Casey Phair, the US-based rising star poised to make World Cup history for South Korea

Casey Phair’s ascent to South Korea’s Women’s World Cup team in Australia and New Zealand can be traced to a chance encounter on a pitch in the U.S. state of Virginia in 2018.

It was there, at the coveted Jefferson Cup in Richmond, where a talented visiting youth club from New Jersey caught Phair’s attention. She was impressed with the team’s dazzling style of play, and how well they moved the ball. It didn’t faze her that her own Tennessee-based side lost that match by three goals.

Even in a heavy defeat, Phair still managed to do what she’s known for: she dribbled through a sea of players and drilled the ball into the back of the net. Twice. Her performance was so impressive it stuck with Larry Hart, the opposition head coach in charge of the Players Development Academy’s (PDA) team of 12-year-old girls.

“She was a one-man wrecking crew,” Hart recalls, with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Who is this kid from Tennessee?’.”

It was an easy decision years later for Hart to welcome Phair to his team, where she recently tallied 20 goals in 10 games.

“This kid from Tennessee” is now New Jersey’s Casey Yu-jin Phair, who will enter the international consciousness of professional women’s soccer this week as a 16-year-old phenom who is the first mixed-heritage player to be called up to a South Korean World Cup team. If she features in either of Korea’s first two group matches, she will become the youngest player to debut in a FIFA World Cup. That record currently belongs to Ifeanyi Chiejine, who was 16 years and 34 days when she played for Nigeria against North Korea in 1999.

Phair’s rise into the international limelight has been swift. Shane, her father, always envisioned a future in soccer for his daughter. He imagined she’d be recruited by a top U.S. college program at the very least.

“The first time I got a sense she had an international future is when she played Australian Under-17s,” Shane says on a call from a Tokyo airport, where he was about to board a Korea-bound flight before heading on to the World Cup with his wife. “She scored two goals and it was the way in which she scored them where I kind of realized that, you know, she may have something.”

South Korea’s senior team also took notice.

This spring, Phair scored five goals in two games for their under-17s team in Asian Cup qualifying. She was then drafted into the senior squad’s training camp, before being named on the 23-player World Cup roster. The senior side has since been tight-lipped about Phair’s potential tournament debut.

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South Korea’s head coach Colin Bell kept his comments limited at a pre-game press conference in Sydney. He referenced how well Phair did in training camp, and, when prompted by reporters about Phair, said, “We’ll see.” Earlier this month, he said that Phair “is not going as a passenger but as a valuable member of the squad and has every chance of getting into the team”.

Phair has honed her skills playing with PDA, a premier organization that has ties to several players in this tournament, including the United States’ Casey Murphy. Phair’s prolific goalscoring record is one of many reasons the senior team has given her a chance. Some coaches have likened her style of play to that of the men’s game’s recently-retired Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic; she is a strong, versatile player who can use both feet. As a former center-back, she knows how to exploit space in the attacking end — and that makes her a unique threat.

Last fall, while making her freshman season debut with the Pingry School in New Jersey, she scored 25 goals in 15 games. In that one season she left a permanent mark, says Lauren Molinaro, the program’s varsity head coach who played on the U.S. Youth National Team for four years. “You can see this great potential,” Molinaro says. “(As a coach) I can do some of the things that my national trainers used to do with me, and I can expect those things from her because I know that she can do them.”

Playing at a World Cup, for many, is an end goal — and Phair is having that chance while still a teenager. “This is what every high-level soccer player is aiming for,” Molinaro says. “She’s got an amazing opportunity, and I’m really excited to see what she does with it.”

Casey Phair (kneeling, left) lines up with her PDA teammates (Photo: Shane Phair)

One of her trainers, Mike Olim of New Jersey-based AP2T, says her work ethic and IQ are part of what helps her stand out on a pitch. Phair is a strong and physical player, he says, and her size will make the world second-guess the statements that she is only a teenager. But her ability to play is about more than stature — it’s something Phair is constantly working to improve.

“There’s practices two to three times a week, in addition to the other work that she’s doing, whether it be strength and conditioning, mobility, or technical training,” Olim says. “Also there’s compromises and sacrifices, in regards to lifestyle: getting the right amount of sleep, eating the right foods. When you’re at the level she’s at, you’re really all-in with everything you’re doing.”

Phair started playing at around five years old. She had the traditional American upbringing story, beginning in the rec leagues where her family lived in Exeter, New Hampshire, before picking up club soccer by age six or seven. Back then, she would regularly compete against boys or play against older children.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Phairs relocated to New Jersey so Casey could join PDA as her father’s marketing job no longer tied him to the Boston area.

“At the time, she was really starting to take off and develop,” Shane says. “We’d known of PDA’s reputation as a top club in the area and made the decision to move down to where she could pursue that. Looking back at it, it was a great decision.”

When Casey first joined PDA, she played for Hart. Her team there is now coached by Mike O’Neill, the longtime head coach at nearby Rutgers University’s women’s soccer team, and the girls’ director of coaching for PDA.

O’Neill describes Phair as a very technical player. “She’s very smart with her game intelligence, making good decisions. That’s really important,” he says. “She has really good vision and tactical awareness. She’s got a football brain. She’s composed under pressure, which is really important to be successful at the highest level.”

Her game has only improved since being called up for the South Korean senior team, with more maturity and discipline being honed into her abilities, O’Neill says. Her youth won’t matter if she steps onto the pitch at this World Cup.

“Soccer has no age, and that’s what we want her to embrace,” O’Neill says. “She’s going to be playing against some of the top players in the world, but they’re also going to be playing against her. It’s just an understanding to have that mindset, that when you step on the field, regardless of who you’re playing, you can play and you understand what your team is asking you to do.”

Phair, born to an American father and a Korean mother, had the opportunity to train with the U.S. camp last year. Shortly after, she trained with the South Korean side. Though she has long admired USWNT stars such as Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson, she ultimately opted for continuing the path with the Koreans.

She says she feels “at home” with her Korean teammates. “Whether it’s with the under-17 team or the senior team, I always feel that whenever I am with the Korean national team I am put in the best position to improve and thrive,” Phair says. Although she admits feeling pressure, being one of the youngest in the World Cup gives her “extra motivation to work harder”.

Phair says match preparations have been physically and mentally demanding so far, but she feels prepared for South Korea’s first group game against Colombia in Sydney.

“There are a lot of things she wants to accomplish,” her father adds. “Obviously, there’s the personal side, where she wants to show the world how good she is. Also, there’s the national side, where she wants to help the next generation of great Korean players. I think she knows she also has a big responsibility to continue to elevate the women’s game in Korea and to be the best representative for Korea that she can be.”

Phair also says she hopes to inspire the next generation and “serve as a role model and show them that anything is possible”.

The Phair family (Photo courtesy of Shane Phair)

There is plenty the world doesn’t know about Casey Phair, like how she was born in Korea — contrary to multiple press reports online. Her parents met in that country, where Shane was working teaching English. The family decided to relocate to the U.S. when she was only one month old.

Her mother, Hye-young, owned a restaurant in Korea, where most of her side of the family still lives. She is now focused on being a “rabid soccer mom” to Casey and her two younger brothers, 14-year-old Liam and Michael, who is 11. Both boys play with PDA too, and look up to their sister.

The family spends equally as much time in the U.S. as they do in Korea, and each of the Phair children has a Korean middle name. Having a strong connection with both their American and Asian heritages is important. They moved around the United States, most recently to Warren, New Jersey.

Casey has a sweet side that includes giving back to the younger kids at PDA and training with them. They affectionately call her “Ibra”, after Ibrahimovic. She also has a favorite plush toy bulldog, a gift from her father, that she keeps with her as a lucky charm when she travels. It’s with her now in Australia, of course.

“If there’s one thing that we want the world to know, it’s how passionate she is about competing and about the Korean national team — and how committed she is to helping the team win,” Shane said. “At the end of the day, she is focused on winning. That’s the mentality. She’s always been like that.”

And there is so much more the world will learn about Casey Phair as this Women’s World Cup unravels.

(Top photo: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

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