Former midfielder Talia Sommer kicked her first soccer ball in New York Metropolis’s famed Central Park.
Sommer is returning to the Huge Apple as a member of the NWSL’s . She signed a contract by the 2026 season and can put on No. 14, a supply with data of the knowledge informed .
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Sommer lived in Harlem for the primary eight years of her life earlier than transferring to Israel the place she performed for ASA Tel Aviv of the Israeli’s Girls’s Premier League and skilled with the Israeli Nationwide Group, making three begins throughout 2023 World Cup qualifiers. Sommer has 28 caps with the Israel nationwide crew.
Sommer completed tied for fifth in Butler girls’s soccer historical past in assists (24) and seventh in objectives (28). In her last season with the Bulldogs, Sommer earned Huge East Co-Midfielder of the Yr and first-team All-Huge East honors, which she was named to a few instances, and he or she gained Freshman of the Yr in 2022.
When in search of a college to proceed her athletic and tutorial profession, the big-city child rapidly felt at house at Butler.
“The teaching employees was the No. 1 factor that caught my eye instantly,” Sommer stated. “The primary recruiting name with (co-coaches) Rob (Alman) and Tari (St. John) was two hours lengthy. They gave me a private feeling; they did not simply see me as an incredible participant however as an incredible individual that they’d need of their program.
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“Coming right here and seeing that the campus is an enormous household, an enormous group, particularly the athletics division, it actually gave me the sensation that that is the place I need to be.”
Sommer stated she skilled some challenges transitioning from big-city residing to Indiana, however she rapidly immersed herself in every thing Butler and town of Indianapolis needed to provide. From post-game journeys to Fats Dan’s Deli, to spending time together with her adoptive household, Sommer grew to like Indy’s Midwestern allure and developed lasting bonds.
“If I used to be intentional and in search of issues to do, I feel Indianapolis has a lot to supply in that regard,” Sommer stated. “It is nearly discovering the best folks to discover with. … It has plenty of allure.
“For me as a Jewish lady, Indianapolis has a really wealthy Jewish group, it’s totally tight-knit, and I’ve discovered individuals who I’ve turn out to be household with. … I spend weekends with them, holidays, they’re my household at this level. Indianapolis permits for that sort of connection that in an enormous metropolis, you would not essentially have the ability to make.”
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Sommer joins a Gotham FC crew coming off a championship within the inaugural CONCACAF Girls’s Champions Cup and the 2025 NWSL championship, beating the Washington Spirit on a objective from Rose Lavelle.
Butler midfielder Talia Sommer
Sommer is becoming a member of an uber-talented midfield group that includes United States Nationwide Group members Lavelle, Jaelin Howell, Jaedyn Shaw and Emily Sonnett.
Sommer stated she likes to play the sport with pleasure. Alman stated she’s the kind of participant who brings you to the sting of your seat when she has the ball at her ft.
“Her on-ball creativity is excellent,” Alman stated. “Her capability to dribble, to be a ball provider, to go previous gamers, get rid of a number of defenders. There’s plenty of confidence and technical high quality that’s wanted to arrange strikes, to make use of a few of the tips and feints and fakes that she makes use of. The flexibility to learn defenses and the technical ability to do it on the pace that she does it at is admittedly, actually spectacular.
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“Whenever you suppose throughout any totally different sport of the kind of gamers that carry that sort of creativity to create objectives, probabilities, scoring moments for themselves and teammates, Talia is a kind of gamers.”