Catarina Macario

Catarina Cantanhede Melônio Macário (born October 4, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Chelsea. Born in Brazil, she plays for the United States national team.

Macario was a decorated collegiate player in the United States. In 2017, she was named Freshman of the Year by TopDrawerSoccer.com and ESPNW Player of the Year. In 2018, Macario won the Hermann Trophy, ESPNW Player of the Year, and the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award. In 2019, Macario won the Honda Sports Award and again won the Hermann Trophy.

Early life
Macario was born in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, to Ana Maria Cantanhede and José Melônio Macário. She started playing football at the age of 4, following the footsteps of her older brother, Estevão (known in the U.S. as Steve). She started playing in the academy of Flamengo in São Luís. She remained there for less than 6 months before switching to the Cruzeiro academy. At the age of 7, she moved with the family to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. In Brasilia, Catarina played for the Santos academy, where she remained until she moved to the United States in December 2011. In Brazil, Catarina had always played for men's teams and only started playing for a women's team after arriving in the United States. In 2011, at the age of 12 and without speaking any English, Macario relocated with her father and brother to San Diego, California in order to pursue her dream of playing soccer. Her mother, a doctor, remained in Brazil in order to financially support the family. While playing for the San Diego Surf as a youth player, she broke the all-time goalscoring record in the ECNL with 165 goals.

College career
On February 1, 2017, Macario committed to play collegiately for Stanford University. In her freshman year in 2017, she played 25 matches, scoring 17 goals and clinching 16 assists. As a result of her performance this year she won several awards, including being named "ESPNW Player of the Year", "TopDrawerSoccer.com Freshman of the Year", "Pac-12 Forward of the Year", and "Pac-12 Freshman of the Year".

In her sophomore year in 2018, Macario scored 14 goals with 8 assists in 19 matches played. On December 11, 2018, she received the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award. On January 4, 2019, Macario won the MAC Hermann Trophy, awarded to the nation's top female and male players. Additionally, she was named "espnW Player of the Year" and "Pac-12 Forward of the Year" for the second year in a row.

In her junior year, Macario was the winner of the Honda Sports Award, given to the nation's top female collegiate soccer player. She was also awarded the MAC Hermann Trophy a second time, becoming the sixth woman to repeat as winner since the award was established in 1988.

Stanford won the NCAA Women's College Cup in her freshman and junior years.

On January 8, 2021, Macario announced that she would be forgoing her senior season at Stanford to start her professional career.

Lyon (2021–2023)
On January 12, 2021, Lyon announced they signed Macario for 2.5 years. She made her debut for Lyon in the Division 1 Féminine on February 6, 2021, coming on as a substitute in the 37th minute for Amandine Henry in a 2–1 win against Montpellier. On May 21, 2022, Macario scored in the UEFA Women's Champions League final to help secure a 3–1 victory against FC Barcelona. Macario along with Lyon teammate Lindsey Horan became the fourth and fifth Americans to win the UEFA Women's Champion League.

Chelsea (2023–present)
On June 9, 2023, Chelsea announced they had signed Macario on a free transfer from Lyon on a three-year deal. Macario scored her first goal 6 minutes into her debut for Chelsea on March 3, 2024, during a WSL game against Leicester City after returning from an ACL injury she got in June 2022. In her second game for Chelsea, she scored for a 1–0 victory over Everton in the FA Cup three minutes after being subbed in.

International career
Macario is eligible to play internationally for Brazil and the United States. She was called to represent the United States at several youth levels. Macario stated that she intended to represent the United States at the senior level, turning down several approaches from the Brazilian Football Confederation. She generally plays as a midfielder for the United States, although Vlatko Andonovski has stated she could move to a false nine role in the future.

On October 8, 2020, Macario received her first call up to represent the United States at senior level, though she could not yet do this in games until she received clearance from FIFA. Later the same day, she announced on Twitter that she had acquired American citizenship. On January 13, 2021, U.S. Soccer announced that Macario received clearance from FIFA to represent the United States internationally. On January 18, 2021, Macario debuted for the United States, coming in the half-time of a friendly match against Colombia, thus becoming the first naturalized citizen ever to play for the US senior women's team. In the next game, another friendly against Colombia, she started for the first time, scoring her first international goal, on January 22, 2021.

On June 23, 2021, Macario was included in the United States roster for the 2020 Summer Olympics where they placed 3rd, earning Macario a bronze medal.

After missing the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup due to an ACL injury she obtained with Lyon in 2022, Macario made her return to the United States national team for the 2024 SheBelieves Cup in April 2024. On June 26, 2024, Macario was selected by her former Chelsea coach Emma Hayes to the 18-player roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics in France. On July 12, it was announced that Macario would be withdrawing from the Olympics due to "knee irritation", and that Lynn Williams would replace her on the roster.

Personal life
Despite declaring herself a fan of Marta, Macario stated that her favorite soccer player is American former forward Mia Hamm.

Macario graduated from Stanford University in 2021 with a BA in communications and minor in psychology.

Club


International

 * Scores and results list United States' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Macário goal.

Honors
Stanford Cardinal
 * NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship: 2017, 2019

Lyon
 * UEFA Women's Champions: 2021–22

Chelsea
 * Women's Super League: 2023–24

United States
 * SheBelieves Cup: 2021; 2022, 2024
 * Olympic Bronze Medal: 2021

Individual
 * ESPNW Player of the Year: 2017, 2018
 * Hermann Trophy: 2018, 2019
 * CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 first team: 2018
 * TopDrawerSoccer.com Freshman of the Year: 2017
 * TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Year: 2018, 2019
 * United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-America: 2017, 2018
 * Pac-12 Forward of the Year: 2017, 2018
 * Pac-12 Freshman of the Year: 2017
 * Honda Sports Award: 2020
 * Best Player SheBelieves Cup: 2022