On the Road With Trinity Rodman, Who Won’t Travel Without a Stuffed Animal

Photographs: Getty Images, EA; Collage: Gabe Conte

Few people on earth travel as often as professional athletes. With On the Road, the GQ Sports Travel Questionnaire, they’re weighing in on everything from room service to flying comfortably to their favorite chain restaurants.

A brief, non-comprehensive list of places that Trinity Rodman—the youngest player to ever score two goals in a game for the US Women’s National Team—has played soccer include the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, England, and most recently, for the 2023 World Cup, Australia and New Zealand.

It’s been a life of globetrotting for the 21-year-old forward, whose status as an international figure reached new heights recently when she was named a Future Star in the video game EA Sports FC 24. With her global platform only continuing to rise—Rodman is a fairly safe bet to be on the USWNT’s roster at this summer’s Olympics in Paris—we had to ask Rodman about the places she’s been, the ones she’s hoping to check off the list, and gaming with the girls.

Are you a gamer? What is your relationship with video games?

I would say…kind of? Me and my brother [DJ, currently a member of the USC basketball team] grew up playing [EA Sports FC, then known as FIFA] against each other. He’d whoop me every time. I’m not going to claim that I’m good at it. But I’ve definitely become more of a gamer. I travel with my PlayStation! I am kind of a nerd for Fortnite. Occasionally I play 2K with my brother, but that goes horribly, so I try to stay away from that.

Being in a video game has to be a pretty wild experience. Do you remember the first time you saw yourself in video game form?

Yeah, I was actually at my brother’s house and he had played it before I did. He was like, “Dude, we gotta play!” So, we opened it and when I saw it I was like, “Oh my gosh. This is so surreal!” I still can’t really believe it, just because growing up you’d pick your team and pick players that you’ve seen on TV, and now I’m picking myself! I still feel like a kid. My brother laughs about it, because he hates giving me compliments. When we were playing together we were both kind of giggling the whole time.

I think it looks like me! They did a good job with me, to be honest. They did this whole scan, it was definitely a different experience. The graphics are so good. I love the celebrations. I love all the features. It’s sick. In terms of my style of play, I think it’s pretty spot-on too. I was joking with my mom like, Dang, they made me better in the video game than I am in real life! I gotta step my game up!

Do you ever play with your teammates? I’d love to know which soccer player is the best at soccer video games.

Honestly, I’m trying to get the girls to get into the video games, but they’re not about it! I gotta keep working on that. I finally got [USWNT captain] Lindsey Horan to get into video games, I just gotta get her on the EA FC grind I guess.

See, like, it’s so funny. I’m the one who actually plays soccer but my brother is more strategic about it [when gaming]. I like playing with everyone. The cards are so good and all the players are so talented, so I kind of mix it up a lot. I don’t know about other athletes. I’m sure the men’s side is much more strategic about picking their friends, favorite players, everything—on the girl’s side it’s more carefree and fun.

This game is played all over the world, and I’m wondering about the places that soccer has taken you that made you think, “Wow, I truly never thought I’d be here.”

I feel like I’ve been a lot of places. It’s wild. I mean, New Zealand and Australia for the World Cup was crazy and has now become one of my favorite places to go. You feel like you’re in a different universe, but it’s cool. That experience was out of this world.

On top of traveling to different places, it’s crazy to see the fans that will travel for you. That’s another aspect that people don’t really talk about: having fans everywhere you go is the craziest experience. Paris is my favorite place. I went for [the] Ballon d’Or [award show] and that was an amazing experience. Australia and Paris are top for me.

What about places you don’t like?

Utah. That’s a place where I’m kind of like, Hmm, yeah, I don’t know if I’d ever find myself here willingly. For the most part, I find a place everywhere that I enjoy. There’s not a lot of places where I’m like, Whoa, I want to leave.

Where’s somewhere you want to go but haven’t been yet?

This is tough. I want to go to Tulum. I’ve heard really great things. I also want to go to Jamaica. I’ve seen a lot of videos on social media of things to do there. Those are the two places that have been on my list for a hot minute. I also love the snow though! Don’t get me wrong. I can go both ways, for sure. But for vacation, definitely a sunny place.

Do you have a favorite place that you went for non-soccer reasons?

I went on my first real vacation last year for Christmas. I went to Hawaii with my family because my brother had some games out there when he was playing for Washington State. Hawaii, you can’t really beat it. It’s kind of perfect in all aspects. Some of my teammates and I went to Siesta Key in Florida, definitely a more low-key Florida spot, not like Miami where it’s crazy all the time.

We got a little Airbnb right on the beach, super chill, we could walk to a bunch of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops all on this little street. The first thing I look for definitely has to be some type of breakfast spot that’s walkable. I feel like shopping also needs to be nearby. Like, if there’s no shops, what are you going to do? It’s also an excuse to spend money. I have to go shopping! I’m on vacation, obviously.

Are you an explorer? How do you find these places you’re talking about?

I’m not the person who puts their bags down and leaves immediately. I need to lay down and reset. I unpack and organize everything as soon as I get there, putting it in the closet and the drawers. Living out of a suitcase, in general, I have a hard time with. I can’t imagine keeping everything in your suitcase and rifling through it.

When I have free time, my teammates and I will hit every coffee shop and cafe possible, every pastry. We will have tried everything by the time we leave. We do a lot of shopping. Vintage places, malls, and food places for sure. It’s hard, because with soccer you don’t have a lot of time to actually go do activities. Energy-wise, you don’t have that in you sometimes.

Are you able to sleep well on planes? Or were you awake for the entire flight to Australia?

No, it was insane actually. I am a really good sleeper. I pride myself on that. But, I fell asleep at the beginning of the flight and woke up when there was only nine hours left. I was pretty impressed. I would say that I’m pretty good at sleeping on flights.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever autographed?

There’s been some interesting ones, for sure. The ones that boggle my mind are when they have me sign their designer stuff. Designer clothes, shoes, I’m like, Are you sure? You paid a lot of money for this! I think that’s crazy. Then like, some people have pulled up their shirts to have me sign their chest. I’ve definitely had some weird experiences, but it’s all funny.

You mentioned earlier that because of your job, you’ve been able to travel much more than most people your age. Why do you think it’s important for people to get out there and see the world if they can?

I think it just opens your eyes to a lot of things. When you’re in the same place all the time, you know what to expect every single day. I think traveling forces you to go out of your comfort zone. It challenges you in ways that you wouldn’t understand, like having to look for things to do, experiencing different cultures, different people, different vibes in general. For me, I would say that’s definitely helped me become more outgoing and come out of my shell more than I had been.

The more you travel, the more you just go with the flow. In the best way! Before I was very strategic. I need this to happen and it needs to be perfect and scheduled. Now I’m like, wherever soccer takes me—wherever whatever takes me—I’m in for the ride. That’s such an amazing thing, being open-minded wherever you go.

Are you a room service person?

I definitely eat out a lot more. It forces me to leave the hotel. Sometimes I tell myself that I have to go get food and not order room service.

Do you still like hotels?

I honestly used to hate it. I really did! I love being in my own bed and having my own routine. You lose your morning routine [in a hotel]. But I have grown to love hotel beds. When you’re in hotels, you’re so exhausted by the end of the day that you just have the best sleep ever.

The more I’ve done it, the more I’ve started packing with me. My teammates make fun of me because I bring everything. I bring my stuffed animals that I sleep with, I bring a blanket, I bring a noise machine for when I sleep. I bring everything to make it feel as close to home as possible.

Can we get some information on this stuffed animal?

My mom got me this brown teddy bear—damn, now I’m realizing I get made fun of a lot for it!—it has super long and scrawny arms and legs. She got it for me when I had a little surgery when I was younger, but I lost it a couple years ago. She surprised me and found the exact same bear online. I was devastated when I lost it, and we had been looking online for years! When she got it for me I was so happy I cried. The teddy bear never leaves my side. I also travel with my brother’s [stuffed] lion that he’s had for a really long time. Surprisingly, I don’t name them. I should really think about that actually. It’s kind of sad. That’ll be on my to-do list.

Originally Appeared on GQ