Esther González’s controversial move to Saudi Arabian side Al Qadsiah following her departure from Gotham FC has raised plenty of questions around the Spanish international.
The 33-year-old Spanish striker has been an ever-present force in women’s football, playing for several Spanish clubs before finally landing at Atlético Madrid in 2013. During her time there, six seasons to be exact, she established herself as one of the league’s most dangerous forwards, won three consecutive Spanish league titles from 2016/17 to 2018/19, and even took home the Copa de la Reina. Her subsequent move to Real Madrid in 2021 only allowed her to establish her career further; upon leaving in 2023 she had scored 39 goals in 77 appearances across all competitions and was their all-time leading scorer. On an international front, her debut for Spain came ten years ago in 2016. Since that first outing she has scored 38 goals for La Roja, and been part of several key tournaments, including the 2023 Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s Euro 2025. It would be somewhat of an understatement to label her one of the most prolific Spanish strikers of her generation.
Her move to Gotham FC in the NWSL came following the triumph of the 2023 World Cup. Late in the 2023 season, after her arrival, she scored the winning goal in the NWSL Championship final, leading ‘The Bats’ to their inaugural championship. That winning goal made the finest of first impressions, with plenty more still to come from González. In 2024 she went on to lead Gotham’s goalscoring charts, then in 2025 she scored 13 goals, finished second in the Golden Boot race and achieved status amongst the NWSL Best XI. She became the all-time leading goalscorer for yet another club in the process. It came as no surprise that Gotham desired to tie her down to a contract extension, which they did in May 2025, keeping her at the club until the end of the 2027 season.
“Above all, it’s about how I’ve felt during these two and a half years with Gotham FC.”
“Continuing to be happy both on and off the field is really important. To keep enjoying myself and representing Gotham’s colors, which I truly identify with, is something really incredible.” – Esther González on signing a contract extension with Gotham FC.
A sudden Gotham departure
So Esther González rightly received her contract extension and continued to play for a club where she felt valued and was playing great football; surely this was a win-win for both parties. Yet, on 27 July, just over one month ago, Gotham suddenly announced that they and Esther had agreed to terminate her contract, despite her deal running until the end of the 2027 season.
Framed differently to your usual departure, Gotham were considerate with the wording used in the statement they released. Speaking on the matter, they said Esther was:
“Temporarily stepping away from soccer to attend to personal matters in Spain.”
Gotham president Yael Averbuch West wished Esther and her family well as they returned to Spain, and the situation seemed pretty conclusive. No one would question it at the time; personal matters came before football and that was that.
Less than a month later, completely out of the blue, Esther was announced by Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah FC as a new signing. Now the termination of her contract at Gotham FC was no longer as straightforward as one had first anticipated; reports suggested Gotham themselves hadn’t expected González to sign for another club so soon.
The obvious question now is whether Gotham agreed to release Esther for compassionate reasons, believing she was temporarily stepping away from football, only for her to then become a free agent and sign a new deal elsewhere.
Despite the reports, there’s still a large deal of unknown. It’s easy to assume she wasn’t completely honest about her intentions when she departed Gotham, but we simply don’t have enough evidence to state that with conviction.
Why Saudi Arabia?
If women’s football has taught us anything, it’s that age is essentially just a number, just ask Marta and Kim Little. Yet as players get older, particularly in the women’s game, there is naturally more thought about what comes after football. Esther González is 33, and although she is clearly still capable of making an impact at the highest level, the reality is that decisions at this stage of her career may also be made with life after football in mind. If Al Qadsiah FC and a career in Saudi Arabia comes with a significant contract towards the latter stages of her career, the financial incentive is obvious. The Saudi Women’s Premier League is attracting increasingly high-profile international players, with The Guardian suggesting it is reasonable to assume she will be earning considerably more than she was in the NWSL. Female footballers don’t retire with the same generational wealth as the most male players, so the opportunity to earn significantly more at this stage of her career is difficult to ignore.
The controversy beyond football
Away from football, Esther González has publicly been in a relationship with Estefanía Cruz, and the couple recently welcomed a child together. It’s impossible to talk about her move to Saudi Arabia without acknowledging that. Same-sex relationships are criminalised in the country and LGBTQ+ people have very few protections. Unsurprisingly, that has become a huge part of the discussion around her move.
The controversy didn’t stop there, however.
Multiple outlets have reported that photographs prominently showing her partner and their child ‘disappeared’ or were archived from Esther’s Instagram around the time of the transfer. Nobody has yet established why she removed them, which has naturally led to even more speculation. Some have linked it to recent reports of foreigners being detained in Saudi Arabia over historic social media posts, meaning there could be a genuine safety concern around what she leaves publicly visible online. González may simply be trying to protect herself and her family while living under Saudi law. Equally, given the wider controversy surrounding the move, it’s understandable why some have interpreted it as her hiding part of her identity in exchange for the financial benefits of playing in Saudi Arabia.
Women’s football has long had a strong LGBTQ+ presence, both among players and supporters. In 2024, 135 professional women’s players signed an open letter calling on FIFA to end its sponsorship agreement with Saudi Aramco, citing Saudi Arabia’s record on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights among their concerns. Among those who signed were Maitane López and Sinead Farrelly, both former Gotham teammates of Esther.
The bigger Saudi picture
Women’s football has become one part of Saudi Arabia’s wider ‘Vision 2030’ project, with significant investment going into the domestic game as the country looks to grow participation, develop its sporting industry and improve its international profile. Saudi women have historically faced huge restrictions when it comes to participating in sport, so investment in the domestic game will create a plethora of opportunities for women to play, coach and work within football. Naturally, the criticism stems from the idea that women’s football is being used to project an image of social progress internationally, while significant restrictions on women and LGBTQ+ people remain. Having a Spanish World Cup winner, who is herself part of a same-sex family, joining the league can easily be presented as another sign of that progress. As this situation shows, though, the reality is far more complicated.
As the situation continues to unfold, journalists, fans and the wider women’s football community are left with a million questions, growing frustration and very few concrete answers. When did Al Qadsiah first approach Esther? What exactly did she tell Gotham when requesting the termination of her contract? And why did she remove or archive the photographs of her family?
Esther González’s move to Saudi Arabia deserves scrutiny, particularly given the circumstances of her Gotham departure and the wider concerns surrounding LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
But without the full story, scrutiny is fair. Conclusions are much harder to justify.
