
Sarah Hagg struggles to recall a day in her life when she wasn’t playing soccer.
From a young age, the former center back for Eastern’s women’s soccer team spent many hours per day playing soccer in the streets of her hometown Horgenzell, a small town of less than 6,000 people in southern Germany.
However, her dream was always to become a professional.
On Jan. 8, Hagg signed a contract with Valencia Femenino, a team that plays in the Primera División Femenina, Spain’s top division for women’s soccer.
When she signed the contract, Hagg became the first former women’s soccer player in Eastern’s history to sign a professional contract with a team playing in a country’s top league.
Hagg’s pro contract didn’t come out of the blue. She had aspirations of going pro the minute she committed to Eastern and made that clear to then assistant coach Dirk Bennett and head coach Jake Plant.
“It’s not super shocking,” Plant said. “That’s not to say that me and Dirk [Bennett] thought she was going to do exactly what she did because it was tremendous, but she’s very mature.”
Until she was 15 years old, Hagg played soccer on an all-boys team in Germany. When she made the decision in 2021 to play college soccer in the United States, her physicality was among the attributes that had caught the attention of Bennett and Plant.
“She had a lot of skills that was going to improve our environment and make our culture much better, as well as the soccer much better,” Plant said.
Recruiting a player from Europe comes with its risks, according to Bennett. Coaches don’t really get to know a player before they must decide whether to offer them a spot on the roster. Bennett stated that he saw Hagg’s competitiveness and coachability when Eastern was recruiting her, and it was present at every game and practice.
“Anytime you recruit someone from overseas like we did with Sarah [Hagg], there’s always a question mark when they show up,” Bennett said. “She was such a pleasant surprise.”
Hagg didn’t take long to make a noticeable impact for the Panthers.
Bennett recalled the first time she got onto the field during an exhibition game against the University of Illinois. Hagg was isolated with then senior forward Makena Silber who was coming off a season where she was named to the All-Big Ten third team.
Hagg excelled in containing Silber who struggled to find space behind Hagg for the whole game.
“She just locked her up all day long,” Bennett said. “We were like, “OK, that’s something special.’”
In her freshman year, Hagg was roommates with midfielder Avery Richardson who went on to become a team captain.
“I think we all looked up to her for her confidence on the field, for herself and for our team,” Richardson said. “To see as a fellow roommate and teammate, it rubbed off in a great way I think with everyone she met.”
Hagg said she felt welcomed by the Eastern coaching staff and players and looks back fondly on the sleepovers and hang outs with her teammates as some of her best memories at Eastern.
“We had an entire group of over half the team that would just be there,” Hagg said. “We would do homework together, get some food, go back, do more homework, listen to music or watch a movie.”
To fulfil her goal of being a professional, Plant and Bennett challenged Hagg to treat herself like a professional instead of as a division one athlete, which entailed bringing a professional work ethic to practice every day, said Bennett.
“She’s probably the first athlete I’ve coached where I’ve seen that work [ethic], that dedication, almost every day at practice without falter,” Bennett said. “That is I think what sets her apart. She has plenty of gifts, but that for me is what tells me she has longevity in this sport if she chooses to continue that path.”
During her sophomore season, Hagg was part of an Eastern team that had the third best goals against average in school history—0.81. After the season, however, Hagg decided to enter the transfer portal and went to Memphis.
Bennett said that he was prepared to deal with Hagg entering the transfer portal when he was recruiting her and said that the way she went about transferring away from Eastern was admirable.
“She did it in the right way,” Bennett said. “She had a very honest conversation and because of the way she went out, we were happy to help her get there.”
It took a semester for Hagg to settle in at Memphis, but she said once the 2023 season began, she began to settle in and enjoy herself.
In that season, Hagg was the only player to be on the field for every minute of every game, recording a career-high 1,980 minutes for the Tigers.
Memphis went on to win the American Athletic Conference championship that year, earning a berth to the NCAA tournament.
In round one, Memphis beat Louisiana State University 2-1 and beat the University of Notre Dame in round two 3-2 before losing in the Sweet Sixteen to the University of Pittsburgh 3-0. Hagg played every minute in the tournament and said that the Tigers’ run in the tournament was her favorite memory at Memphis.
After the 2024 season, Hagg was ready to fulfil her dream of being a professional. She had a few different offers to choose from but chose Valencia.
“Spain has a really attractive style of soccer because they are really technical,” Hagg said.
Hagg has yet to make her Valencia debut but stated that her new career goal is to be selected for the German National team, playing in the Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s European Championships. At club level, she dreams of one day playing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Hagg’s contract runs through June 30, 2026.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.