Nádia Gomes thought she might be done with soccer.
After a standout career at BYU, the Portuguese international was drafted 23rd overall by the Orlando Pride in the first round of the 2018 NWSL draft.
But she failed to make the roster as a full-time player. Five years later, she resurfaced at a tryout for the amateur San Francisco Glens, impressing to such an extent that she was immediately given a spot on the team.
Fast-forward two years, and Gomes is now an established player in the NWSL for the Chicago Stars FC, with whom she signed in 2024 after scoring 17 goals and adding 10 assists in 15 games with the Glens in 2023.
None of it would have happened without that initial tryout two years ago. And Sunday, she returns to the Bay Area with Chicago, as the Stars face Bay FC at 4 p.m. at PayPal Park.
It’s a full-circle moment for Gomes. Her fiance, former Milpitas High and BYU running back Squally Canada, will be in attendance, as will their 5-year-old son, Braxton.
“I was working regular jobs,” Gomes told the Bay Area News Group about her time away from soccer. “But I always had it in the back of my mind, because I never actually fulfilled my dream of actually playing professionally. I always knew I wanted to go back.”
Gomes originally planned to try out for the Oakland Soul, a rival of the Glens in the USL W League. But when that fell through, she spotted the Glens’ tryout on Instagram.
She drove to Skyline College and laced up her cleats. The rest is history.
“It was a one-in-a-million thing,” said Ryan Maquiñana, the Glens’ general manager at the time. “You never find a player like that at open tryouts.”
Gomes’ excellence led the Glens to capture the NorCal and Western Conference championships in 2023. And it all started without the tryout of a lifetime for her.
“I remember it being a gloomy day,” Gomes said. “We played a scrimmage, and I was just doing my thing. I told myself, ‘OK, I have nothing else to lose, so I might as well go out there and show what I can do.’ It paid off.”
On her first touch, Gomes weaved through three defenders, covering a distance of about 65 yards, and scored. Unknown at the time, Gomes was suddenly on a fast track to bigger things.
Her performance with the Glens led to a call-up with the Portuguese national team for the UEFA Women’s Nations League. She just returned to the Red Stars after training with the national team in Portugal during last weekend’s international window.
“It was really positive,” Gomes said of moving on to Chicago. “I always had the support of my family, my fiance, his family, and that made it way easier to keep playing well. I had no stress. It worked out perfectly. I always had the help of other people trying to get to the next level, to Chicago, and the process was easy. I just had to always put in the work myself to make it happen.”
So much has changed quickly for Gomes, but certain things remain the same. In the offseason, she splits her time between her parents’ home in Utah and Pittsburg, where Canada and Braxton live and Canada works as a police officer in Richmond.
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The family trio’s time together is limited by the demands of Gomes’ dream job. But this time, they’ll have the opportunity to see her in person as she plays in front of a Bay Area crowd.
“Some days are harder than others,” Gomes said of playing away from her family. “On the hard days when I’m talking to my family, my fiance, my parents help me to realize that I’ve come so far and that I still have the potential to keep going, and that always helps. Knowing that my son is taken care of, not stressing because people are taking care of him and he’s happy. I talk to them every day, so it makes it easier, and they do come visit me often.”
Some other Glens players, coaches and trainers will attend as well, bringing closure to an exceptional tenure.
“How we got her, it was literally out of a movie,” Maquiñana said. “If we didn’t have open tryouts, and she didn’t see that Instagram, maybe she stays working at Tesla or as a stay-at-home mom. I’m so happy for her. She’s such a great person. She deserves this time to shine, so we’re all really pulling for her.”
