Trinity Rodman is currently a free agent due to the expiration of her contract with Washington Spirit and is not short of offers from other clubs. However, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are stepping in to keep her talents in the top division of women’s soccer in the United States.
The NWSL operates with a salary cap with a base of $3.3 million for the 2025 season for a roster of 22-26 players. Although there is no maximum that can be spent on individual players, the cap is there to limit total team spending, with adjustments of up to $1 million over the cap for ‘high impact players’ to avoid losing players to clubs overseas.
The conversation surrounding Rodman’s contract has highlighted the potential risks of a salary-cap model that is intended to be built for stability but is falling short on a global scale that is far beyond them. Rodman is at the core of the future of the NWSL and has plenty of offers from clubs within Europe that the league cannot match. This prompted Washington Spirit to make a record-breaking deal with the forward of over $1 million per year. This was later blocked by NWSL as it breached the league rules and posed a ‘structural risk’ to a system that relies on strict cost controls.
It could be said that the future of Rodman will decide if the league has what it takes to retain high value players as well as attract them to compete with clubs abroad. In some cases, there has already been signs that they are lacking on the financial front. With the likes of Alyssa Thompson and Naomi Girma both leaving the NWSL for Women’s Super League champions, Chelsea highlights how vulnerable the NWSL has become.
In the past, the US had its advantages when it came to women’s sports, such as pathways through college scholarships, a route that Arsenal’s Alessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy took. However, European clubs have bridged that gap through world-class facilities and rising wages. As clubs in Europe benefit from large fanbases and Champions League revenue, they are able to offer players contracts based on the players worth without the constraints of a cap, making it attractive to top players.
When speaking to the media, President of Soccer Operations at Washington Spirit Hayley Carter said that:
“Trinity is sort of the impetus for this, but this isn’t just about one player.”
Carter then said that they have lost multiple players for massive transfer fees so the priority is retaining athletes, building a roster that can compete sustainably and attracting elite talent whilst creating an environment where athletes want to be. This would require a fair amount of innovation to come to a solution in which this has also been discussed with the league’s board.
Overall, the future of Trinity Rodman is still to be decided and has raised questions about the current state of the NWSL. As the league is losing players to more appealing clubs overseas, it is imperative that the board comes to a solution so that they can continue to compete on global level before that margin widens and get to a point where European football reaches levels far above them.
