Sam Coffey’s transfer from the Portland Thorns to Manchester City marks a tipping point: more than half of the USWNT’s starting lineup that secured the 2024 Olympic gold medal now play their professional soccer in Europe. If free agent Trinity Rodman signs abroad, too, that’ll leave only four players from that lineup on NWSL rosters to start the domestic season.
The distribution of where USWNT players compete has dramatically shifted under Emma Hayes. So many star players have headed to European Goliaths, including Hayes’s former club Chelsea, that last year she had to assure the NWSL board of governors she isn’t pushing her athletes to leave the league, per a report from ESPN. Hayes insists she simply supports her players’ aspirations, whatever they may be. Today, out of the seven players with the most USWNT minutes in 2025, only two of them – Emily Sonnett and Claire Hutton – are playing stateside.
