Celebrity Biographies
Brandi Chastain Biography, Age, Family, Net Worth, Jersey, TV & Movies
BIOGRAPHY OF BRANDI CHASTAIN
Brandi Chastain is a retired American soccer player, two-time FIFA Women’s World Champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, coach and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States Women’s National Soccer Team from 1988 to 2004.
In her 192 caps for the team, she scored 30 goals playing mainly in defender and midfield positions. She scored a World Cup-winning penalty shootout goal against China in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final.
BRANDI CHASTAIN AGE
Brandi was born on July 21, 1968 in San Jose, California. She turns 51 in 2019.
GOAL BY BRANDI CHASTAIN | BRANDI CHASTAIN’S CELEBRATION
On July 10, 1999, in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick on penalties to give the United States the victory over the China in the final game, Chastain celebrated spontaneously removing his jersey and dropping to his knees in a sports bra, his fists clenched, flexing his arms.
Removing a shirt to celebrate a goal is so common in men’s football that it has sometimes resulted in an automatic yellow card warning, according to the Laws of the Game. The image of his celebration was considered one of the photographs most famous shots of a woman celebrating a sports victory. Chastain described the celebration as “momentary madness, no more, no less. I thought of nothing. I said to mysef: “This is the greatest moment of my life on the football field.
BRAIN BY BRANDI CHASTAIN
Chastain announced that she had decided to donate her brain after her death to the Concussion Legacy Foundation to be studied by Boston University’s renowned CTE program.
Chastain, 47, said she suffered two concussions while playing college in California and Santa Clara, but experienced no side effects and came straight back into the game both times. She never shied away from heading the ball in her 40 years playing, and sometimes ‘saw stars’, adding that she ‘did what we all did and got rid of it’. She said she suffered no symptoms from these concussions and had no signs of degenerative brain disease.
She is one of the rare women to offer her brain for research. Of the 307 brains previously studied by the BU School of Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs Collaborative Brain Bank, only seven were female, and none were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease thought to be linked to concussions.
BRANDI CHASTAIN FAMILY | BRANDI CHASTAIN HUSBAND
Chastain married Jerry Smith (Santa Clara Broncos head coach) on June 9, 1996. They have two children, Jaden Chastain Smith born June 2006 and a stepson named Cameron.
BRANDI CHASTAIN BROADCASTING CAREER
Chastain in 2003
Chastain worked as a color commentator for football games on two networks. She broadcast for NBC Sports during the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. Her work with ABC/ESPN has included Major League Soccer games and is part of a studio commentator rotation for the Women’s World Cup of FIFA 2011.
BRANDI CHASTAIN TELEVISION AND FILM
Chastain has been featured on numerous television shows including The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, and Good Morning America. In February 2001, Chastain appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! and won with a dollar.
The children’s cancer research organization she performed for received $15,000. In 2007, Chastain appeared in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the US Women’s Soccer Team. The 44-minute film, Brandi Chastain: A Tribute to a Champion aired on Fox Soccer in December 2010 and focused on Chastain’s testimonial game which took place in October of that year.
BRANDI CHASTAIN ENDORSEMENT
Following the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Chastain signed a number of endorsement deals, including Nike. She was the official spokesperson for Pfizer’s (formerly Wyeth) Centrum Ultra multivitamin product. In July 2016, she partnered with pharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. to promote education and awareness for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In 1999, she was featured on the Wheaties box. She has appeared in television commercials for Nike, Bud Light and Gatorade.
BRANDI CHASTAIN SAN JOSE CYBERRAYS, 2001–2003
Following the success of the FIFA Women’s Cup in 1999, Chastain was one of the founders of the Women’s United Soccer Association, the first women’s professional soccer league in the United States. She played for the San Jose CyberRays for the league’s three-year existence.
In the league’s inaugural season, she helped the team finish second in the regular season with an 11–6–4 record securing them a playoff berth. The team eventually won the league title after defeating the Atlanta Beat on penalties.
Chastain started in all 19 games she played during the regular season, scoring 2 goals and providing 5 assists. During the playoffs, she started in both games and scored two goals.
The CyberRays finished in fifth place during the 2002 season with an 8–8–5 record. Chastain started in the 18 games she played in, scored 4 goals and provided 3 assists. In the 2003 season, Chastain started in all 15 games as a defender, scored 1 goal and provided 4 assists. San Jose finished in sixth place during the regular season with a 7–10–4 record.
BRANDI CHASTAIN FC GOLD PRIDE, 2009
In 2009, at age 40, Chastain played as a midfielder for FC Gold Pride in Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), the second-largest women’s professional soccer league in the United States. She was selected in the seventh round of the 2009 WPS draft.
She has started in five of the ten games she has played. The Pride finished in last place in the regular season with a 4–10–6 record. Chastain was released by the team in February 2010.
BRANDI CHASTAIN GOAL CELEBRATION
On July 10, 1999, in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick on penalties to give the United States the victory over the China in the final game, Chastain celebrated spontaneously removing his jersey and dropping to his knees in a sports bra, his fists clenched, flexing his arms.
Removing a shirt to celebrate a goal is so common in men’s football that it has sometimes resulted in an automatic yellow card warning, according to the Laws of the Game. The image of his celebration was considered one of the photographs most famous shots of a woman celebrating a sports victory.
Chastain described the celebration as “momentary madness, no more, no less. I thought of nothing. I thought: ‘This is the greatest moment of my life on the football field.’ ‘
BRANDI CHASTAIN NET WORTH
She has an estimated net worth of $2.5 million.
STATUE OF BRANDI CHASTAIN
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – JULY 10: Brandi Chastain poses with a statue of herself during the unveiling of a statue honoring the United States’ victory at the 1999 Women’s World Cup on July 10, 2019, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, in California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)