Q+A: Diana Ordóñez on her prolific NWSL rookie season, tattoos and more

North Carolina Courage forward Diana Ordóñez has enjoyed a prolific rookie season in the NWSL. In August, she broke the previous NWSL record (7) for most goals scored in a rookie season. With four additional tallies since, the 21-year-old currently sits fourth in the Golden Boot standings behind Alex Morgan (15), Courage teammate Debinha (12), Sophia Smith (12).

Ahead of the end of the regular season, On Her Turf caught up with Ordóñez about her start in soccer, her transition to the NWSL, playing with the Mexican national team, and the meaning behind her sleeve of tattoos.

This Q&A has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. 

Diana Ordóñez: So yes, I’m the youngest of five. I have two older brothers who played soccer for as long as I can remember. My dad played soccer his whole life, too, up until the semi pro level. And growing up, I just always wanted to be around my brothers and do what they were doing.

When I was about five years old, we moved to Dallas, Texas… I was super young so it wasn’t like (I was playing soccer) very seriously. But my parents kind of quickly realized that the soccer scene in Dallas is pretty serious and so they wanted to get me to the right place and the right team. We found FC Dallas, which was a huge blessing to me.

(Initially) I was playing for one team with a 2001 age cutoff, but then the cutoff dates were different for different divisions. And so when they moved from one division to another division, I wasn’t allowed to play with that team anymore. I was really upset about it, but I was also still really young. That’s when I met Matt Grubb, who ended up being my coach at FC Dallas for the next nine years, up until I went to college. He’s someone that I had a really, really great