When Lily Yohannes made her Women’s Champions League debut, she became, at the age of 16, the youngest player to make a group stage appearance in the tournament. He announced his arrival on the big stage by neatly slotting the ball through Paris Saint-Germain’s backline as he prepared for the first goal of an important Ajax victory.
“I was really excited. It was my dream as a kid to play in the Champions League,” says Yohannes. “It was an experience I can’t describe in words.”
Yohannes was born in Springfield, Virginia, and watching football on television was part of life in his household. “My father used to train us in the basement of our house. He and I were going to team up and go against my two brothers. “As soon as I started playing around the age of four, I fell in love with kicking the ball,” he says. Unlike most kids, Yohannes didn’t play other sports. From the beginning there was only football.
Playing with a local girls’ team when she was nine years old, Yohannes participated in the Under-11 boys’ tournaments without missing a beat. A year later, in 2017, she moved to the Netherlands due to her father’s job. The original plan was for the family to stay here for a few years before returning to the United States. But they are still there, and Lily and her two brothers continued their football training in Europe. Despite being in a different environment, Yohannes quickly adapted and improved.
“When we moved to the Netherlands I joined a men’s team. I was considered a top player for a girl, so I joined the boys and it became pretty normal here. “When I was in the USA, I only played with girls most of the time, that was the main difference, but I adapted pretty quickly,” he says. What surprised Yohannes was the strength of the football culture in the Netherlands. “Football is everything here,” he says. “Everyone talks about football.”
In fact, within the first few months of arriving in Europe and joining a team, he became the MVP and finalist in the Under-11 boys tournament. Shortly after he won the prize in each competition, Ajax were on the phone to offer him a trial. “Ajax is a very big club and I have always watched them grow. I was really happy and excited when they called,” he says.
Unsurprisingly, he impressed the coaches. Even though Yohannes has been playing football for over a decade, this was just the beginning of his journey.
Known for the talents it creates in men’s football, Ajax has also built a structure that will produce excellent female players.
“There are two steps to reach the A team for women. I started with the Talent Academy, which includes players aged 10 to 16,” Yohannes said. “We were still playing with the kids because the institution was mixed. While I was training with my regular boys team three times a week with a game on Saturday, I was also training with the girls once a week…with tournaments during breaks. “Four days of training and one game a week was normal for me.”
Club coaches follow the Talent Academy closely and select promising players to join the reserve teams. “I took the step of joining the reserves as the youngest player of the Ajax women’s reserve team at the age of 15. We train four times a week with one game at the weekend, so it gets busy very quickly,” says Yohannes. “What stood out was what style of play Ajax followed throughout the youth stages. You know the style of play from the moment you join the academy. “I didn’t have to change everything I learned when I stepped into the first team.”
In December 2022, excited by Yohannes’ development in the reserves, the club drew up a plan to promote him to the first team next season.
The midfielder will be invited to the A team in training. Four months later, at the age of 15, Yohannes signed his first professional contract. Was it difficult to make a big decision so young?
“It wasn’t very difficult to decide whether I wanted to take this professional step. “I always wanted to be a professional actor since I was little,” he says. “From the moment the opportunity came, I knew I wanted to pursue it. It was great to be fully in the first team. It felt like a good transition as I had trained with them quite a bit the previous season. Everyone made me feel very welcome and helped me get settled in. “It was a great adjustment, honestly.”
Ajax’s squad includes 34 Dutch players and Yohannes is the only non-European player. But most of her teammates are close to her age: her squad average is 23.6, the youngest player in the Women’s Champions League this season.
“We have a great team that provides a great environment. It pushes me to improve and get better every day,” he says. “There is a great mix of young and old players. in sherida [Spitse] He is our captain, the leader of the team on and off the field. “I get a lot out of watching and seeing how he does things, and he’s always coaching us and giving us tips.”
Narrowing down Yohannes’ best qualities is a difficult task given his all-around excellence. But he knows his strengths. “I am good on the ball, I have the ability to dribble, I have the ability to advance the ball, I am strong defensively in duels and I create offensive scoring opportunities for my teammates,” he says. He adds that his family also helped. “I have my family and support system around me that keeps me grounded and focused.”
Balancing professional football, school and social life is a problem Yohannes has solved thanks to “really good time management.”
International football will soon be added to the growing to-do list. Yohannes has not been called up to the national team roster since 2022, despite representing the United States in the under-15/16 age groups. There is no Dutch passport, but someone who has lived in the country has the right to apply. for more than six years.
“It’s something I haven’t focused on too much,” he says of the decision. “However [I’m] I’m interested to see what the future brings.”
For now, US Soccer appears to have forgotten about the youngest starter in UWCL history. For more than a year, the national team’s infrastructure has focused on amateur, local players instead of players trading in Europe. But Yohannes isn’t worried. “I try not to think about the pressure because I enjoy playing football,” he says.