by David Astill (4/8/23)
Above: South Korea’s young gun Casey Phair. Photo: Forbes.
The 2023 World Cup will undoubtedly live long in the memories of those fortunate enough to have witnessed it, with drama everywhere you look, ranging from the premature exits of some of the highest-ranked teams to fond farewells as some of the greatest female players ever to step foot on the field announce their international retirements.
Those goodbyes do mean that the next generation is able to step up and claim their place in history though, and one player who has done just that in Australia and New Zealand is 16-year-old forward Casey Phair. Playing for South Korea, she is now the youngest player ever to feature at a women’s World Cup, having claimed the record from the late Nigerian Ifeanyi Chiejine, and there will be few who disagree that she has deserved her moment in the spotlight.
With Phair being so young, it is likely that few people would have heard her name before, and would probably have wondered what all of the hype was about. That has surely changed now though, with the young prodigy putting on a series of strong performances during the group games against Colombia, Morocco, and Germany and those in the stands no doubt eager to see more from her in the future.
Emerging onto the scene
It was clear from a very early age that Phair was destined for greatness, with her first encounter with a football coming when she was around the age of five and she very quickly developed the basic skills needed by every player. In regards to when her break came, it was almost a happy coincidence, as she was featuring in the Jefferson Cup in Richmond, Virginia, and was spotted by the opposing coach, Larry Hall, who has spoken in an interview with The Athletic about how he was virtually starstruck at her quality and obvious talent.
As a result, Phair was invited to join his team a little later on and she quickly became part of the furniture, with her finding the net on a regular basis (she recently chalked up 20 goals in 10 games), leading to comparisons with Zlatan Ibrahimović, and showing composure in possession and decisiveness when chances opened up.
Her time both with Hart’s side and playing for her school team (she currently attends the Pingry School in New Jersey and scored 25 times in 15 games for them) have allowed her to really hone her craft and put herself in the perfect position for a long career, and giving her the space to grow has assisted her as she has continued to find her feet.
Gaining notice
However, no success comes without hard work, and Phair is no exception to that rule. Whilst she has always had the talent, sacrifice has also been at the heart of her personal growth. Her nutrition and sleep patterns have needed to be carefully managed in order to ensure that she is in the right frame of mind to compete every time she steps out onto the training pitch, whilst strength and conditioning is something she regularly engages with.
When on the field, improvements have continued to be made to her game, with each coach trying to address any tiny flaws and to shape her into the best form of herself that she can possibly be. That has been made easier by her natural two-footedness, which comes from playing as a centre-back when she was younger.
That alone has been really beneficial to her and has led to increased notice, and some of those that have come calling and that she has spent time with are the Australian U17 team and the USWNT, whilst she found the net five times in two games for the South Korean U17s during the spring as part of their Asian Cup qualifying campaign. All in all, there is little doubt that many have been monitoring her progress from afar and have been impressed with what they have seen.
However, there did come a time when she needed to select one team to spend the rest of her international career with, and the decision for her was not hard as she accepted the invitation of the South Korea national team, qualifying for them through being born there and through her South Korean mother. The rest, as they say, is history.
At the World Cup
Phair has stated that she feels very at home among the South Korean squad, and, once her name was announced as being part of the 23 selected to head down under, attention immediately turned towards when she would get her chance to show her talent on the pitch.
Understandably, head coach Colin Bell has always been quite guarded about that and has sought to protect her from too much media attention. Nevertheless, it has been clear to all how highly he rates the 16-year-old, with him making a point of mentioning that she was not there as a passenger and to simply gain experience and was instead selected for the same reasons as every other member of his squad.
The fact that she made her debut in their first game, with her coming on against Colombia (taking the youngest player record) and when they needed a spark, proves that point, as it would have been easy for Bell to not risk exposing her to the potential fallout of their disappointing performance.
However, amongst their poor displays against Colombia and Morocco, Phair stood out, and the fact that she almost scored the equaliser against the latter indicated that she was enjoying the chance to be on the biggest stage of all and was determined to make the most of it.
She clearly did enough to impress Bell, as he named her in the starting XI for the final game against Germany, and it did not take long for her to demonstrate why she was tasked with leading the line. Time after time, she created constant problems for Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side with her intelligence, composure, and quality on the ball, and she went close to opening the scoring within a few minutes.
As the game went on, Phair’s stock continued to rise, with her involved in linking play and bringing key threats like Cho So-hyun and Ji So-yun into the match, and Germany’s back line, which has been hit by injuries before and during the tournament, simply could not deal with her or them at times. This was made even more evident when they were caught out for South Korea’s goal, due to some players stepping up to mark Phair, who had moved back to create space, and others holding their position, and that gave Cho the opportunity to control the pass from Lee Young-ju and find the back of the net.
Phair was withdrawn after 86 minutes, but undoubtedly showed the world on her first start just what she was all about. It has been quite a journey for her so far, and there are many who will be really excited about what happens next in the career of one of the sport’s rising stars.
David Astill is a freelance journalist who is guest-writing for Impetus throughout the World Cup.
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