FC Kansas City adds Gibbons prior to season

Earlier this week, FC Kansas City announced the signing of first round draft pick Christina Gibbons ahead of Sunday’s season and home opener. Gibbons was a Duke Blue Devil in college where she started 87 of 88 matches. The North Carolina native has also had a number of call-ups to the youth National Teams prior to joining FC Kansas City.

Gibbons will be a likely starter on the backline for the Blues. Head coach Vlatko Andonovski has been clearly happy with his choice of Gibbons so far.

“It seems like she glides when she’s on the field,” Andonovski stated. “She makes things look so smooth it is just enjoyable to watch her play. She reads the game well and already plays like a veteran.”

“I would say she is another Becky Sauerbrunn on the backline,” Andonovski added with a smile.

If Gibbons can draw comparisons to Sauerbrunn coming right out of college, that would be enough to make any coach smile.

Gibby, Just Gibby…

For Gibbons, the transition from college to professional began quickly. “It’s been different; I try to fill my time with other things now. I can go to the grocery store and walk around for an hour now, just kidding. It is really nice to be able to focus 100% on soccer now as a profession. It’s a lot of recovery and making sure I am eating right so it’s nice to be able to have the time to do that off the field work now.”

As with all players, she has a nickname on the field to make it easy to communicate but that has become her preferred name.

Her nickname is Gibby. “Yes I love it. I go by that, I would prefer to go by that for everything.”

While she would prefer to just go by Gibby, she does get a variety on the field. “People do call me all variations of Gibby. Gibb, Gibbs, Gibbo, Giblet but I just like Gibby.”

“Just Gibby.”

“Shortening it on the field makes sense,” Gibbons continued. “But off the field, just Gibby. It is weird now when people call me Christina. Except for my parents, that’s reserved for my family.”

Gibby’s parents do call her Christina except for what sounds like one awkward moment. “Mom called me Gibby once and I just looked at her. Yeah that was weird.”

Sounds like mom better stick with Christina and everyone else with Gibby.