Long before she became the first woman to command a £1m transfer fee, Jordyn Smith's path to the top of the sport was forged through relentless movement, discipline instilled by unconventional training, and painful separations from the people she loved.
Smith was raised in Whitby, a modest city in Canada, where her father Sean introduced her to football at an early age. She bounced between local clubs annually, competing alongside boys until she turned 12, when she finally joined a girls' team. Even then, she kept training with boys, all while growing up in the culturally diverse environment of Toronto.
Her heritage played a significant role in shaping her style on the pitch. Smith's father is Jamaican, while her mother has Chilean and Peruvian roots — a blend she credits for the flair in her game.
"My parents have made a lot of sacrifices taking me to all these places and moving every couple of years," Smith told BBC Sport. "My dad's Jamaican, my mom's Chilean and Peruvian. There's so much football culture within those. I grasped a lot of that from my dad's dad who played football and my mom's dad also played in South America. I think I have that flair in my DNA."
She added that growing up in multicultural Toronto exposed her to different foods, music and traditions, calling it "really cool."
However, Smith's childhood wasn't without hardship. Facing bullying at school, she turned to taekwondo as a form of self-defense, unaware at the time that it would later benefit her football career.
"I did taekwondo as a kid. I was getting bullied in school so it was more of a defensive mechanism kind of thing," Smith said. She also practiced gymnastics, which she credits for her agility and injury prevention given her build.
"Taekwondo really helped with my discipline and arguably my shooting ability in terms of its speed," she explained, noting that the activities were originally meant simply to keep her occupied and entertained.
Those same disciplines, she says, helped her handle the mental demands of being a professional athlete under scrutiny. Holding gymnastic positions like splits and planks for extended periods taught her resilience that extended beyond the sports hall.
"It helps with just the discipline on and off the pitch in simple tasks that are really important in my day-to-day life," Smith said. "I developed a lot of mental toughness."
Her father's dedication to her development went beyond just introducing her to the sport — he documented her matches meticulously, filming games and keeping written records of her goals, including the exact minute each was scored.
"That is his favourite thing in the world to do," Smith said. "He kept a diary of the goals that I scored... He still has it to this day. He loves it!"
Away from the pitch, Smith enjoys cooking and watching television, particularly Law and Order: SVU, and has expressed a desire to get a dog.
Her rise to professional football required significant personal sacrifice. At just 15, she left home for Michigan without knowing where she would be staying upon arrival, marking the start of a nomadic journey that tested her emotionally.
"Moving around a lot, you're sacrificing relationships because you make good friends in one place, then you have to move," she said. "That makes it quite tough, especially when you're young. I struggled a lot with that."
Despite the challenges, Smith now feels settled at Arsenal, beginning her second season with the club — a rarity for her after years of relocating.
"When I stepped into the building for my second pre-season it just felt surreal. It feels like home," she said. "I've always wanted to be somewhere for more than a year."
Her ambitions remain unchanged from childhood, when she wrote down goals in a journal — including winning the Ballon d'Or and the World Cup. "That's still the case today," she said. "It is what has driven me this far."
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.