Richard Steele

Richard Steele (born March 30, 2004) is a Northern Mariana Islands association footballer who currently plays for the Park–Gilbert Buccaneers and the Northern Mariana Islands national team.

Career Youth As a youth Steele played for MP United for over ten years and won the top scorer award in local leagues multiple times. He was part of the MP United squad that won back-to-back U12 division titles in 2014 and 2015. Through 2016 he also played as a goalkeeper and won the Golden Gloves Award for the U12 division that season. In 2017 he was tied for fourth in scoring in the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association U14 division. That year he also competed with MPU in the Pacific Ocean Cup in Numazu, Japan. In 2019 he won the Golden Boot of the under-15 league with twenty three goals.

Following the 2019 season his family moved to California where he competed with the Pirates of Santa Ynez Valley Union High School.

Early club After one year in California Steele returned to the Northern Mariana Islands and resumed playing with MP United and the national team player pool.

In 2022, Steele joined Eleven Tiger FC. In the club’s first season in the Marianas League, it defeated Tan Holdings 4–2 in the final to win the league title. He scored two goals in the match en route to the upset victory.

College In February 2022, as a senior at Mount Carmel School, Steele committed to play college soccer in the United States for the Wolves of Walla Walla University, a member of the NAIA.

International career Steele was a member of the national under-18 player pool. As part of the same trip, he scored for the national under-20 team in a 4–1 victory against the Guam national under-17 team.

Later in 2022, Steele was named to the under-20 squad again for 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification held in Jordan.

International career statistics