It is true that when it comes to football in America, there is no man comparable to Mia Hamm.
The former 1972-born player holds the record for the most goals scored for the national team with 158 goals in 257 matches. Mia’s goals helped the US national team to win 2 world championships and 2 Olympic gold medals.
Football is not the King sport in America. In the 1990s, football was even lower in the land of the Goddess of Freedom, although in 1994, the United States was the host of the World Cup finals. But Mia Hamm has always been a hot spot for American media, both on and off the pitch.
In 1997, International Soccer Business voted Mia into the Top 40 most influential people in world football, Esquire Magazine put Mia in the Top 100 influential people in the world. Along with teammate Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm was also the only two female players Pele was voted into the list of “125 Greatest Players alive”. Even People in 1997 voted Mia Hamm into the Top 50 most beautiful beauties on the planet. People ‘s coercive and ridiculous vote also partly reflects Mia’ s great influence on football and, more broadly, in American society.
But Phil Knight’s evaluation of Mia Hamm is more than the same. Nike president Mia Hamm is on par with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, because they are both legendary icons, who opened a new trend in their sport.
Knight is not exaggerating, because since the mid-1990s, Mia has become the model of millions of young girls who love football and want to follow, including the famous junior like Alex Morgan, Hope Solo or Abby Wambach. The number of girls in American high schools playing soccer increased to nearly 10 million, exceeding the number of boys. Europe, where the most developed football in the world can not get the percentage of women playing football than men like in the United States.
Mia’s role in American football is like Michael Jordan of basketball and Tiger Woods of golf. But like other countries in the world, female players have not been recognized and invested on par with their male counterparts. So in every participating forum, Mia has always raised the flag of gender equality to fight for the rights of women in football and sports.
But not only exhortation but from the time of competition, namely in 1999, the American long-haired football legend founded a non-profit fund called the Mia Hamm Foundation. The purpose of this fund is to call for the whole society to help victims of marrow transplantation and invest, support young women to participate in training and sports.