Messiah Bright

Messiah Bright never had a plan B. Soccer was always going to be her profession, and in 2023, she finally reached her dream. She did it in style, too, bagging multiple goals throughout the season and earning an NWSL Rookie of the Year nomination.

Despite all the success, though, this season put Messiah to the test in a way she’d never experienced before. It was a year of falling in and out of love with the sport she’d always known, waging an internal battle to blossom into the player she’d always wanted to be.

Although we caught up with her only a few days after a heartbreaking Decision Day that left the Orlando Pride barely out of the playoffs, Messiah still radiates with enthusiasm. Her parents are in town after all, and it’s a trip that her family never really made during her childhood. Messiah was born and raised in Texas, and it’s where she spent most of her life up until she was drafted into the league. That’s why any reminder of home draws out a wide smile.

We chat about the books she enjoyed as a kid [Diary of a Wimpy Kid], her passion for photography back home, and her favorite things about Texas, but the conversation inevitably takes us back to soccer.

“I’ll never forget starting to play when I was four and enjoying the little snacks and juice boxes at halftime with my team. My dad’s good friend, Carl Bussey, coached my club team up until I was about 13, and I remember it was just a lot of fun.”

“But those early days did eventually test me as a player,” she adds. “I remember joining a more competitive club when I reached my freshman year of high school, and that was a hard transition because I had to leave a lot of my friends behind. At that age, you spend so much time with your teammates at practice, you hang out with them and their families, and you stay the night at their houses all the time. It’s more than just playing together. Having to leave that behind and go somewhere that was gonna help me better pursue soccer as a career was difficult in that sense.”

Still, Messiah made the move to Solar Soccer Club, one of the top teams in her region. She had already been gaining close attention from coaches in the area, and this was her opportunity to take an important step towards her goals as a player. If leaving her old team was difficult, arriving at this new club was even harder.

“I still remember my first training with my new team. I was kind of shy and timid because of all the great players I was surrounded by. They were so crafty and so in sync. Every time I’d get the ball I would just dump it off to someone else. I’d say it really took me a while to come out of my shell, but that competitive drive that I’ve always had pushed me to match my teammates and continue to develop as a player and as a person. Looking back, I see how that type of experience has helped me reach the success I have today. Having the courage to step into a different environment and compete against great players was huge, but I do have to admit it took me some time to feel comfortable.”

It didn’t take long to convince her coaches, though. In her first game in ECNL, Messiah came in as a substitute and scored three goals to give her team the win. From there, it was almost a meteoric rise. By the end of her freshman year, she had already committed to TCU and the next chapter of her soccer story was ready to be written.

“By the time I was thirteen, I already knew that I at least wanted to play in college. I wanted to see how far I could go,” she says.

In college, Messiah would end up scoring 50 goals in 103 games, she won the Big 12 Conference regular season twice, lifted a conference tournament trophy, and was selected to multiple First All-Teams. Throughout all of that success, Messiah was still finding herself as a person, but she still had no doubts that having a pro career was what she wanted to do – even if it might’ve sounded unorthodox or too ambitious to others.

“My journey itself in college was so crazy. When I went to school, I started studying to become a veterinarian. As soon as I took my first biology class, though, I realized it wasn’t for me. I was not prepared for that at all, so I cut the veterinarian stuff out and ended up jumping into many different career paths to study. Still, getting a regular job was not in my plans. It was only soccer. That was always my plan A. I remember when I was in college, someone asked me what I wanted to do after I graduated, and I just said, ‘I want to play pro.’ Then, they asked me what my plan B was. I just remember saying, ‘There isn’t one. I’m going to be a professional soccer player no matter what.’”

Still, hoping to finish her studies, Messiah remained in college before making the jump to the professional level. Nevertheless, that time only helped strengthen her resolve when it came to deciding her life after college.

“I vividly remember how, in some of my classes, you’d have to do mock interviews and all these other lessons to prepare you for the ‘real world.’ And I remember feeling like a lot of those corporate exercises didn’t fit what I was trying to achieve. The experience was still great, of course, but I was just on a different path. I always felt proud to say that I was playing for the school team or that my dream was to go pro. But even with all that outside noise and maybe doubts from other people, I always knew that I would make it. Even if my last season in college wasn’t the best season that I expected myself to have, I was still able to make it. I think that certainty in my dreams just goes to show how determined I was to make it happen. It’s important to be able to wear your dreams on your sleeve, and in the end, having that certainty and determination is what helped me achieve them.”

Although Messiah did eventually reach the NWSL, things didn’t pan out exactly as she had envisioned. The time between graduating from TCU in December of 2022 and the NWSL Draft brought challenges she’d never expected to face.

“I graduated in December, and once my final college season was over, I think my body and my mind went into autopilot mode,” she recalls. “I was just tired and drained from chasing, chasing, and chasing. I had been going full speed for almost five years and just wanted a break. Going into the draft, I tried to prepare as best as I could from a fitness standpoint, and a mental standpoint, too. During my fifth year, there was a point where things just took a toll on my mental health. I had a lot of stuff going on. Combating those mental health lows while preparing for the draft, finding places to work out, trying to get my highlight film together, and processing all the documents to enter my name in the draft was a lot, mentally. I wasn’t in a good head space, and I really went into the draft less prepared than I would’ve liked.”

Messiah missed much of the training she had hoped to do during the offseason, and when the NWSL Draft came around, the results weren’t what she was expecting at all.

“I had been projected to go in the first round, and I was hoping I would be called among the best of the best in that class. It was disappointing to hear player after player get picked before me. I ended up getting selected in the second round, and it was disappointing for sure,” she admits. “I’ll always be someone who is competitive and wants to be among the best, so falling that low in the draft was gut-wrenching. But it also just lit a fire under me. It’s not the first time I’ve had to overcome adversity or had to prove myself from scratch. It may be disappointing, but you just gotta welcome it with open arms and use it as fuel.”

“So that’s what I did.”

Before the pre-season was scheduled to start, Messiah arrived early to help dissipate any nerves and hit the ground running.

“I came to Orlando early because I wanted to show the team and the coaches how serious I was. I felt I’d come underprepared into the year – even if they didn’t see it – and I wanted to fight through it and get to a place where I felt good physically and mentally. I ended up passing the fitness test to start the season, and I was getting better on that front, but I was still dealing with my mental barrier. It took me a few months to get out of that because I had to find the root of what was causing the issue. I wanted to figure out why I was feeling the way I was feeling because I’d never really had to deal with that before.”

Consistently addressing those negative feelings around the game is what would ultimately help Messiah begin to find her rhythm.

“The biggest issue I had was that I felt like I couldn’t communicate those troubles properly. I was bad at expressing myself, but thankfully I had others who were willing to reach out and listen. I had my dad and my coaches really see my potential and speak life into me. They would reassure me that I had everything to become a great player in this league, but then I also realized that I had to find that in myself. Sometimes that’s what you need. Just going back to the basics. Going back to your roots.”

In order to fall back in love with the game and remember who she was as a player, Messiah got the team videographer to help her compile all the goals she’d scored in her career, and she also reached out to a sports therapist and her father for guidance on how to best tackle this mental barrier during her rookie season.

“I watched those videos, and it helped me remember who I was. It helped me get back to the reality of who I am as a player. On top of that, I spoke with a sports therapist, and that helped me get through a lot of stuff, especially things like being away from home or certain relationships off the field. My dad also helped me change my outlook on how I would view playing pro. I used to speak about training as if I was going to work, but he helped me see that I am actually getting to do my dream job and live that dream I’ve had for so long. I get to go have fun and play my favorite sport at the end of the day. Not many people can say that. I started speaking positivity into my routine, and I overcame a difficult time off the field too, so over time I started to feel better.”

Playing next to Marta and feeding off her usual cheerful attitude also helped Messiah overcome that mental block, but the whole process did take time, and it’s something she had to grapple with throughout the whole season.

“Even though now I see the gradual change I’ve had over the season, I can’t pinpoint an exact moment where everything clicked for the better. I remember when I scored my first goal, against Angel City, I was still feeling the same way. It was supposed to be a fantastic moment, but I still wasn’t feeling confident. I still wasn’t feeling myself. I only started to feel my confidence come back towards the end of the season. Maybe not to a normal level, but definitely somewhere where I could feel myself performing better on the field. I had a good push from my teammates, to be honest. That was one of the great things about us – we’re a very tight-knit group. No matter the outcome, we all rely on each other and face every storm together.”

Aside from any personal storms, the team itself faced a lot of adversity too in 2023. The club cleaned house and started from scratch with the ambition to make playoffs for the first time since 2017. The results were not great at the start of the season, but the team was able to turn things around and make a daring push for the playoffs. In that run, Messiah was instrumental to Orlando’s attack by creating chances and scoring crucial goals.

Even though Orlando missed out on the playoffs due to goal differential, it’s clear that the team is headed in the right direction. On top of that, Messiah’s efforts were recognized at the end of the season by being nominated for NWSL Rookie of the Year. In the end, seeing her work praised by pundits and fans alike will only act as more fuel for Messiah to bloom in her career.

“I felt honored that people saw the impact that I could have on the field,” she says. “Being nominated for Rookie of the Year was unbelievable. It helps my confidence a lot because it shows me that I have what it takes at this level and that I can achieve big things. It fuels that fire even more. Sometimes, you play this game for so long that maybe the magic dwindles a little bit – I feel that happens with many things, not just soccer – but seeing the love from the fans, and the support from my teammates and staff, just makes me want to continue to become a better player and love this game even more.”

In some ways, it feels as if the Messiah from today is just like her 13-year-old counterpart at Solar Soccer Club in Texas all those years ago. All she needed was the chance to prove herself and break away from any mental shackles. The rest is history.

Now that she’s overcome those hurdles in her first year in the NWSL, one can only wonder what’s in store for 2024. But Messiah doesn’t leave that up to the imagination.

“Now I’ve got this year under my belt, I’m more hungry than ever to get after it. I can’t wait for next season already. I want to prepare better than this past one and just be in this professional life with no reservations. I want to get up to 12 goals next year, and hopefully, someday, I’ll be a Golden Boot winner. Those are some of my goals, but I also just want to be consistent. I want to play how I know I can play, and not have any confidence issues. I have a full season’s worth of knowledge that I can build upon now and prepare for an even greater 2024. I have no doubts this next year will be huge for all of us in Orlando.”

“There’s no plan B around that either.”

Photography by Andrea Vílchez