Last summer, new Angel City signing Casey Phair made history when she became the youngest player ever to play in a Women’s World Cup, making her debut for the senior Korean national team at 16 years and 26 days old.
It’s an honor Phair, who was born in Korea to a Korean mom and an American dad, says didn’t feel like a big deal—until it did.
Her first call-up to the senior Korean national team was for the 30-player preliminary roster before the World Cup. When she made the final squad, she says, “Colin [Bell], the coach, did a very good job of keeping it low key.” She was able to focus on training, only giving one interview in the lead-up to the tournament. It wasn’t until gameday that it all hit home.
“The first game, I went in against Colombia,” she remembers. “There were a lot of people there and they were so loud. I went up to the line and looked around, and it was, like, a sea of yellow. It was so scary!”
As she actually started playing, and especially in the team’s next two matches, Phair says she got more comfortable. She subbed in against Colombia and Morocco, starting and playing 86 minutes against Germany. The team had a disappointing finish in the tournament, placing last in their group and exiting before the Round of 16—but Phair, who looked perfectly at home playing with and against the best players in the world, some twice her age, had made herself known.
Phair had always envisioned herself taking the route most elite American players do: college. But the World Cup shifted her perspective. “After being at the World Cup and that experience, I just wanted to continue playing at that level and keep getting better,” she says. “It was kind of weird going to the World Cup and playing against the German National Team, which is amazing, and then going back and playing against my own age again.”
So last September, Phair, who has lived in New Jersey for the last four years, came out to LA to train with Angel City. It was a natural fit.
“I think if you were to watch from the outside, you would have never have guessed that she was 16,” says Head Coach Becki Tweed. “She came in, she fit in with the group well, she challenged herself in game situations, she asked to do extra. Just everything that you look for in somebody that you want to develop as a player.”
The feeling was mutual. “I just fell in love with the culture,” says Phair. After her World Cup experience, training at a professional club felt familiar. “Being 16 in a professional environment is obviously nerve-wracking, but similar to what I felt with Korea, it was super comfortable. All the players were so welcoming and I felt so inspired by them.”
The coaching staff, too, helped Phair feel comfortable. “Becki has a very similar mindset to me,” she says. “I think the way she coaches, my brain processes it really well. She understands the players.”
For Tweed and the rest of the coaching staff, bringing Phair in for those two weeks was crucial.
“Obviously anybody that goes into a senior World Cup at the age of 16—you catch people's attention,” says Tweed. When it comes to a young player, though, “if you don't see them in your team environment, you're doing them a disservice,” she says.
“It's not just about what they're like on the field,” Tweed continues. “It's also, can they handle the demands off the field? How are they as a person? What do they need to be successful in your environment, and can you provide it for them?”
Plus, it isn’t just Phair moving out west to start this new chapter, but her whole family: her dad Shane, mom Hye-Young, and two younger brothers, Liam and Michael. “When you look at moving somebody's family across the country,” says Tweed, “you have to really think about the person first. And so it was really important to us to think about the person as well as the player.”
As a player, Phair is a goal-scoring attacker who contributes on both sides of the ball. “All those things that you cannot coach, that come as natural instincts, she has,” says Tweed. Phair’s fearlessness in and around the box and her nose for goal are top of that list. Her knack for holdup play will also prove an asset to the team; at 5’9, her physicality is well beyond that of a typical 16-year-old.
Off the field, Phair says she’s excited to get to know LA. “Everything about the city, I really like,” she says, adding that she’d just been to Koreatown for the first time. “It’s so big—it took 15 minutes just to get across! Obviously I come from a Korean family, so to have that so close is so nice.”
“And then also to play in front of the Korean fans here,” she adds. “I’ve never been to a game, but everyone told me [Angel City] fans are amazing. I think that’s what I’m most excited for.”
