Trinity Rodman, the US national team forward, has signed a new three-year contract to stay with Washington Spirit and will reportedly be the world’s highest-paid women’s player.
The record deal, announced on Thursday, ends months of uncertainty around the 23-year-old’s future. Her previous contract – a $1.1m, four-year deal – expired in December and she was understood to have received lucrative offers from Europe, which the Spirit were unable to initially match under the NWSL’s salary cap rules.
Her new deal, which runs through the 2028 season, comes after the NWSL created a new “High Impact Player Rule” that permits clubs to spend up to $1m above the salary cap if the player in question meets any one of a specific list of criteria that demonstrates their star credentials, such as being named in the top 40 of the Guardian’s Top 100 women’s footballers for the past two years or finishing in the top 30 in the Ballon d’Or for the past two years.
There was a clear perception across the NWSL that Rodman staying with the league was crucial, following the high-profile departures of several of the league’s biggest names over the past 12 months, including Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson’s moves to Chelsea and – earlier this month – Sam Coffey’s headline-grabbing transfer to Manchester City.
“All of us are profoundly grateful that she has chosen to stay with us, despite some compelling alternatives,” Spirit owner Michele Kang said at a press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, before later adding: “I’m just very happy to tell you, I did deliver, didn’t I?”
Rodman, an Olympic gold medalist with the US in 2024, wore a jacket and tie as she signed her contract on stage along Kang. She has spent her entire professional career with the Spirit since the club selected her in the 2021 NWSL draft, winning a championship that season and reaching the final two more times.
“It feels amazing. I’m very happy, I’m very blessed. I think it’s a monumental and gamechanging moment,” the California-born forward said. “Everyone is going to have their opinions on it – but I’ve never really cared.
“Going into the off-season [someone asked me], ‘Do you feel like you’re finished with Spirit?’ and I didn’t even need half a second to answer, I was like, ‘no’. There’s so much more that I have to give.”
Kang did not want to be drawn on exactly how the deal had been reached. The club’s president of soccer operations, Haley Carter, when probed on whether the “High Impact Player Rule” had been deployed for the deal, appeared to confirm that was the case, with Carter mentioning “the need to think creatively about the solutions that enable the NWSL to attract and retain world-class talent” before adding: “The key takeaway is the willingness of the board of governors to think of creative ways to retain that talent.”
In December, the NWSL blocked an offer made by the Spirit that would have averaged over $1m annually, saying the deal violated league rules because of its backloaded structure.
The NWSL Players Association filed a grievance on Rodman’s behalf over the contract refusal. The union later filed a separate grievance over the “High Impact Player Rule,” accusing the league of breaching the collective bargaining agreement. “We can honestly say that there have been a lot of sleepless nights in December and January,” Carter said on Thursday.
Carter also praised Rodman’s talents on the field, adding: “She can really create something out of nothing in the attacking third. She knows when she wants to take defenders on, she’s just an elite force.”
Rodman has 47 caps for her country and has scored 11 international goals, as well as providing nine assists, since her first senior cap in 2022.
