Orlando Pride centerback Shelina Zadorsky’s journey to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup wasn’t perfect.
She made her debut for Canada’s senior women’s national team in 2013 when she was 20 years old. She played in one match, a 3-1 loss to South Korea, then spent two years away from the national team. She was called in again in 2015, but that was after the 2015 World Cup in Canada was already over.
“It was a lot of learning and growth and playing abroad and then playing here in the NWSL, I think I’ve grown a lot as a player and as a person,” she said.