Sophia Antonia Smith (Greek: Σοφία Σμιθ; born 18 November 1978) is a retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in the United States, she was a member of the Greece national team, having previously played for Cornell University and the Houston Stars.
College career
Smith played for the Cornell Big Red women's soccer team as a striker noted for her speed.[2] During her junior year in 1999, she was the leading scorer on the team, with seven goals and four assists.[3] She lettered for three years, for a college career total of nine goals and seven assists, including two game-winning goals for Cornell.[3] She was unable to return to competition for her senior year due to an invasive knee surgery for a torn ACL, sustained during the previous year's season finale against Yale.[2][4][3]
Club career
Smith played for the Houston Stars in the Women's Professional Soccer League and the Houston Women's Soccer Association in the United States.[5][6]
International career
Smith played for Greece in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens as a midfielder, taking a leave of absence from her final semester of law school to train with the national women's team,[7] which automatically qualified for the competition as the Olympic hosts.[3] She was one of eight American players of Greek ancestry on the team who had college soccer experience.[7] Due to the Greek Soccer Federation's sensitivity about players on the team with American-sounding surnames, her jersey simply read "Sophia".[7] On August 11, 2004, she started in Greece's opening match against the United States, which was won 3–0 by Team USA.[3]