Lauren Silver has a beast mentality, high in confidence and an impressive work rate — attributes that make her a perfect asset to a team’s arsenal.

Regardless of talent, Silver is one of those players who is always ready to leave it all on the pitch for her team and continues to make a strong point that she is worth having around.

What she lacks in speed and height, Silver can more than make up for with her high football knowledge and creativity.

The Florida Gators during her time in university, teams in Sweden, FC Metz in France and Glasgow City in Scotland, have all benefited from her vast potential, each team providing a different experience that was integral to her broadening her scope as a player.

Silver, who took a break from professional football in 2017 to spend time with family, returned to the Reggae Girlz set up last year and played an instrumental role in Jamaica’s historic qualification to this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in France.

Upon her return to the team, since last sporting the national colours in 2014, Silver boldly declared to this newspaper that she was “ready to go again to give it my best for the Jamaican team” during the first leg of the qualification phase in Haiti.

And that she did.

The 5ft 2in left-back, who is also a very capable midfielder, may have lacked the swiftness of her attacking-minded teammates, but was passionate about making her mark during the qualifying run and relentlessly worked hard and dreamt big.

“Like what I said back then we have a lot of girls who have the drive, the talent and potential to make this team really successful and it showed during the qualifiers. We all had a role to play in the team and we all did our part in ensuring that we qualified this time around.

“From the organisation of the coaches to the medical staff and us as players, everyone did their best. We were like a big family during the campaign, we kept believing and encouraging each other and at the end, it showed that with belief, hard work, persistence and teamwork anything is possible,” Silver told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

“The opportunity to play for your country is a great opportunity and gaining the international experience is really big, so I am really happy that I came back into a team filled with potential and really great players… I am hopeful that this team can continue to build on this platform and make more historic statements at the World Cup,” she added.

Though scoring one goal — a beautiful left-footed free kick against Cuba — during the campaign, Silver’s exploits didn’t go unnoticed, and like a few of her other teammates, she recently landed a new professional contract with Norwegian Toppserien club SK Trondheims-Ørn.

Her deal with the club, which is one of the most famous women’s team in Norway, came by way of WM Alliance founder Damon Wilson and an elated Silver believes the timing was just perfect.

The 25-year-old American-born player, who traces her island connections through her mom’s father Roy Forrester, the late television weatherman, is armed with technical skills and grit to grow in the sport and her appetite for the big stage is second to none.

With the successful World Cup qualifying campaign adding impetus to her unwavering determination, Silver’s hunger and desire for success have taken new heights.

“I am really pleased to have the opportunity to represent them (Toppserien club SK Trondheims-Ørn), we had our first game tonight, it was just a friendly game and we won 5-0. It’s a really good team, it’s young, but it has some experience and it has a good style of play.

“Playing with this team is great going into the World Cup because it gives me the opportunity to play every day and make sure I am training and staying fit and getting ready for the World Cup which is really important,” Silver told the Observer from Turkey where her team was at the time for the game.

“Being with this team and practising every day ensures that I am soccer fit and keeping my mental toughness high which is all I am really worried about. My focus is on getting better every day and that means improving my agility, balance and coordination, as well as my speed, power, strength and stamina to ensure I am always effective,” she added.

Like many of her Girlz teammates, Silver is happy to put team above self, as she remained modest when asked about her chances of retaining a spot in the final 23 for this summer’s showpiece event scheduled for June 7 to July 7.

“I loved having new players at the last camp, it made the element very competitive and that’s only going to make our team better, because at the end of the day, I want Jamaica to do very well in the World Cup. whether or not I am in the final squad doesn’t matter to me, because it is about the team and I want us to do well,” she declared.

That said, Silver is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with South American outfit Chile in two friendly contests on February 28 and March 3 in Kingston and Montego Bay, respectively, during the second World Cup preparation camp

“I am excited to come into camp and play against Chile; it should be fun with everybody coming back together to play a competitive game outside of club and college and everybody has been training. So we should all come in fit and be competitive against Chile,” Silver ended.