Profile

Adrianna
Franch

Position Goalkeeper
Number 21
Date of Birth Nov 12 1990
Hometown Salina, KS
Height 5' 9"
Club Kansas City Current

The Kansas-bred, uber-athletic goalkeeper set the record for shut-outs at Oklahoma State with 36—the sixth most in NCAA history. She was the first OSU player to make the U.S. Women’s National Team. Having played for the Portland Thorns since 2016, she continues to rack up shutouts, setting a league record in 2017 with 11. The 2017 and 2018 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, Franch is the only player to ever win the award twice.

Keeper Beginnings

As a kid, Franch was a foot taller than everyone else. Her mother put her in YMCA sports, which allowed her to sample many of them (she describes herself as too competitive for volleyball, “I didn’t like having to stay in your space”), but she really took to basketball and soccer. Then, at 13, she spent a practice in goal and someone said, “Hey, you’re really good.” In Franch’s version of the story, they just made her look good. “I mean, really, they were just kicking it right at me," she says. That was the start of being touted for phenomenal hand-eye coordination and athleticism between the sticks for every soccer team she’s played for.

From Salina to Portland

Franch grew up in Salina, a small town in Kansas with nothing but flat land and windmills. Now, Franch lives with her fiancé, Emily Boscacci, in Portland and plays for the Portland Thorns. Sitting astride two rivers and nestled between mountain ranges, the city is a far cry from where she grew up, but she still describes herself as a small-town girl at heart—she listens to country before every game and eats home-style southern breakfasts of biscuits and gravy in the mornings as often as she can get away with it. But she’s also embraced the city. “I love Portland—playing at Providence Park in front of 30,000 people a game, it’s such a cool experience. I have a squirt water bottle, and I always shoot the water bottle into the air, as like a cheers and thank you to the fans,” Franch says.