From Russia to Galway via California (Alina Cheatham interview)

Alina Cheatham was born in Konakovo on the Volga in 1994 and adopted at three, with her sister Yana, by John and Mary Cheatham of Georgia, moving to the United States in 1997 and then to California, where she played for Slammers FC and Legends FC and developed as a left-back in the WPSL. After high school soccer at Mater Dei and college soccer at UC Riverside, where she studied international human rights law, she wanted to keep playing and studying in an English-speaking country. An internet search found Galway WFC; the secretary who answered was the brother of Ireland captain Meabh de Burca. She made her debut in a six-nil win at Kilkenny before ligament damage.