Making the Case: Riley Jackson for Chipotle U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year

A creative and commanding force in the midfield for the U.S. Under-17 Women’s Youth National Team, Riley Jackson has been nominated for the 2022 Chipotle U.S. Young Female Player of the Year award.

As the U.S. Women’s Youth National Team programming returned from its COVID-imposed hiatus, the criteria to be eligible for the 2022 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year returned: any player who played at least one full international match for any of the USA’s Women’s Youth National Teams is eligible for the award. With two Concacaf qualifying tournaments and both the FIFA U-17 and U-20 Women’s World Cups held in 2022, several excellent candidates emerged. Players can win the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Award only once.

• READ MORE: 2022 Young Female Player of the Year Nominees

While nominees for all awards are selected by U.S. Soccer’s technical staff, fans will once again have the opportunity to vote on select Player of the Year Awards, with the fan vote comprising 15% of the total vote. Voting for the awards starts Thursday, Dec. 15 at 11:00 a.m. ET and closes on Dec. 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET. The winners will be announced in the weeks that follow.

• VOTE NOW: Fan Voting for Player of the Year Awards

Making the Case for Riley Jackson for U.S. Soccer Chipotle Young Female Player of the Year:

• The 16-year-old Jackson was one of the co-captains of the U.S. U-17 WYNT in 2022, helping the team win the Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship and to a quarterfinal appearance at the 2022 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup.

• Jackson won the Golden Ball as the best player at the Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship where she scored two goals with three assists as a defensive midfielder. She spearheaded a skillful, creative and entertaining U.S. attack that outscored the opposition by a combined margin of 58-1 across the USA’s seven games, all of which were victories. 

• At the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India, the 16-year-old started all four matches and had two assists as the USA won its group but fell in penalty kicks to Nigeria in the quarterfinal despite dominating the match.

• Jackson closed her U-17 career with 12 caps and two goals.
  
  

 

• Jackson plays club for Concorde Fire U-18/U-19 and helped team to the ECNL National Championship in July. She was also named the ECNL Player of the Year.

• Jackson players high school for Blessed Trinity in Roswell, Georgia and was the National High School Player of the Year for 2022. 

This is Jackson’s first nomination for Young Female Player of the Year.