How one USWNT father watched his daughter’s dream grow into a reality
When Lindsey Horan pulls on the U.S. national soccer team jersey and stands in the middle of the field and listens to the national anthem, she can feel the tears coming to her eyes.
But when her father, Mark Horan, sees her standing on the field, with the number 9 on her back beneath the name Horan, he gets actual tears in his eyes.
“It’s an incredible experience, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of her,” Mark said on Thursday evening.
Mark and his wife, Linda, were in attendance at Children’s Mercy Park on Thursday as the U.S. women’s national team defeated Japan in its opening game of the 2018 Tournament of Nations. Horan started the match, before being substituted off in the 74th minute.
The pair traveled from their home in Golden, Co., to watch Lindsey play in Kansas City. Mark is vice president at Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank so decided to turn his work trip into a mini-vacation and watch Lindsey represent her country.
Mark is Lindsay’s biggest fan. As long as she’s playing in a “semi-close” location, he’ll be there.
But Lindsey has come a long way to earn her 52 and counting international caps — she went through the difficult decision of whether to play in college or go professional out of high school. She spent four years in Paris playing for Paris Saint-Germain, learning French and playing alongside some of the world’s best players.
And she’s still only 24.
But Mark remembers when she was just 5 years old. When all the other kids would be chasing her around the soccer field as she commanded the ball.
“It was clear right away that she had some talent, so my wife started coaching her teams and she was always like the top scorer, and she was a big girl,” Mark said, smiling like only a proud father can smile. “She was clearly starting to take after me, because she got really big really quickly, and she was dominating things really early.”
He remembers how her elder brother, Michael, would ask her to play with him and the rest of the boys.
“He would kill me at every single sport,” Lindsey said. “He would not go easy on me whatsoever. If that meant pushing me up against the wall 15 times in a row, that’s what he would do.”
If it weren’t for her brother, Lindsey may not be the player she is now — the commanding center midfielder who scored 46 goals in 58 games for Paris Saint-Germain and who helped the Portland Thorns to a National Women’s Soccer League title, scoring the winning goal in the championship and claiming the MVP award.
But as her younger years slipped on by and she continued to dominate the competition not only locally in Colorado, but nationally too, word of her talent began to spread to Europe.
First knocking came Lyon when she was a sophomore in high school, but Mark wanted his daughter to finish high school first and consider college. But even after committing to North Carolina — one of the top collegiate programs in the nation for soccer — Lindsey couldn’t turn down an offer from Paris Saint-Germain.
She became the first American woman to be drafted straight out of high school and signed onto a professional contract.
“Ultimate decision was what was best for me at the time,” Lindsey said. “And I think for everyone it’s a different route, and I think that’s what I’ve always wanted to be doing, and I don’t think college would have been the best route for me.”
But that didn’t stop Mark and Linda. They traveled to France to watch her, and got to meet some of the best players in the world, such as Sweden’s Caroline Seger.
But playing in Europe stopped Lindsey from doing the one thing she’d always dreamed of doing on a consistent basis: playing for the U.S. national team.
The U.S. women’s national team meets on a much more consistent basis than the men’s team, especially during the offseason of the NWSL. But Lindsey’s season with Paris Saint Germain didn’t sync up with that schedule, meaning she was often overlooked, with U.S. head coach Jill Ellis opting more often than not for players based in America.
“The amount of time that we’re going to be together in prep for (the 2015) World Cup is significant,” Ellis said in an interview in 2014. “I said to her: ‘Look, we’re preparing for the biggest tournament, and I’m going to need you all the time. I’m going to need to see you.’”
So in 2016, heading into the Summer Olympics and beginning early preparation for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Lindsey began thinking about her own goals.
Mark was reading the daily paper that summer when he saw the news.
“It was really interesting, so she was still at PSG, and when Alex Morgan got traded to (Orlando Pride), Lindsey’s rights got traded to Portland, and I read it in the paper and was like ‘my daughter’s rights just got traded! Jesus, this is amazing!’”
It was a move that saw Lindsey burst full time onto the international stage, and it’s one of the best moves she’s made — both for her and her father.
“It just sinks everything in that I’m playing for my country, I’m representing my family, my club, everyone that supports me,” Lindsey said. “And that I’m here representing my nation. I think that’s one of the coolest things in the world, and I’m so grateful.”
For Mark, he’s just enjoying the time he gets to have with his daughter. Just in their short time together in Kansas City, they’ve visited the Plaza, gotten lunch and dinner together, a couple of coffee dates — apparently Lindsey is a big fan of Starbucks.
Ultimately, Mark is happy that she’s fulfilling a dream that she’s had since she was 5 years old. The dream that most kids have, to go pro, the type of dreams that parents entertain, yet don’t take seriously at such an age.
But Lindsay fulfilled that wish, and her parents were behind her the whole way.
“It’s very inspirational for me to have him, or my mom there,” Lindsey said. “I’ve idolized him my whole life.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 11:08 PM with the headline "How one USWNT father watched his daughter’s dream grow into a reality."