23-year-old Illinois native, Nina Nicosia started her soccer journey in the typical fashion. When she was only six years old her father signed her up to play soccer hoping his daughter would fall in love with the sport he fell in love with too. This worked for a time but after a few years a then 10-year-old Nina quit soccer. She didn’t enjoy the sport anymore and her dad was not going to force her to do something she didn’t want to do anymore. This was going to be the end of everything, it was supposed
to be the end, but then a phone call and a new pair of cleats changed everything just a few years later.
When Nina first played soccer as a child she played with mostly boys, something that wasn’t a crazy concept at the time. Unfortunately, long ago, there weren’t dedicated soccer clubs just for girls like there are now, so most girls had no choice but to play with boys. Years after Nina first quit soccer, her dad received a phone call from a coach who wanted to form a girls soccer club and wanted Nina to play for them but since she wasn’t playing soccer anymore her dad offered her younger sister instead. All this talk about a new club and equipment and cleats ignited something in Nina she hadn’t felt in years. “I wanted new cleats too!” Nina said in between laughs as she recounted the story. With a new pair of boots in hand the young girl made her way back to the field after years of absence.
Upon her return to the fields she took the sport seriously this time around and fell in love with soccer. From there on out she worked hard everyday and lived and breathed soccer. After years of playing, all her hard work paid off when she was one of 20 young athletes selected to be part of the Generational Adidas Elite Soccer Program. She got the opportunity to travel to France where Olympique Lyon hosted training, matches and activities for a week. “I got to go with my club teammate. It was an exciting time,” the player shared. It was an unforgettable experience for the teenager who got to live the highs of the sport. Unfortunately this was around the same time that she felt the lows of the sport as well when she suffered the dreaded ACL injury that sidelined her for 10 months.
At around age 16 Nina suffered her first major injury as she tore her ACL. The recovery process was going to be a long one physically, but also mentally. Thankfully her father, Gustavo, was her pillar throughout her recovery. He has been the one by her side anytime she dealt with hardships. From challenges in her childhood, to difficult times in her college years and even now with Pachuca. Her father has been there every step of the way to help his daughter through challenging times. As Nina has put it, “[my dad] is everything to me.” Her father enrolled her in soccer at a young age not knowing that, years later, it would lead her to Mexico, specifically to Pachuca.
After college, Nina continued to play in a rec league that eventually got the attention of a recruiter from Pachuca. In reality, that scout was not there for Nina, or even a women’s soccer player. He was there to scout male soccer players but when he saw the youngster play he just knew she had something special and that Pachuca Femenil would be a great fit for her. When approached about the opportunity Nina took it even though she was not too familiar with Liga MX Femenil. The player herself admitted she didn’t follow the league closely stating, “my family didn’t really watch women’s soccer a lot.” Still, she headed down to Pachuca and thankfully she adapted very well to living in a new country. She attributes her smooth transition to her ancestry. On her mother’s side, she has Mexican grandparents and she understands Spanish. While she didn’t speak the language a lot growing up, her Spanish has improved a lot since her arrival. She also mentioned that, “Pachuca is a calm city,” and that has helped her adapt immensely.
When Nina first arrived in Pachuca, the player did not see a lot of time on the field. Almost three years later and she is now one of the most important players on the team. She was also a factor in Pachuca winning their first league trophy and the Campeon de Campeones in 2025. The youngster knew what it meant for the club to claim their first trophy as, “[the team] tried many times to win their first [title],” but were unable to. Pachuca had been in three finals before and lost all of them so there was a lot of pressure to bring home the trophy in their fourth final. After two 90 minute games Nina and Pachuca were crowned champions of the Clausura 2025 and weeks later they also won the Campeon de Campeones title. This game saw Nina score the game winning goal after a defensive mishap from the visitors.
After all her hard work, the club gave her the honor of wearing the #10 jersey for the current 2026 Clausura tournament. Wearing the #10 jersey also brings a lot of weight with it, something that the player agrees with but is “happy to have it.” With this new jersey Nina has had a successful season as she has scored seven goals so far and finds herself in third place for the Golden Boot race, only a few goals behind teammate Charlyn Corral. Nina also understands how important it is for her to share the field with Corral and to have shared the field with Monica Ocampo, two icons in Mexican Women’s Soccer. Even though it was short, she enjoyed the time she shared with Ocampo, who she fondly called “Moni.” While she still has her, barring her retirement, the youngster will continue to learn from Corral who calls the two “a big duo.”
Nina has been playing soccer her whole life and all those years of sacrifice and challenges led her to two trophies with Pachuca. Due to her success with the club it’s hard to imagine she would do anything else but recently she has received some hard hitting questions. When asked what she would be doing if she were in a parallel universe where she wasn’t playing soccer, she couldn’t help but laugh. She said she would be a basketball player, “because I have the height for it, but I wouldn’t be any good.” This answer isn’t surprising because of course an athlete of her level would still want to be an athlete if she couldn’t play her sport anymore. Even though she believes she wouldn’t be good at basketball, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that she would excel because of the mindset that she has. She went through multiple challenges and difficult times throughout her career but she came back stronger because of them. All of that led her to Mexico where she has written history with Pachuca and no doubt she will continue to write more.
