Jayden Perry

About

Jayden Lee Perry (born March 31, 2003) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a center back for Portland Thorns FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). She played college soccer for the UCLA Bruins, winning the 2022 national championship.

Perry was born in Laguna Hills, California, to Jana and Jason Perry, and has two younger siblings. She was raised in Rancho Santa Margarita and attended Trabuco Hills High School, where she captained the soccer team and earned all-state honors. She played club soccer for Slammers FC, winning the ECNL under-15 national championship in 2018. She committed to UCLA before her sophomore year.

Perry played in 17 games, two of them as a starter, in her freshman season with the UCLA Bruins in 2021, winning the Pac-12 Conference regular-season championship. She established herself in the lineup as a sophomore in 2022, starting all but one of her 24 appearances. She played every minute of the NCAA tournament after the first round, featuring alongside Lilly Reale and Quincy McMahon on the back line, as UCLA won their second national championship. In the title game, UCLA came back from a two-goal deficit…