Casey Phair's 'very Korean upbringing' and the rise of women's sports

Angel City FC and Korea forward Casey Phair speaks about her "very Korean upbringing" and growing up in an era of women's sports in an exclusive interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily the week before the first-ever game of her professional career.

Korean women's national football team striker Casey Phair poses in her Angel City FC uniform. [ANGEL CITY FC]

Korean women’s national football team striker Casey Phair had to be picked up.

It was last September, not more than a month after Phair made headlines for being the youngest-ever player to clock time in the World Cup. Phair was back in the United States, and she had flown to Los Angeles for a two-week training session with National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side Angel City FC, where she’ll soon make her professional debut.

Her mother, who had accompanied her on the Los Angeles trip, was there to pick her up after her first day. Phair, 16, can’t drive.

Besides the fact that Phair was training at the highest level of professional football in the United States mere weeks after playing in the World Cup, for her mom, it was just another day on the touchline.

“My mom has driven the most — I don’t even know how many — hours, growing up,” Phair said, recalling her mom’s presence in her career, from youth clubs to the international level, during an exclusive interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. “So to be able to look back and to know that I’m representing her side of our family, kind of, makes me really proud.”

A very Korean upbringing

Phair, whose mother is Korean and father is American, started playing for Korea at the U-17 level last April, scoring five goals across two appearances to help earn the team a spot in the 2024 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup.

She was called up to the senior team a couple months later, playing in all three of Korea's games at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Phair was born in Anyang, Gyeonggi, and moved to the United States when she was two months old, though she said she frequently returned to visit her mother’s side of the family — attending first grade and learning Taekwondo — before she turned 10, when she started getting busier with her sport.

“I think a lot of people don’t know I have a very Korean upbringing,” Phair said. While some Korean media outlets have made references to a potential language barrier between her teammates on the field, Phair said she considers her Korean to be “good.”

“I guess it’s like, not annoying, but a little bit frustrating that people think I don’t know how to speak Korean,” Phair said. “Because before I could speak English I was doing the Korean hangul...workbooks with my mom. So I’ve always known how to read and write.”

Phair said that growing up around her mother’s side of the family and eating Korean food at home helped with her transition from the U-17 to the senior national team.

“When I went to Korea, I had some of the more traditional soups, and all the players on my team were so confused and surprised that I knew how to eat it because it’s some things that, people that live in America, they didn’t think would like,” Phair said.

New kid on the block

While Phair was the youngest player at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Korea fielded one of the oldest lineups, with an average age of nearly 31 years old among the players on the starting XI for the team’s group stage opener against Columbia.

Casey Phair, left, and Ji So-yun train ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup in Paju, Gyeonggi in July 2023. [NEWS1]

“Being with them at first was really scary. But all the players went out of their way to talk to me,” Phair said of her experience on the senior team. “When I first started, they saw me as a 16-year-old, like as a younger player. But I think as I’ve gradually become closer with the team and more comfortable, they hold me to that veteran standard.

“They are very good mentors. And they are very good at keeping me humble.”

Even though many of her teammates are twice her age, Phair said that she’s found her place among the players, such as national team veteran and Seattle Reign striker Ji So-yun.

“I think we’ve gotten closer just on the field but also off the field because her now being at a U.S. club, she’ll talk to me in Korean, and I’ll respond in English, and we’ll kind of learn off of each other.

Korean national team veteran Ji So-yun, left, encourages Casey Phair after Korea loses 0-1 to Morocco during a group stage game in Australia in July 2023. [YONHAP]

“She’s a big one who’s helped me transition from a U-17 player to now a senior team player. But not just her. Like all the players, I think, when we’re off the field, they see me as a younger player, but when we’re on the field they’re like, okay, you’re on the team for a reason, so you have to show it.”

Phair has said repeatedly that her experience on the Korean national team was a big part of why she chose to sign with Angel City.

“Everyone there was so welcoming, and it’s not like I have to go out of my way to ask for help. It’s like, everyone wants to help me,” Phair said, describing her first impression of the Los Angeles club. “Just, like, a nurturing and welcoming environment [like] I found in Korea. And I was able to thrive there because I was so confident within myself because of the coaches and the players around me being so eager to help me and being so welcoming. “And that’s one of the biggest things I’ve found at Angel City. It seemed like they wanted me there, and not like I was there and they were just like, ‘Whatever, she’s here, we have to deal with it.’

“It made me seem like they wanted me to be part of the team and like I just felt like the opposite of out-of-place.”

New start in the city of angels

Phair’s mom had an impact on her decision to sign with Angel City, too.

“[She] could tell that Angel City was the place for me just by the smile that was on my face when she came to pick me up after my first day,” Phair said. “So I think that she saw that as well, throughout the whole two weeks I was there, just how happy I was to be there, how happy I was when I came back.”

Los Angeles, which has a sizeable Korean immigrant population, made sense for other reasons, Phair said. Phair currently lives in the city with her mother, one of her two brothers and their border collie. They’ll soon be joined by her father and her other brother — who are making the move to Los Angeles with her.

“The Koreatown in L.A. is massive. We didn’t expect that, but I think that is a big factor into why L.A. was the best choice...Koreatown feels a little bit like Korea, so having that bit of culture so close and so accessible was really big for my family and me as well. Just to have that nearby and not be totally isolated from my Korean culture.”

While Phair knows she won’t get a typical high school experience, for her, it’s worth it.

“High school, I guess that only happens once, but for me, being able to play the sport I love every single day and then meet such cool, amazing people. It’s just like, how can I say no to that?

“Moving around, I feel like I’ve met a lot of my closest friends. With Angel City, I’ve gotten really close to people there, and with Korea as well, so I think just all the people I get to meet and all the different places I get to travel to.”

Casey Phair poses with the ball in her Angel City FC uniform. [ANGEL CITY FC]

Plus, while Phair will still be the youngest player at Angel City, she’ll be joined by 19-year-old Alyssa Thompson, 18-year-old Gisele Thompson and 16-year-old Kennedy Fuller, who announced her signing Wednesday evening U.S. time.

“Having the sport I love as a job is just so amazing,” Phair said.

Watching the rise of women’s sports

For 16-year-old Phair, who grew up watching the U.S. women’s national team as its popularity ballooned, there was never a moment where she felt she couldn’t have a professional career in sports.

“I just feel like as I’ve grown up, women’s sports has become bigger. And it’s still growing, but I’ve just never — I haven’t lived long enough to see where women’s sports wasn’t as big of a thing.

“For me now, I feel really privileged to be part of that growth for women’s soccer, especially in Korea, because I know soccer in Korea was not as big, and I know it’s still growing.”

Phair has a busy schedule ahead as the NWSL season kicks off on March 18. Although Korea failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics, Phair is set to put on her Taeguk jersey in June when Korea meets the United States in Colorado and Minnesota for two friendlies.

When asked about how she deals with pressure, Phair said that she tries to “tune it out,” adding that Korean national team manager Colin Bell has been a big help in keeping her focused.

“He pushes away all media and then he’s just like, just focus on soccer. So I think just tuning out external factors and just focusing on what it is I need to do and what I need to get done has really helped me. I think for me, external factors usually stress me out more than myself. So I think when I’m just able to block those out and take care of what I need to get done, I think naturally I’ve gotten better with pressure.”

For now, Phair is gearing up for Angel City’s season opener against Bay FC on March 18.

It will be her first time at Angel City’s home stadium BMO — which Phair, along with fans, pronounces “Bee-mo” — and also her first-ever professional game day.

“I’m just really excited to get started with the season and just see what we do.”

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]