How a five-a-side facility in Wimbledon helped Trinity Rodman return from back injury

New York Times

a day ago

When Trinity Rodman thundered in that stoppage-time winner for the Washington Spirit against the Portland Thorns in the NWSL on Aug. 3, it was a comeback goal celebrated throughout the 16,000-strong crowd at Audi Field. A small corner of Wimbledon, south London, also rejoiced in that moment.
The U.S. women's national team forward made a successful return to football after a four-month absence due to a back injury she says might never fully heal. After her volley earned the Spirit a 2-1 victory, the 23-year-old was overcome with emotion, having thought she might not get to experience that feeling again.
Advertisement
'That was just the hardest thing I've had to go through, injury and everything,' Rodman told ESPN. 'Being back, and being at the home stadium with the crowd behind me, scoring a goal like that — you saw I buried that. I wasn't going to miss it.'
Thousands of miles away at Goals Wimbledon, a soccer centre that rents out five-a-side pitches for personal use, they feel like a small but proud part of Rodman's comeback trail.
At the end of June, Rodman, an Olympic champion in France last summer, was in England supporting her boyfriend, No. 6 world-ranked professional tennis player Ben Shelton, as he reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. Fresh from being the face of Adidas' advertising campaign for the F50 Sparkfusion women's football boots, Rodman walked up to the Goals reception desk and asked manager Barry Horsnell if she could hire one of its (artificial turf) pitches.
Horsnell didn't know who this person was at first, but sensed she was famous. Her American accent, along with the fact she had turned up with a coach — Josh Angulo, the Spirit's team chiropractor, who was accompanying her in Europe — piqued his interest.
'I'm nosy, so I'll just ask (people) questions,' Horsnell tells The Athletic. 'She said she was here for the tennis, with her other half playing at Wimbledon.
'I said: 'I really want to pretend that I know who you are, but I don't'. She just laughed and was so nice about it.'
Rodman began training on pitch No. 11 — a seven-a-side field at the far end of the facility called Estadio Centenario, after the national stadium of Uruguay. As she ran through drills for an hour and a half, back in the office, Horsnell typed Rodman's name into Google and was blown away by her level of stardom. Rodman rented the pitch that day for £6 (just over $8) per hour per person. It would be the last time she would have to do so.
Advertisement
Horsnell refused to charge them on later visits but did ask one thing in return — if fans spotted Rodman training on his pitches, which sit next to a golf driving range and a motorcycle-riding school, would she be OK with posing for photographs with them? Rodman kindly agreed, and it wasn't long before locals spotted her being put through her paces and finding the top corner on repeat during shooting practice.
Sisters Sophie and Emily Day train at the centre. Sophie is 13 and plays as a centre-back for Brighton & Hove Albion's academy, a 90-minute drive to the south, and Emily, 10, is in west London club Chelsea's youth pathway.
'There are so many good female role models for girls, and so much more opportunity now as well,' their father, Richard, says, after finding out Rodman trained here. 'Opportunities which just didn't exist. And when you listen to the players that are coming towards the ends of their careers, the opportunities they're seeing for girls that are going into the game versus what they had – but they've paved the way for it.'
The clientele of Goals Wimbledon are accustomed to celebrity visitors. Nigel James, father of England and Chelsea stars Lauren and Reece James, runs his youth academy from there, with plenty of appearances from his daughter and son over the years.
'There was a girl training with Nigel James Elite Coaching; she was doing a one-to-one session with a coach. I watched Trinity walk out and I thought: 'I wonder if she'll recognise her',' Horsnell says. 'As soon as Trinity walked out, you could just see this girl's eyes light up. She knew straight away who Trinity was, and she couldn't concentrate on her own football for the next 10 minutes.'
But like Horsnell on her first arrival, not everybody recognised Rodman.
Every few minutes, trains speed by behind the center's pitches, running back and forth from the suburbs of New Malden and Raynes Park in the direction of central London's Waterloo station or towns southwest of the city, such as Richmond.
'There were hundreds of people going past, and they wouldn't have realised who was training on that pitch. There were people playing on the other pitches as she walked past that wouldn't have known who she was either,' Horsnell says. 'It's mad, isn't it?'
Rodman was in London as Shelton, 22, was defeated by eventual Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals. A month before that, she had been in Paris watching as he reached the fourth round of the French Open, where he was also defeated by the eventual champion, Carlos Alcaraz.
As Shelton won the Canadian Open just over a week ago, Rodman, now back with the Spirit and building up her minutes, watched on television as her partner won his first ATP Masters 1000 title. And before the U.S. Open, which starts in New York this week, she paid a visit to the Cincinnati Masters to watch him win his opening match against Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
Advertisement
Back in Wimbledon, they are still marvelling at the fact that Rodman trained there. Feeling inspired by her visit and England's Lionesses winning a second straight European Championship in Switzerland last month, Horsnell and his colleagues are excited about watching the center's new women's five-a-side league go from strength to strength.
'Even though we only met her a few times over that couple of weeks, it's mad to see her scoring that last-minute goal and feeling more emotionally connected to it than we might have otherwise been,' he says. 'You'd be happy for anyone scoring a last-minute goal, but we know what it means to her and are happy we could help play a small part.'
'There was no air of arrogance, and her celebration for that goal was the same. It was so humble, she was just so happy to score it — and that is exactly how she came across. I know now how big a star she is in America and in women's football, but each day that I met her, she was just so normal.'
Horsnell came out of it all with a Rodman-autographed football for his 11-year-old niece.
'I showed her the ball and she didn't know who had signed it. Then I showed her the photo on my phone and she was like, 'Oh my god! That's Trinity Rodman!''
Rodman will not be forgotten soon around these parts.
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle