Referee Natalie Simon is first Black woman to earn FIFA badge | World Sports
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on March 12, 2025
LOS ANGELES — Natalie Simon has spent much of her life on a soccer field, yet in those 32 years she's rarely seen another person who looks like her.
"I haven't had anyone to really identify with," said Simon, who is Black and Native American. "I was always the only Black person on every team I played on. I was always the token Black girl."
It was that way in high school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on travel teams in South Florida and in college at Stetson, a small, largely white private school east . . .
