Top 10 Things to Know About Croix Bethune

It’s time to get to know one of the freshest and most promising players in the NWSL—Croix Bethune. We know we’ll have plenty of time to get to know and love her during her long career, but let’s start out with these ten facts about our up-and-comer.

If you take even a casual scroll through Bethune’s Instagram, it is absolutely obvious that this midfielder loves fashion. When she’s not on the pitch roasting defenders and keepers, she treats the world like a catwalk.

Bethune is the daughter of two members of the US Air Force. Both her mother and her father are members, which has greatly impacted her life. She attributes her work ethic, determination, and respect for all people to growing up in a military house. Her nomadic military life also exposed her to a ton of different styles of play, which you can see in her game today.

As part of being an Air Force kid, Bethune moved around a lot, which is why she wound up playing on a boy’s team in England from age four until she was almost eight—simply because there was no girl’s team.

Though she started soccer at a very young age, Bethune also played basketball. She continued as a two-sport athlete until high school, when she tore her ACL for the first time and decided to focus on soccer during her recovery.

Bethune finished her undergrad at USC in Occupational Therapy but didn’t stop there. After graduating, she went on to Georgia as a graduate student, where she pursued her Master’s in business at the time of the NWSL draft.

Bethune recently hard launched her beautiful blue-eyed puppy to the world. Kush is a bully breed and loves to ride shotgun with Bethune.

Maybe you’ve heard the term, but if not, don’t feel left out because Bethune only recently owned the term “demon time.” Demon time is when Bethune is about to get down to business. It’s when she wants the other team out of her way or else. Bethune lets her opponents know it’s demon time by wearing one of her signature pieces as part of a game-day fit, like her Cactus Jack leather jacket.

This is one of our more random facts, but it shows that even NWSL all-star rookies are just like us. This versatile midfielder has shown some personal growth recently by becoming a girl who loves sushi. This recent obsession has been credited to her new Washington Spirit teammate, Paige Metayer.

We don’t usually expect Socceristas to be super tall, but Bethune is short, even by soccer standards. At just 5’2″, she is only an inch taller than all-star Crystal Dunn. She is yet another player proving that size matters way less than skill and smarts.

This little tidbit is more of a bummer than the rest of our list and we hope it doesn’t come up any time soon, but Bethune has a long history of injury. Starting back in her high school days Bethune tore her ACL once, and then again in her freshman year of college. While we hope she stays on her feet for a long, long time, she’s also proven herself to be more than capable of bouncing back.

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