A Korean American who was raised in New Jersey, United States, Phair was the first multiracial footballer to ever receive a call-up to the South Korea women's national team.[3][4]
Early life
Phair was born in South Korea to an American father and South Korean mother.[3][5][6] Her family moved to the United States when she was one month old.[6] Formerly residing in Exeter, New Hampshire,[6] she then moved to Warren Township, New Jersey, where she subsequently started playing soccer at the Pingry School, and training at the Players Development Academy (PDA) in New Jersey.[5][7][8]
At the 2023 Women's World Cup, Phair became the youngest player to ever appear in a senior World Cup— men's or women's— at the age of 16 years and 26 days, coming on as a substitute in South Korea's opening game against Colombia on 25 July 2023;[12] the distinction had been previously held by Ifeanyi Chiejine.[13][14] In the process, she also became the youngest footballer to have reportedly won a cap for a women's senior national team, a record that was later broken by Una Rankić in September of the same year.[15] Phair played in all three of South Korea's group stage matches and went on to make her first start in the team's final match against Germany, which ended in a 1–1 draw.[16]
On 26 October 2023, Phair scored her first senior goal, as well as her first hat-trick, in a 10–1 win over Thailand in the second round of the 2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament:[17][18] in the process, at 16 years and 119 days of age, she became the second youngest goalscorer in the history of the South Korean women's senior national team,[17][18] behind only Ji So-yun.[18] She also became the youngest player to ever score a hat-trick for any South Korean national team, in men's or women's football.[18]
