When looking at the San Jose State women's soccer roster, a common denominator that ties the majority of the athletes together is where they come from. The majority hail from California or at least from the West Coast. The lone exception though is the focus of this week's freshman feature, Juliane Laurent. Laurent joined the Spartans all the way from Martinique, Spain, roughly a 16 hour flight from the San Jose Mineta Airport. She brings with her invaluable experience playing for club teams Olympique Lyonnis, RC Lorraine and RC Saint Joseph.
As a member of Olympique Lyonnis, Laurent helped lead the squad to the Rhone Alps Cup and regional championship in 2018 as she scored nine goals to go with seven assists in 28 appearances. In 2017, she played for RC Lorraine where she scored 20 goals in 25 games, and in 2016, she netted 10 goals as a member of RC Saint Joseph. Laurent is planning on majoring in maintenance engineering at SJSU. Learn more about her in our freshman Q&A!
Q: How old were you when you began playing soccer and at what point did you decide you wanted to play it at the collegiate level?
JULIANE: When I was young I was not interested in soccer. I loved piano and handball. My old sister has been passionate about soccer since she is born. I first started watching her play. I started soccer in school with my friends, but I was very bad and then I worked very hard. I started loving soccer in middle school and since then I knew I wanted to become a professional player. I went in France because I was thinking it was the best option for me, but no. I watched the women's World Cup in 2019 and then I knew where I would like to go. There I am a Spartan and I love it.
Q: Who is your favorite soccer player?
JULIANE: My favorite soccer player is Messi, he is so talented. But since a couple years I like Houssem Aouar and Tanguy Ndombele.
Q: What has been your most memorable moment playing soccer?
JULIANE: I don't know. All the travel I did thanks to soccer, the amazing people I met during this travel and all the victories we been through. In 2017, we participated in a tournament and all of the other teams thought that we would never score a goal and won a match. During our first game, I was just thinking about that and I scored two goals and made one assist. We won the game 3-0.
Q:What are some of your favorite hobbies outside of soccer?
JULIANE: I love cooking because I love food. Recently I I reconnected with an old passion - playing piano, so I practice every time I have a minute. I also started writing sad songs. Also driving with my brother.
Q: Who is your all-time favorite musical artist?
JULIANE: I have two favorite artists. The first one is Whitney Houston and the second one is a French rapper, Ninho.
Q: Do you have a pregame hype song?
JULIANE: Yes, I listen to French rap sometimes or sad songs. I don't why sad songs. Maybe because that reminds me my family.
Q: What's the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you? Can be about soccer or life in general.
JULIANE: Most often, I am the person who gives advice, so the best one I ever told me is "to stop learning is to stop living. You have to be very lucky to get directly what you want, but you have to be very strong to get it after all of these failures."
Q: What is the best part about playing the position that you play?
JULIANE: Scoring goals, defending and making assists and crosses for my teammates to score goals.
Q: What is your favorite movie?
JULIANE: I love Disney movies. I would say High School Musical, the trilogy.
Q: Do you have any hidden talents?
JULIANE: No not really I can't sing. That is my talent. Really, really can't sing.
Q: Why did you choose to play soccer and attend school at San Jose State?
JULIANE: Before this year I didn't know about San Jose. When Coach Lauren contacted me for the first time, I did some research and I said to myself "what a beautiful city." The university is beautiful, people are really nice, my teammates are so funny and the most important thing is it's in California. I think like many other French people, California is a dream. The weather is nice, there is the beach near and for the first time I have the possibility to have a woman coach. I think it's important to have good relationships with the staff and everyone in this team are wonderful.
