Concerns can be expected when multiple United States women’s national team players from the NWSL move abroad seeking other opportunities. It happened when Lyon signed Megan Rapinoe in 2013, Alex Morgan in 2017 and Lindsey Horan in 2022 first (on loan and then a full deal). So, too, when 2020 saw Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle join Manchester City, Tobin Heath and Christen Press head to Manchester United and Morgan join Tottenham Hotspur.

This cycle of discourse has returned in the current offseason, following Naomi Girma’s record-breaking move to Chelsea and Jenna Nighswonger’s move to Arsenal.

It’s understandable to worry when a league’s best players leave en masse — but this is not time for the panic button.

In truth, what’s happening now is inevitable given the global growth of women’s soccer. It’s also a sign of growth for the NWSL, albeit more of a growing pain than a celebrated spurt. We’ve entered a new era with more viable opportunities, fostering a landscape that USWNT players are more freely navigating in hopes of remaining at the top of their game. But make no mistake: the NWSL still plays a vital role for domestic players and stars from other nations.

This alarm isn’t just spurred by Girma’s $1.1 million move to Chelsea, the first seven-figure transfer fee in the history of women’s soccer, and isn’t solely about U.S. players.

Last month saw two other notable NWSL players move to the Women’s Super League in England. Kerolin, a 25-year-old Brazil international playmaker, ended a three-year stint with North Carolina Courage to join Manchester City, and Nighswonger — the USWNT’s first-choice left back — exited Gotham FC after two seasons to sign with Arsenal.

Each of these players won year-end honors in 2023: Kerolin won MVP, Girma won a second consecutive defender of the year accolade and Nighswonger earned rookie of the year. All three players are 25 years old or younger.

However, it wouldn’t be accurate to paint this as the WSL overtaking the NWSL as the sport’s preeminent league. The headline funding is all Chelsea’s contribution. Nighswonger left for Arsenal on a $100,000 fee and Kerolin joined City as a free agent. Both moves are understandably lumped in with Girma’s given their timing and the players’ prominence, but the transactions are on very different scales.

Girma’s deal also carried a unique context from most transfers. She is, conservatively, one of the best defenders in the world. She was also on one of the NWSL’s worst-performing teams last year. The team had three coaches in 2024 and missed out on the postseason a year after winning the NWSL Shield. To leave a rebuilding side for one of the world’s best is simply a no-brainer. It also helps that the WSL is on the European calendar, giving it a timing advantage that lines up with major international competitions, including the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.

In the three decades since FIFA finally launched the Women’s World Cup in 1991, the U.S. has been the power in women’s soccer. The USWNT won that first global tournament, then accumulated a record four titles with wins in 1999, 2015 and 2019.

Meanwhile, the NWSL is the latest in a series of attempts to launch a stable professional league on these shores, and it was the one that stuck around. Announced in 2012, the NWSL became the first professional women’s league in the U.S. to surpass the decade mark and the investment in teams continues with the recent $110 million addition of Denver as the league’s 16th team.  Unsurprisingly, it took some design cues from American sports: a salary cap, a rookie draft, trading players and the season’s biggest games coming in the playoffs.

No matter how glossy (or botched) the brand reveals, how clean the kits look and how many camera angles a broadcast incorporates, the most irreplaceable and vital aspect of soccer will always be its players — especially those who have that little bit extra over their peers. Competing against uncapped leagues will always present a challenge for the NWSL.

According to the collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2030, teams must compile squads of 22 to 26 players within the salary cap. The maximum is $3.3 million in 2025 and will rise gradually until it hits $5.1 million in 2030. The minimum player salary for 2025 is $48,500 and will rise to $82,500 by 2030; there is no maximum salary. Although it’s ostensibly possible that a club could pay 25 players identical $132,000 salaries for a balanced squad, it does not work out that way. Star players will command far higher wages, while rookies and lower-usage players earn far closer to the minimum.

The league’s rules also explain why an NWSL team won’t pay the next million-dollar transfer fee. As reported by The Equalizer, the 2025 season has a net team transfer threshold of $550,000. If a team spends more than this amount in player transfers, it must make enough money back on player sales to meet that threshold. If they don’t it will incur a 25 per cent charge toward the salary cap, which hampers them akin to a luxury tax in other sports.

Teams are limited on how much they can pay players due to the need to field a competitive team around their stars. Teams are also limited in their ability to spend transfer fees, even though those totals aren’t representative of the incoming player’s salary. Inevitably, the buying market will look more competitive in less restrictive leagues.

Even if it took far too long for most nations (including this one) to properly support women’s soccer, the sport is still the world’s game. Depending on who you ask, the exponential increase in funding and interest is fueled by either passionate benefactors who want to enhance women’s sports, or shrewd investors who see this as a bubble from which they can profit. In reality, wallets are opening from both camps.

None of this means the NWSL should be in crisis mode. They chose to embrace the constraints with stability in mind. The league has still fostered a tremendously entertaining and competitive league — even when the USWNT’s stars aren’t at the heart of the spotlight.

The 2024 playoff semifinal between the Orlando Pride and Kansas City Current was among the most anticipated club matches in North America in recent memory. Throughout the regular season, the two teams played with ruthless attacking precision and enjoyed racking up results. When they met in July as the last two undefeated sides through more than a dozen games, Orlando danced on KC’s new field after a 2-1 statement win.

This wasn’t a title game, but it felt like one. Each team had one of the year’s MVP candidates. Both had worthy supporting stars and a game model inviting shots on both goals. Both teams felt that this was their year.

The match lived up to the billing. When the whistle blew on this 3-2 contest, the discourse was on the incredible quality on display at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando.

The most encouraging part from a league perspective was that the USWNT was hardly represented in this instant classic. Barbra Banda of Zambia and Brazilian legend Marta led Orlando, while the Current fielded eventual MVP Temwa Chawinga of Malawi.

Although each team had two starters who represented the United States, they weren’t the headliners. Emily Sams (Orlando) earned two caps in 2024 and Hailie Mace (Kansas City) earned one. Orlando defender Haley McCutcheon earned her sole cap in 2018, while KC defender Alana Cook hasn’t been involved much with the U.S. since the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

In hindsight, the matchup didn’t need USWNT stars to generate buzz. The league’s seven postseason linear telecasts drew an average of 562,900 viewers, for an audience of 4.6 million across the playoffs. The final, which saw Orlando beat the Washington Spirit (led, it should be stated, by USWNT star Trinity Rodman), averaged 967,900 viewers in a Saturday prime time slot, an 18% increase over 2023’s audience.

While U.S. Soccer is no longer a managing partner in the league’s operation, the circuit’s vision remains in line with what federation leadership sees as optimal.

“I’ve always felt that it’s not, you know, go(ing) from zero to 1,000,” Emma Hayes told the media in late January. “You have to gradually build and keep putting those foundations in place. We work closely with NWSL to ensure the growth of the game domestically.”

For a national team coach like Hayes, a greater number of top-tier leagues being represented in her squad is only a good thing. NWSL players will still prop up the national team, from stars Rodman, Sophia Wilson (née Smith) and Mallory Swanson to emerging talents on the verge of a breakthrough, including Sams, Hal Hershfelt and Yazmeen Ryan. Having Girma and Horan in the UEFA Champions League also keeps some of the squad’s most important players in competition with fellow world-class players regularly.

Five years ago, there were audacious claims that a B team of backup USWNT players could compete at a World Cup. The global growth of the game makes that assertion not quite a given. It’s only natural that, as other nations ramp up their support of women’s soccer, the world’s best players couldn’t mostly be contained in a single league. With Banda, Chawinga and others choosing to spend their prime years in the NWSL, it’s clear that the American domestic league remains at the heart of the sport’s highest caliber.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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