Nicole Barnhart

Goalkeeper • Age 45 • #28

Nicole Renee Barnhart is an American retired professional football player who most recently played as a goalkeeper for the Washington Spirit of the National Women's Soccer League.

330 Appearances

8 Trophies

1 Awards

Fun Facts about Nicole

Quirky facts. Inspired by her game.

She is the oldest player in the NWSL.

At the end of the 2024 season, she holds the NWSL record for the most clean sheets in a career (56).

She considers Peter Schmeichel, the Danish goalkeeper who played for Manchester United, one of her favorite male players to watch.

On the women’s side, she acknowledges Marta as one of the greatest, given her incredible contributions to the game.

Since she eats gluten-free, she likes pizza with toppings like prosciutto and artichokes.

Her favorite gluten-free treat is strawberry shortcake, which she makes herself using gluten-free biscuits, dairy-free yogurt, fresh strawberries, honey, cinnamon, and homemade coconut whipped cream.

She jokingly refers to her current car, a Volkswagen Jetta, as her dream car, admitting she doesn’t know much about vehicles.

Her first “real” job was working for Hallmark, where she restocked greeting cards in stores during high school. However, her favorite non-football job was assisting in her aunt’s art studio on a farm, reflecting her love for art.

One of her first football memories was playing in a youth tournament where everyone rotated as the goalkeeper. During her turn, she punted the ball straight into the air, caught it again, and kept playing, leaving the referee unsure of how to respond.

She enjoyed art and gym the most in school. She loved being creative in art class and found gym class exciting because of her love for competition.

Her daily routine is simple: she starts her morning with matcha, breakfast, and some time watching the news.

She collects Disney DVDs.

Her hidden talents include drawing, showcasing her artistic skills, and a basic knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL), a skill she developed in college.

Greece is on top of her travel bucket list. She plans to take a trip there with a former college teammate whose family is from Greece, a plan they discussed for after she retires from football.

She designed merchandise for Spirit's 2024 Disability Awareness Day.

She doesn’t eat out often but enjoys getting bubble tea from TeaDM or meals from a Vietnamese restaurant called Bon Me Shack.

She makes homemade sweet potato gnocchi, which is a favorite of hers. She also prepares ribs and wings, using her own method of broiling, steaming, and adding homemade BBQ sauce to make them flavorful and caramelized.

She learned to cook because she was often the first person awake in her house and needed to make her own food.

She loves cooking so much that she started a cooking club with her teammates, teaching them how to make dishes like Kung Pow Beef with coconut rice and black bean chicken enchiladas with avocado crema.

She played football, baseball, basketball, and lacrosse as a child.

She excelled in baseball, earning spots on All-Star teams but ultimately chose football when scheduling conflicts arose.

She even played part of a lacrosse season at Stanford before her National Team commitments required her to give up her eligibility.

She has been trying to learn guitar for over 20 years, owning two guitars but struggling with rhythm. Though she mastered the chords, strumming remains her biggest challenge, and she admits she hasn’t practiced in about a decade.

She earned a double major in Studio Art and Psychology from Stanford.

In high school, she played for the boys' team for all four years, playing on the field as well as in goal.

She became the secretary of the NWSL Players Association in 2017.

In July 2024, she was one of five active NWSL players who represented the NWSLPA at the final negotiations in Philadelphia that updated the league's collective bargaining agreement through 2030.