Natalia Astrain
Personal information
Full name Natalia Astráin Massa[1]
Date of birth (1976-01-05) January 5, 1976
Place of birth Pamplona, Spain
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
University of Navarra[2]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992-1998 SD Lagunak
Managerial career
2002-2006 FC Barcelona Femení
2009-2010 CE Europa femení
2013-2014 FC Levante Las Planas
2014-2016 CF Damm Women
2016-2017 Atlético de Madrid (assistant)
2020-2022 FC Bay Area
2021 Kansas City Current (assistant)
2021-2023 United States U-17
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Natalia Astráin Massa (born January 5, 1976, in Pamplona, Spain) is a former soccer player and soccer coach from Navarre in the Basque region of Spain. She was the first female coach in Spain to obtain the UEFA Pro Licence, which she did in 1999.[3][4] She has a degree in Art History and two Masters in Psychology and sports coaching.[1] As a soccer player, she played defense for SD Lagunak in the Spanish Women's Second Division from 1992 to 1998.[5]

Managerial career

Roles in Spain, 2000-2017

Astrain began coaching by starting and training youth (Cadet) teams at Bidezarra, a Navarrese school.[3] Later, she coached Beti-Onak and the Navarre women's team.[6] She also coached the Spanish women's under-21 team. From 2002 to 2006 she coached for FC Barcelona Femení,[2] which was incorporated as a formal section of the club coincident with her arrival. In the early days of the women's team, it was common for the team to play on fields used as a parking lot on game days for the men's team. Despite these challenges, in 2004 under her leadership the team achieved promotion to the Superliga (the Spanish First Division at the time).[7] In the 2013–14 season she coached FC Levante Las Planas of the First Division.[8] In the 2016–17 season she signed as second coach for Atlético de Madrid, and with them she won the league that season.[9][10]

Roles in USA, 2017-Present

In 2017, Astrain made the jump to the United States, when contacts she had made while coaching at Barcelona academies and camps in the US were looking for someone with a background like hers.[10] She was hired as the technical director of Rise Soccer Club in Houston,[11] a position she held for two seasons. The club had 5,000 players from age 5 to U19, and served as a feeder for local NWSL club Houston Dash.[3] In 2020 she was hired as the coach of FC Bay Area,[12] a WPSL youth development club with Barça roots. Prior to the 2021 season, Astrain signed on as the assistant coach of the Kansas City Current in the NWSL,[13] which had newly relocated from Utah.

While at Rise SC, Astrain had contributed to US Soccer programming in the form of camps and clinics, and as an assistant coach for the U-15 and U-17 girls national teams.[12] This building familiarity led the federation to appoint her as head coach of the USA Under-17 youth national team in November 2021.[14][1] To take the job, she left her role with the KC Current.[15] Astrain led the U-17 team through qualifying,[16] and into the 2022 U-17 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Nigeria. She departed from US Soccer in May 2023,[17] citing as reasons the uncertainty in the wake of the departure of USSF Sporting Director Earnie Stewart, and interest in her services as a broadcaster from Telemundo for covering the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.[18]

Media career

Astrain has regularly appeared in soccer media, on TV and in print, during the course of her career. In 2015 she provided regular commentary on Barcelona's matches on Barça TV.[6][19]

Starting with Spain's first appearance at the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015, and continuing through 2021, she held a weekly opinion column in Mundo Deportivo, writing about women's football.[20]

Since 2019 she has provided Spanish-language commentary on football for Telemundo, initially for the 2020 Olympics,[21] then for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.[22] Now an official soccer analyst on their team, Telemundo has announced that Astrain is expected to be part of their coverage for the 2024 Olympics and the 2026 World Cup.[23]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Vallejo, Maria. "La navarra Natalia Astráin, seleccionadora sub-17 de EEUU". Diario de Navarra (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "El Barça femenil desea hacer otra gira por México". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Iñaki Porto, M.J. Armendáriz. "Es una oportunidad para conocer otra forma de entrenar y a la vez aportar mi experiencia". Noticias de Navarra (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  4. ↑ Goñi, Javier (January 9, 2000). "La mujer que puede ser 'míster'". El Pais (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Natalia Astrain Massa (Defensa) / Jugadora Fútbol Femenino" (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Voltas, Maria. "Era la única chica que estaba en el grupo y oía cosas que me fastidiaban". Noticias de Navarra (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  7. ↑ Irigoyen, Juan. "De jugar en el parking a estar en la élite de Europa". El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  8. ↑ Candel, Beatriz. "Natalia Astrain, nueva entrenadora del Levante Las Planas". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  9. ↑ Mateos Pizarro, Rosa María. "Natalia Astrain: "Apostar por el deporte femenino es un valor en alza"". Europea News (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  10. 1 2 Bonals, Laia. "Astrain: 'Aquí històricament el futbol femení ha guanyat Olimpíades i campionats del món; el masculí, no'". ARA (in Catalan). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ Menayo, David. "El sueño americano de Natalia Astrain". Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  12. 1 2 Lasagabaster, Amaia. "Natalia Astrain se incorpora al staff de Kansas City en su regreso a la NWSL". Naiz (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  13. ↑ VILLARRUBIA, BEGOÑA. "Natalia Astrain begins a new adventure in the NWSL with Kansas City". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish).
  14. ↑ "NATALIA ASTRAIN NAMED HEAD COACH OF U.S. UNDER-17 WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM". US Soccer Federation. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  15. ↑ Palmer, Tod. "Kansas City Current assistant Natalia Astrain named USWNT U-17 coach". KSHB Kansas City. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Astrain blending Spanish style with American steel". FIFA. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  17. ↑ "KATIE SCHOEPFER TRANSITIONS TO U.S. UNDER-17 WYNT HEAD COACH AS CIARA CRINION NAMED U.S. U-15 WYNT HEAD COACH". US Soccer Federation. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  18. ↑ Adam Belz (November 29, 2023). "#453: Natalia Astrain on USWNT challenges and opportunities" (Podcast). Scuffed Podcast. Event occurs at 26:10. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  19. ↑ VILLARRUBIA, BEGOÑA. "Natalia Astrain: "España puede llegar lejos en el Mundial de Canadá"". Mundo Deportivo. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  20. ↑ Astrain, Natalia. "See You Soon". Mundo Deportivo. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  21. ↑ Astrain, Natalia. "We are going to Tokyo". Mundo Deportivo. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  22. ↑ Bucholtz, Andrew. "Barrier-breaking analyst Natalia Astrain talks calling 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup for Telemundo: 'I live for this, it's my dream.'". Awful Announcing. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Natalia Astrain Officially Joins Telemundo Deportes' Award-Winning Team Debuting In The Highly Anticipated Women's National Team Friendly USA Vs. Colombia". NBC Universal. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
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