Hope Solo is an American soccer goalkeeper who is a two-time Olympic gold medallist and World Cup champion. She is regarded as the top female goalkeeper in the world currently holding the U.S. record for most career clean sheets.
From 2000 to August 2016, Hope was the goalkeeper for the United States women’s national soccer team. She has also played for the Philadelphia Charge, Saint Louis Athletica, Atlanta Beat, and MagicJack.
Solo received the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper as well as the Bronze Ball award for her overall performance in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
She was born as Hope Amelia Solo in Richland, Washington, on July 30, 1981, to mother Judy Lynn (nee Shaw), and father Jeffrey Solo. Solo learned soccer at a young age from her father, an Italian-American Vietnam War veteran.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram Solo had a close relationship with her father although her parents had divorced when she was six years old. Her father was one of the major influences in her life until he died in June 2007 due to a heart attack.
Hope attended Richland High School, where she played as a forward and scored 109 goals leading her team to three consecutive league titles from 1996 to 1998. She then enrolled at the University of Washington from 1990 to 2002 where she majored in speech communication.
Solo switched to goalkeeper permanently with the Huskies under the leadership of head coach Leslie Gallimore and former national team player Amy Griffin.
Hope finished her collegiate career as Washington’s all-time leader in shutouts (18), saves (325), and goals against average (GAA) (1.02), and became the top goalkeeper in Pac-10 history.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram Following her college career, Hope got selected in the first round of the 2003 WUSA Draft by the Philadelphia Charge. She spent most of her first professional season on the bench, however, she got to play the last three games of the season and earned her first professional shutout against the Atlanta Beat.
Solo moved to Goteborg, Sweden, in February 2004, just six days before the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup to play for Kopparbergs/ Goteborg. She made 19 appearances in goal for Goteborg in 2004.
In 2005, Hope played for the Olympique Lyonnais in French First Division and made seven appearances for the French club.
On September 16, 2008, Hope was allocated to the Saint Louis Athletica as part of the 2008 WPS Player Allocation. Solo finished the season with eight shutouts leading the Athletica from the bottom to finish in second place and secured a playoff spot.
Solo was named the WPS Goalkeeper of the year after the 2009 season. Solo also became the first goalkeeper to be named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year (the highest honor awarded to a soccer player in the U.S.).
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram In May 2010, Solo signed with WPS expansion team Atlanta Beat along with her teammates, Tina Ellertson and Eniola Aluka, shortly after Saint Louis Athletica folded.
In 2010, Solo played in 22 WPS matches for both Athletica and the Beat and was league-leader in saves with 104.
Solo signed with the MagicJack, formerly the Washington Freedom, ahead of the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer Season. Solo made four appearances for the club.
Solo then signed with the Seattle Sounders Women on February 14, 2012. She played alongside Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Sydney Leroux. During her stay, Solo made three appearances for the club with five saves, one shutout, and goals against average were 0.344.
On January 19, 2013, Solo along with Megan Rapinoe and Amy Rodriguez allocated to the Seattle Reign FC as part of the NWSL Player Allocation for the inaugural season of the National Women’s Soccer League. However, Reign faced a tough first half when Solo went under wrist surgery. Amy Rodriguez went out for the season due to pregnancy.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram After her return, Hope started in all 14 matches in which she played with an average of 1.357 goals and made 81 saves, and tallied 1,260 minutes in goal.
In October 2013, Solo was transferred to the English club Manchester City. For the 2014 season, Solo returned to the Reign and finished the season with 65 saves in 20 games played and 900 goals against average.
Before joining the national team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Solo made eight appearances for Seattle during the 2016 season. She finished the season with five clean sheets, 0.63 GAA, and an 81% save percentage.
Before joining the senior U.S. national team in 2000, solo played for U.S junior national soccer team. Hope made her senior debut with an 8-0 win over Iceland at Davidson, North Carolina, in April 2000. Hope joined the national team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens as an alternate 2004. In 2005, Hope became the team’s first-choice goalkeeper. Hope holds the national team record for the longest undefeated streak as a goalkeeper from March 7, 2002, to July 16, 2008, with 55 games.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram In the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Solo was the starting goalkeeper for the United States. Solo was benched by U.S. coach Greg Ryan in favor of 36-year-old veteran goalkeeper Brianna Scurry.
On June 23, 2008, Solo was announced as the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. women’s team won the gold medal on August 21 by defeating Brazil by 1-0 in extra time.
Solo was named on the U.S. roster for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany despite missing much of the qualifying campaign with a shoulder injury. With her start in the 3-1 semifinal win over France, Solo became the twenty-seventh American woman and second goalkeeper to reach 100 caps.
In the final, the U.S. team lost in a penalty shootout to Japan. However, Solo was awarded the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper, and the Bronze Ball award for her performance during the game. Solo was also featured in the ‘All-Star’ team of the tournament.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram On August 9, with the United States Women’s national soccer team, Solo won her second Olympic gold medal. In a match against Japan, Hope made many saves including the 82nd-minute shot save from Mana Iwabuchi which could have tied the game.
In March 2013, Hope underwent left wrist surgery and did not play for approximately three months. Solo returned to the game in June and the team finished undefeated with a 13-0-3 record.
In April 2015, Solo got named on the U.S. roster for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. During the semi-final match against Germany, Solo used a stalling tactic and made Celia Sasic miss a penalty kick. Solo ended the tournament with 177 international caps and also received the Golden Glove trophy as the best goalkeeper.
On July 9, 2016, in a friendly match against South Africa, Solo earned her 100th international shutout, 150th career win, and 197th cap that making her the first-ever female goalkeeper in history to achieve 100 shutouts in international competition.
Solo is married to American footballer Jerramy Stevens since 2012. The pair started dating in mid of August 2012. Solo and her husband Jerramy are living a happy married life and haven’t shown any sign of having a child. Besides this, there is no information regarding her past affairs, divorce, and boyfriend.
Hope stands 5 feet 9 inches (height) and weighs around 68 kg. Her nationality is American and her ethnicity is White.
Although Solo’s exact income salary is under review, her net worth is estimated at around $2.5 million. She has signed endorsement deals with various companies like Seiko, Simple Skincare, Nike, Blackberry, Gatorade, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts.
CAPTION: Hope Solo SOURCE: Instagram She has also modeled briefly for the cover of Fitness, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, TV Guide, and Vogue. She has also appeared in various TV shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman, Piers Morgan Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Whitney.
On August 14, 2012, after the London Olympics, Solo released her autobiography Solo: A Memoir of Hope. She was also featured in the EA Sports FIFA video games series along with her national teammates.
Hope is also active on social networking sites. She joined Twitter in July 2009 and is followed by more than 1.18 million fans. She has over 877k followers on Instagram and over 2 million fans on Facebook.
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