Last spring, Indi Cowie performed her freestyle soccer routine for 76,000 fans during halftime at a Chelsea-Manchester United match in Manchester. But standing backstage at the Green Hope High talent show in Cary, N.C., she was nervous. She may have won freestyle competitions in Rome and shot Sony Playstation commercials in Prague, but she’s not exactly the popular girl in high school. They even spelled her name wrong in the event program. But this 16-year-old nobody does things that no other girl on the planet can do.

Just before intermission, Cowie took the stage and began juggling a ball with her feet until suddenly she popped it in the air, swished her right foot around the ball twice, kicked it up again, then rotated her left foot around once without letting the ball touch the floor. She bent her right foot back behind her body and caught the ball on the sole of her shoe. “I could feel the excitement building in the auditorium,” she recalled. “I could hear the oohs and the aahs. I could sense the shock.”

For her finale, Cowie lay on her back and juggled the ball over her head with her feet. As they applauded, Green Hope students turned to their friends with the same question: Who is she?

Indi Armstrong Cowie learned to walk chasing a soccer ball. At 10 she played on a coed team and once scored all seven goals in a 7-6 win. By that time, Cowie could juggle the ball 2,000 times without stopping.