Jeff Kassouf
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- Jeff Kassouf covers girls’s soccer for ESPN, specializing in the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, he based The Equalizer, a girls’s soccer information outlet, and he beforehand gained a Sports Emmy at NBC Sports and Olympics.
United States ahead Trinity Rodman signed a record three-year contract Thursday with the Washington Spirit to stay with the membership by 2028, ending months-long uncertainty over the star’s future.
The deal is value over $2 million yearly, together with bonuses, a number of sources informed ESPN, making her the highest-paid participant in league historical past, and the highest-paid feminine participant on this planet, based on her agent Mike Senkowski of Upper 90 Sports Group.
Barcelona’s three-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí was beforehand reported to be the world’s highest-paid girls’s participant.
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Portland Thorns ahead Sophia Wilson lately grew to become the primary participant within the NWSL with a $1 million annual contract when she exercised her participant possibility for 2026.
Rodman, Spirit proprietor Michele Kang, Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter and CEO Kim Stone made the announcement Thursday at BMO Field in Los Angeles, close to the place Rodman is coaching with the USWNT.
“It feels amazing, I’m very happy, I’m very blessed,” Rodman stated after signing her contract. “I think it’s a monumental and game-changing moment right now. I can’t even describe in words what it feels like. Obviously, everyone’s going to have their different thoughts and opinions about it, but I’ve never really cared. So, that doesn’t change anything for me.
“I’ve all the time had a imaginative and prescient of form of an concept of what I would like my legacy to be and proceed to be. For me, we’re doing that, with assist clearly, and I’m so grateful for that. But yeah, I feel that is simply opening up alternatives for American women with desires, and I’m one and was one in every of them, and so I’m very grateful about that.
“And it’s perfect timing with the World Cup happening in the U.S., too.”
Arguably the NWSL’s greatest star, Rodman’s future has been the supply of public hypothesis for months. She hasn’t had a contract since her earlier deal expired Dec. 31, amid a chaotic collection of occasions for the NWSL that developed in response to Rodman’s future.
“Not only me personally but all of us at the Spirit are profoundly grateful that she has chosen to stay with us for another three years despite some very compelling alternatives she had,” Kang stated on the occasion Thursday.
Sources beforehand informed ESPN that Rodman had presents overseas, particularly in England, that the Spirit couldn’t match beneath the constraints of the NWSL’s wage cap. The wage cap was $3.5 million per staff in 2025.
A league supply stated the cap is predicted to be about $3.7 million in 2026 after income share.
Washington and Rodman had reached a inventive settlement in late November to backload a four-year contract that annualized to over $1 million per 12 months, however commissioner Jessica Berman rejected the deal as a result of it violated the “spirit” of the foundations. The league additionally accused Rodman of preemptive wage cap circumvention.
Trinity Rodman signed a record contract to remain within the NWSL with the Washington Spirit. Erin Chang/ISI Photos/ISI Photos by way of Getty Images
That led the NWSLPA to file a grievance towards the league on Rodman’s behalf. The union referred to as the NWSL’s intervention on a authorized contract supply a “flagrant violation” of the participant’s free company and a violation of at the very least 5 sections of the CBA.
In December, the NWSL’s board of governors permitted the creation of a brand new High Impact Player rule to permit groups to spend as much as $1 million over the wage cap on star gamers who meet sure standards. The rule had been mentioned in some method for months however was, based on sources throughout the league, pushed ahead because of the pressing nature of Rodman’s future.
“Trin’s contract has benefited from the implementation of the HIP rule,” Carter stated.
Losing Rodman to Europe would have been the biggest blow but to the NWSL after the departures of fellow USWNT stars Alyssa Thompson and Naomi Girma to Chelsea final 12 months. The Portland Thorns’ switch of midfielder Sam Coffey to Manchester City was additionally confirmed final week.
“Trinity is an inspiration to young girls across America. She is a player they can relate to, and those young fans matter more than anything to her,” Senkowski stated in a press release Thursday. “The decision to continue to play here represents a very clear vision for the future of women’s soccer. She set a new standard for the sport and will ultimately drive the continued growth and success of the league and its players. I’m so proud of her.”
Rodman started her profession at Washington, and the NWSL, as a 19-year-old out of highschool. She was a prime prospect who had dedicated to Washington State University, however she pivoted to show professional and was drafted second by the Spirit within the 2021 NWSL draft.
Later that 12 months, as a rookie, she helped lead the staff to its first NWSL championship. Rodman scored within the semifinal and assisted on the successful aim in additional time of the ultimate that 12 months.
Soon after the title, she obtained a four-year deal value $1.1 million, making her the league’s highest-paid participant on the time. That deal, which has since been eclipsed a number of instances as essentially the most profitable within the league, expired on the finish of 2025 and left Rodman unattached to a membership, as she was listed by U.S. Soccer in her return to coaching camp with the USWNT this month.
The High Impact Player rule stays in flux. The NWSLPA opposes the league’s proper to create the rule and the premise of criteria-driven qualification. The union filed a grievance towards the league Jan. 14 over the creation of the rule.
Teams are trying to navigate the uncertainty. Expansion staff Denver Summit FC lately signed USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps to a pre-contract for this summer season, and common supervisor Curt Johnson stated that Heaps qualifies by standards and wage to be a HIP participant, however it’s unclear but whether or not she might be.
Either manner, that could be a bookkeeping conundrum for the membership, and her contract with Denver won’t change. The similar could be the case for Rodman and the Spirit.
“The reality is a contract is a contract,” Carter added. “Regardless of the outcome of that grievance, we’ve entered into a legally binding contract with Trinity, and we anticipate fulfilling our obligations under that contract.”
