Leslie Osborne's day job is a midfielder for the Boston Breakers of Women's Professional Soccer. (Boston Breakers photo)

Boston Breakers co-captain Leslie Osborne is one of the top midfielders in the nation, yet she still can’t decide whether she has more high heels or cleats kicking around in her closet.

Osborne, who signed with the Breakers as a free agent last October, takes runways and photo shoots by storm when she’s not dominating the pitch at Harvard Stadium.

Osborne's other passion is modeling, which she does frequently in Boston and beyond.

“I think it’s just a really cool thing for people out there to know what female athletes can be like off the field,” Osborne said. “It’s a different viewpoint now what female athletes can be. They can be nice and fashionable off the field, and on the field and they can still go out and be great soccer players.”

The Wisconsin native and Santa Clara alumna comes to Boston off her captainship with FC Gold Pride in 2009, and now leads Boston’s chapter of Women’s Professional Soccer alongside soccer legend Kristine Lilly.

Although Osborne admits her “California girl” style of vibrant colors and long dresses sometimes clashes with Boston’s neutral-colored fashion domain, she is still considered a trendsetter in the locker room.

“[My teammates] just think I’m funny because I come to the locker room and I’m wearing my Puma skirt and a tank top,” Osborne said with a laugh. “They can get funny because a lot of them don’t care much about how they look or what they wear, and they’re always like, ‘Oh, Leslie, you can pull that off but we can’t,’ and it’s like, ‘No, you guys can.’ It’s totally about how you feel in it, and that way it looks how you feel.

“I think they do give me a hard time when they have my Puma poster hanging up, but I think it’s pretty cool because I think that they appreciate it.”

Osborne has been a Puma spokesperson for five years now, and has appeared on numerous runways around the country and across the globe. On her own time, she says she’s usually quick at getting ready — it’s the pre-fashion show preparation that she says she’s getting used to.

“I like it, but I’m always like, ‘Really? I have to show up four hours early? Wait, what?’ ” Osborne said. “I helped at a fashion show about two months ago here so I think I understand now how the logistics of a fashion show are so detail-oriented, and now I understand the process of the hair, and then the makeup, and then you’re trying on outfits and then you’re like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to change accessories,’ and then the shoes. It’s a long process but I love it. I think it’s so cool.”

Between all the athletic outfits and formal wear she’s modeled, Osborne says she feels most like a professional in formal attire on top of towering high heels. There was one, long, skinny, nude-colored dress in particular, modeling for Andre Kim in South Korea, that Osborne said she’ll never forget.

“He had two dresses for me, and the first one was awesome. It was this black one with yellow flowers and it was really beautiful, but it weighed a ton. It was really heavy, but it was really pretty,” Osborne said. “Then, he shows me his second dress, it was terrible. … It had this angel on it and then he made me wear nude stockings and nude shoes. In South Korea, it’s different there, so that might be fashionable for them, but it was terrible. You know when you walk down, you want to feel good—I did not feel good.”

Osborne never takes herself too seriously when it comes to fashion shows, though. And her modeling behavior has no bearing on her aggression in games; photographers and fashion show hosts have learned that the hard way.

“Last week I did a photo shoot for Puma and this Project Pink we’re doing, a charity for breast cancer, and since I had surgery on my infection, that big cut on my leg, they have to not shine down on my leg,” Osborne said.

“I have a photo shoot in San Francisco next week and they’re going to have to airbrush me, because during the season I’m sliding around a lot and I’ve got a lot of turf burns and rug burns, and so it kind of stinks because I want to wear short dresses and I’m like, I don’t think it’s worth it, because people are like, ‘Huh?’ You show them and they’re like, ‘Uh, what is this girl doing?’ ”

The 5-foot-7 soccer model, who makes regular catwalk appearances at the Liberty Hotel, knows how to have fun on the runway without thinking too much of her sports injuries. She recalled an awkward encounter at the popular hotel and bar when some fashion show attendees recently called her out on her soccer wounds.

“I was wearing a skirt and a shirt and I had rug burns on my knees from sliding on the turf,” Osborne said. “The makeup artist tried to put things on them to try to hide them, so I was like, ‘OK, no big deal, you can’t see them.’ ”

When Osborne stood up on the Liberty’s podiums to show off her fashion ensemble, though, it wasn’t long before the people below her picked up on her scrapes.

“The first podium I go to, these three guys go — I heard them, because I’m standing there pretending to be giving my modeling face — they go, ‘Aw, man, look! She’s got rug burn!’ and I just started laughing,” Osborne said. “It was just so fitting and funny and I just wanted to be like, ‘No! They’re not, they’re turf burns! I’m a soccer player!’ but I couldn’t.”

It’s that down-to-earth, serious soccer identity that makes Osborne such a force — and a leader — on the Breakers.

VIDEO: Listen to Leslie Osborne talk about her experiences with the Breakers.

After a slow start to their season, the ladies in royal blue, under the helm of former U.S. national team coach Tony DiCicco, moved into third place after their draw with the second-place Philadelphia Independence on Sunday.

“I think that we never gave up on each other, and our coach never game up on us, and we never gave up on us, and we all knew how good we were,” Osborne said. “We just kept saying, as corny as it sounds, after every loss, and every tie, ‘It’s going to come.’ After you lose three times in a row, the last thing you want to hear is, ‘It’s going to come.’ … I think the fans have a lot to do with it, I think playing at Harvard is really special, and I think that the main part to why we’re doing well now is we stuck together this whole time. We never doubted.”

To get to this point, the 27-year-old Osborne has had dozens of ups and downs in her soccer career.  Though Osborne named winning the NCAA Division 1 championship as a Santa Clara freshman and playing for the 2007 U.S. World Cup team as her most treasured soccer accomplishments, she’s been through plenty of hardships to get where she is today.

She was one of the final cuts for the 2004 Olympic team and missed out on the 2008 games due to an ACL tear three days after she made the U.S. squad.

Osborne has recovered from everything from ACL surgery to multiple reconstructive ankle surgeries, and most recently, surgery for a leg infection, to get back to leading the Breakers to their current hot streak — a 6-1-1 record in their last eight games.

“I’ve always just tried to stay positive,” said Osborne, whose team hosts Sky Blue FC on Sunday in the final regular-season game at Harvard this season. “I feel like in the career I’ve had, just going through ups and downs and my struggles and stuff, that the only way to kind of go on in your life is just stay positive, and I just try to bring that in any situation that I have and I just hope that it spreads through the team.”

After missing a month this season recovering from her severe leg infection, Osborne said she never takes her time on the field for granted.

“My coach always says, ‘OK, not 100 percent, no slide tackling!’ but I tackle every day. I still go out and play 100 percent every day, so I don’t know, it’s something in me,” Osborne said. “It’s in my personality, and just my mentality everyday to go out and give everything I have, and it’s funny because I don’t know how to not be like that.”

Plus, she values the privilege of playing soccer at the professional level, and to act as a role model for soccer fans that remind her of herself, when she was growing up playing the game.

“If you were to ask me if this were my dream, I would probably say I didn’t know that this could be my dream when I was younger,” Osborne said.  “But I am so lucky that I am playing for something that I love to do. … It’s just amazing how many great people I’ve met and I’m playing something that I’m so passionate about.

“That’s why I hope this league, WPS, survives and does really well because I know I was a little girl in Wisconsin. I know if I were to have met a role model that were a professional athlete, it could change my life. I met Julie Foudy, who’s an amazing soccer player, when I was 14 years old in Wisconsin. She told me at a soccer camp that one day I would play for the U.S. national team. Now she changed my world, and if I could meet girls here and if my team could meet girls and just change the way that they think, then I can do that. I want to do that.”

Every time Osborne comes off the field at Harvard to participate in the Breakers’ postgame autograph sessions, she and her teammates all seem to have that same awe-inspiring effect on hundreds of little girls with those very aspirations.

It’s tough to tell, though, how many of them could fathom a life split between professional soccer and a modeling career.

LESLIE OSBORNE Q&A

On watching other professional sports teams in Boston:

Yeah, I’ve been to all the games, so, Celtics, and Bruins, and Red Sox and Revolution games, I go to all the time. I haven’t gone to the Blazers or the Cannons, I haven’t been to one of their games so I need to do that, that’s on my to-do list.

On professional athletes she’s met here:

We do a lot of stuff with the Revolution guys, so I think that Taylor Twellman’s a good guy and a good spokesperson, and Shalrie Joseph for the Revolution, they are just cool athletes and good athletes that do a good job of being good role models for all these kids out here. I’m impressed by them and I think that they’ve been here in Boston for seven, eight years and they’ve built such great relationships with people in this community and stuff. That’s exciting.

We’ve met some guys on the Patriots and the Red Sox doing events and stuff with them, so it’s been really surprising how great these guys seem to be, and I think it’s so awesome. No wonder there’s such great fans here in Boston. I think there’s a lot of good role models here in Boston that play on the teams, so it’s been fun. We had a couple of Patriots guys come to one of our games a couple weeks ago and the Revolution guys come, so it’s just cool that we can all support each other, and just to have those athletes support us — that goes a long way to see somebody like that at our games.

We hope that that happens more often where we can be part of these events with these guys. They have daughters, some of them have families, so how cool it is for their kids to come and meet role models like us. I hope that can happen more often.

On her former sports loyalties from growing up in Wisconsin and living in California:

It’s hard. I think I’m more of a Brett Favre fan than a Packers fan, so ever since he left it’s kind of like, “Oh, I just kind of love Brett Favre.” I don’t know if I was a Lakers fan. I went to the games because I had access to going to the games and I love basketball. Basketball’s been a big part of my life for a long time.

I love watching Kobe Bryant play, but I wasn’t completely sold on being a diehard Lakers fan. I think it’s really funny now that I’m in Boston, and now I’m part of the Celtics because that was such a rival, but I love the Celtics now. I love going to the games and now I’m like, “OK, well, I’m going to be a Celtics fan now.” I feel more connected here to this city than I was in LA. There’s just so much going on in the big city. I really like the environment that Boston fans have here at the Celtics game. I think it’s so cool, so I know I’m going to be a Celtics fan because I love Ray Allen, too, especially since he played for the Bucks a long time ago.

On how she fits in with Boston’s sports-crazed fans:

I think I fit in pretty good, because I’m loud and cheering and squealing and stuff, so I like to cheer a lot and I like to get into games, and I think it’s so cool. All the Red Sox games I go to I’m just amazed at how many people come to these games and how every game, no matter who you play, what day of the week, what time, you’re always going to have a great time because the fans just make that environment so cool, and I’m just so impressed by that.

I went to a Bruins game, our owner here gave, me, Alex [Scott] and Kelly [Smith] these great tickets, my first Bruins game here, and we’re close to the glass, we’re just sitting in a section and this guy looks up at me and goes, “Are you guys from the other team?” and we’re like, “No, why?” and apparently our owner had given us his good friend’s tickets, but he was there for the opposing team. He looked at us for the whole game and thought we were on the opposing team but we were like, “No, no, no!” The English girls don’t even know how to play hockey so they kept asking me the rules, so it was hilarious, but it was cool. What a great environment at the Bruins game, it was just awesome.

Any sports game we go to, and even with the Revolution, way out in Foxboro, how many fans come to these games? I’m really impressed with the support all of our teams have and even for our team. We weren’t doing well, and we had people coming to our games, regardless of whether we were winning or losing, and I think that goes a long way and I hope that we continue to be successful and our fans can see the reward of this team. So it’s been good. I really like it here.

On the atmosphere at Harvard Stadium:

The Brazilians that come and do [the drumming for the Breakers every game], that’s awesome, that goes a long way, having the Brazilians on our team, that’s just awesome. And then we have this fan group called the Riptide and they support us every game, they drive down to D.C. and Philly and up to New York.

We have our fans that come every single game and they create this environment where other teams don’t want to play. Like [a recent game], Hope Solo’s a goalkeeper on the other team, and was really upset because the fans did such a good job of kind of harassing and yelling that it took her out of her game. I mean, last year when I played here in Boston, I remember that feeling. But it’s cool to have such loyal fans that make the environment the way it is and the atmosphere, and want people to come back. Every person that I’ve met that’s gone to a game, they end up coming back because it’s such a great environment for them or their family or kids.

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