Tobin Heath on how the US pathway created a FIFA Women’s World Cup-winning squad

Now retired, Heath was one of the most exciting wingers of her generation, starting 11 of the USA’s 14 matches across their triumphant FIFA Women’s World Cup campaigns in 2015 and 2019. In this interview with the FIFA Training Centre, Heath reflects on how her formative years in university shaped her as both a player and a leader, and how her experiences at home and abroad contributed to her success on and off the pitch, including her time in France with Paris Saint-Germain FC.

• Heath credits both the college and US youth national team systems for creating a competitive culture that accelerated her development and laid the foundation for the USWNT’s long-term success on the global stage.
  

• She believes that putting all the USA’s best young players together at the youth national team level allowed them to build a strong camaraderie and culture for the future.
  

• Moving abroad allowed Heath to understand the game better and see emerging commercial opportunities coming out of the women’s game.

Part 1: Football pathway in the US
For Heath, college football is one of the linchpins behind the success of the USA women’s national team, particularly during her time on the global stage. She cites the large sums of money invested into the university system as a primary factor behind this, but Heath also believes that it brings all the country’s best players together from a young age, allowing them to build camaraderie and a culture among the squad. She describes college as a four-year period of personal, emotional and technical development, where players learn to balance the responsibility of winning with leadership. Having also come through the US youth national team system at a young age, Heath recalls how exposure to elite coaching, resources and international-tournament experience gave her a head start in adapting to the senior game when her time came around. She notes that players who come through the youth national team have a huge advantage, as putting all the best players in one place speeds up development due to the competitive nature of the environment.

Part 2: Experience abroad and winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup
In her professional career, Heath was keen to expand her horizons outside of the USA, moving to Paris Saint-Germain in 2013 and later playing for Manchester United and Arsenal. She joined PSG during a time when the French club was seeing rapid growth in both the men’s and women’s teams. Heath believes that her time in Paris professionalised her game and helped her to see football through a new lens. Experiencing the culture and seriousness of a major European club exposed her to different tactical ideas and opened her eyes to real business opportunities in women’s football. Heath also discusses her time playing at multiple FIFA Women’s World Cups and Olympic tournaments, citing them as defining moments in her career. Representing her country on these grand stages brought her immense pride and expectation, reinforcing the learned US women’s national team’s culture of winning and responsibility to inspire the next generation.