Mosley alum, Flammia achieves goal of playing soccer professionally

PANAMA CITY, Fla. ( WMBB ) — Mosley alum, Madi Flammia always wanted to play soccer professionally and after her journey there took some unexpected turns, she finally accomplished her dream.

Flammia started playing soccer when she was three years old. Growing up, she played with Bay United. Around the start of her high school career, she had to travel outside the Panhandle to grow her game. She played with the Atlanta Fire Club team while she was playing at Mosley.

“As I got a little older, probably around eighth grade or freshman year, It wasn’t as big in the area, so I started playing club soccer in Atlanta for Atlanta Fire,” Flammia said. “I would travel pretty much every single weekend to Atlanta.”

She played four years at Mosley and went on to play at the University of Southern Mississippi.

In her first game as a freshman, she was called into the game, and from there she was a starter for the Golden Eagles.

In her second collegiate game and her first career start, Flammia had her ‘Michael Jordan Moment’ when she played through the stomach bug.

“I faced some adversity early,” Flammia said. “I was like, if I can get through that, I can get through anything.”

That adversity prepared her because her biggest challenge was yet to come.

Towards the end of her senior season, she tore her ACL. Her plan to play professionally out of college quickly changed. She had the opportunity to play in Portugal, but it didn’t work out.

After college, she returned home to continue working towards her goal.

“It didn’t work out at that point in time, so I just continued to train on my own,” Flammia said. “I took a little bit of time off to rest my body. My mom’s always told me this quote from Walt Disney. ‘All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them’. I think it was really important that I continued to have the courage to pursue my dreams.”

Flammia spent a year back in the Panhandle. While training, she started working at Gulf Coast State College and spent time with her family. Over the summer, one of her assistant coaches from Southern Miss asked for her highlight reel because a professional team in Iceland needed a center back.

“It’s not the ride that I expected,” Flammia said. “But I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. I think the most important thing I did was rely on God through this time and really turn to Him on the days when I was like, should I keep going? Should I quit? Just tried to really listen to what his call for my life was.”

Now that she’s on the other side of it, she’s thankful for every step and knows it was all a part of God’s plan.

“I had a little bingo card at the beginning of 2024 and I had all these things on there,” Flammia said. “One of them was to play a professional soccer game this year, and then another was to go to Europe.”

Flammia is playing with IBV, a professional soccer team in Iceland. She joined in the middle of the season and has had to adjust to all the challenges.

“It’s the most difficult soccer challenge I faced yet,” Flammia said. “Obviously the level of play is really high. I think I was prepared for it coming in. I think my training and everything I did at home definitely prepared me for it.”

The season will wrap up in September. She wants to continue playing soccer and traveling the world.

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