Yael Averbuch West Is Paying It Forward

Yael Averbuch West suspended a professional soccer career to focus on her health. Averbuch West, a defender for Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League, has spent the past few NWSL seasons battling ulcerative colitis, a debilitating illness she was diagnosed with in 2012. However, Averbuch West’s break is anything but restful. Averbuch West runs her own business and, in March, became the first Executive Director of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association, an organization she helped form and unionize as an active player in 2017.

By all standards, Averbuch West has enjoyed a successful professional soccer career. In 2009, she was drafted fourth overall by Sky Blue FC, of Women’s Professional Soccer, the professional league that existed between 2009 and 2011. When WPS folded, Averbuch West competed professionally in Russia and then Sweden, where she played until 2013. In 2014, Averbuch West joined the newly formed NWSL, where she remained until