one-year contract with Manchester United in England, scoring her first goal for them in a win away at West Ham United. She later joined Angel City FC, with whom she played until announcing her retirement as a player on 15 October 2025. The records list her as a forward throughout.

For the United States national team, Press made her debut on 9 February 2013 in a friendly against Scotland, scoring two goals in the match. She went on to make 155 appearances and score 64 goals, which places her ninth on the team's all-time scoring list. She was part of the squads that won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015 and 2019, and in the 2019 semi-final against England she scored in the tenth minute. She also played at the 2016 Olympics and at the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo, where the team took the bronze medal, her final international appearance. At the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament she was named best player of the competition. She was honoured by the national team in January 2026 at a ceremony during a friendly against Paraguay.

Press has one screen credit, the short film An Equal Playing Field (2015). Following the 2015 World Cup, she and her teammates were the first women's sports team to be honoured with a ticker tape parade in New York City.

Recognition

The records list three individual wins for Press: the Hermann Trophy (2010), a place in the National Women's Soccer League Best XI (2015) and the league's Player of the Month award (2015). She was named to the Best XI four times in all, and also took the Damallsvenskan Golden Boot in 2013 and the Women's Professional Soccer rookie award in 2011. With the national team she won two World Cups, the CONCACAF Women's Championship in 2014 and 2018, the SheBelieves Cup several times, and an Olympic bronze medal.

Public roles

Since 2013 Press has worked with Grassroot Soccer, an organisation that uses soccer to deliver health education to young people. She began as a global ambassador, was elected to its board in 2018, and has visited its programs in South Africa and Zambia. In 2019 she co-founded the lifestyle brand RE-INC with fellow players Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath and Meghan Klingenberg, and she co-hosts the podcast The RE-CAP Show with Heath.