Meet Trinity Rodman, the soccer star daughter of NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman

Athleticism is genetic, so it should be no surprise that there's a wealth of pro athletes with children also pursue a life in competitive sports. In the case of Dennis Rodman, the notorious NBA bad boy, his daughter Trinity has chosen to carve out her place on the soccer field rather than the basketball court.

Competing in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) for the Washington Spirit forward and internationally with the US team, Trinity seems to have inherited her physical power and competitive gene from her father, as well as a disciplined work and training ethic, everything together has made her a key player in her chosen field.

Trinity has also become the highest-paid soccer player in the NWSL after in February 2023, at just 20 years old, she signed a renewal contract with her club, the Washington Spirit, for four years at 1.1 million dollars. That's $281,000 annually – which places her above stars like Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe.

Trinity (born Newport Beach, California, May 20, 2002) is the daughter of Dennis Rodman actress and model Michelle Moyer, his third and last wife, whom he met in a pub in California in 1999. The couple also had a son – Dennis Rodman Jr., who is also following in his father's footsteps in college basketball.

Trinity began to get a taste for soccer at just 10 years old, when she began playing for the Southern California Blues Soccer Club (SoCal Blues). She won four national championships in the Elite Clubs National League and the team maintained an undefeated streak for five years while she was there.

With the idea of continuing to progress as a soccer player, she committed first to the UCLA Bruins and then to the Washington State Cougars to begin her time in college soccer, but the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented her from playing a single game in University.

Without any time building up at college level, she faced quite a jump in terms of demands when she became a professional in 2021. In fact, she became the youngest soccer player in the history of the NWSL to be chosen in a draft – in this case, by the Washington Spirit as pick number two.

His official debut with the Washington club was on April 10, 2021 in a NWSL Challenge Cup 2021 match against the North Carolina Courage. And it couldn't have been better... the forward scored a goal five minutes after jumping onto the pitch, replacing one of her teammates!

That same year, she ended up scoring 7 goals in 22 games, and won the league title with the Washington Spirit, in addition to winning three individual distinctions at the end of the season: Rookie of the Year in the NWSL 2021, Young Soccer Player of the Year in the United States 2021 and they included it in the Best Eleven of the NWSL 2021.

“She is a total competitor. Her ability to withstand pressure and close contact with the opponent and her desire to help her team succeed is amazing. She is a player who will change the game. There has been no one like her before,” her then-coach, Kris Ward, told ESPN.

“She has immediately raised the bar. It has opened the door to the future of this league,” Ward added, while she declared, after signing her current million-dollar contract that “I am paving the way for the younger players and showing the older players that this is what they should have gotten in first place".

Trinity's emergence wasn't a surprise to most soccer pundits. The young forward had already made a mark on the international scene, first in the 2018 U-17 World Cup held in Uruguay. Though she didn't score in her 165 minutes of game time, she impressed with her work rate and also provided an assist.

Later, she would dazzle in a spectacular performance in the Concafaf U-20 Championship, held in 2020, where she helped the US win the title by scoring nine goals, four of them in a single match against Honduras and two in the final in which they beat Mexico 4-1.

Already a professional player in January 2022, Trinity was called up for the first time with the United States women's senior team to participate in the 2022 SheBelieves Cup, officially debuting for her country as an adult on February 17 against the Czech Republic.

Her first goal with the US team would not take long to arrive. Just two months later, in April 2022, in her third game with the national team, Rodman would score a goal in a friendly against Uzbekistan, which they won 9-0.

In June 2022 she was called up to compete in the 2022 Concafaf Championship, which the United States won. It was the first trophy of Rodman's career and, after this tournament, she established herself as a lock for the national team before her 20th birthday.

In 2023, she would head into the Women's World Cup that was held in Australia and New Zealand and make her debut in the group stage against Vietnam. It wasn't a dream run for the US though, as the tournament favorites were eliminated in the round of 16 by Sweden.

It started out promising for Trinity though, as just prior to the Cup, she set a new record – becoming the youngest player to score a double for the US. It was in a friendly match against Wales in which she also only played the second half, replacing Alex Morgan, and was named 'player of the match'.

Trinity is also very active on social networks, especially on her Instagram account (@trinity_rodman), where she has more than 270,000 followers and shares details of her personal life, her progress, and her achievements in the world of football.

Thanks to her rising profile, she's also found herself a hot prospect for some major sports brands, appearing in campaigns for Adidas or the deodorant brand Degree.

People wonder though, given her father's pedigree, why didn't she dedicate herself to basketball? “I was good at basketball, but I felt uncomfortable," she said in an interview with ESPN. “I didn’t like dribbling, I didn’t know how to shoot the ball into the hoop.”

And he added: “I realized that football was going to be my thing when I didn't accept that people could play a sport just for fun. “I knew my heart was in this game and I wanted to try as hard as I could.”

“I'm not trying to surpass what he achieved, I just want to build my own story, and I think I'm doing a very good job,” the soccer player told ESPN and the FIFA website. And she is not wrong, because, despite her youth and the weight of her last name, Trinity Rodman is making history in women's football.