On Thursday, January 30th, the National Women’s Soccer League officially announced Denver as the city of its second expansion franchise for the 2026 season. As previously reported, the expansion fee for Denver is $110 million.
The NWSL’s newest franchise is led by Rob Cohen (corporate bio), the Chairman and CEO of IMA Financial Group (website), who is the club’s controlling owner and its representative on the NWSL Board of Governors. Mellody Hobson (corporate bio), Co-CEO & President of Ariel Investments (website), will serve as the club’s Alternate Governor. Ariel Investments is the parent company of a new investment firm, Project Level (website), which will have an ownership stake in the Denver club.
Additional investors include siblings Jon-Erik Borgen and Kaia Borgen Moritz, plus their spouses; Dhiren Jhaveri and his wife, Neelima Joshi; and Molly Coors.
Denver’s ownership has plans to build its own soccer stadium as well as a dedicated team training facility.
When Denver and its fellow 2026 expansion franchise, Boston, join the NWSL in 2026, the league will have sixteen clubs.
Leading the player notables for Wednesday, January 29th, are the news that 2024 NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga has extended through the 2028 NWSL season with the Kansas City Current and that both Thompson sisters, Alyssa and Gisele, have done the same with Angel City.
Meanwhile, tThe Utah Royals have added another Spanish player: Outside-back Nuria Rábano, who was teammates with Ana Tejada at Real Sociedad.
In other player news, Gotham signed another rookie, UCLA’s Sofia Cook, to a multi-year deal, and the Seattle Reign have extended the loan of Welsh international Lily Woodham to Crystal Palace.
Also, Texas standout Lexi Missimo will not be taking her talents to the NWSL or Europe anytime soon after signing with her hometown club, the Dallas Trinity, of the nascent USL Super League.
Leading the notables from Tuesday, January 28th, is the departure of another player from Gotham FC: Crystal Dunn and the club “have mutually agreed to part ways”. Dunn still had two years left on her now-cancelled contract.
In other player news, the Kansas City Current have re-signed two veteran players who were both free agents after the 2024 NWSL season: Forward Kristen Hamilton and center-back Elizabeth Ball.
Also, Racing Louisville is sending 19-year-old New Zealand international forward Milly Clegg to Canada’s Northern Super League for the 2025 season, where she will play for the Halifax Tides.
Additionally, the Utah Royals confirmed the loan of midfielder Emily Gray to Piteå IF for the 2025 calendar year, which was already announced by the Damallsvenskan club.
The big news of the weekend was the official introduction of Naomi Girma in Chelsea Blue on Sunday, after a trade from the San Diego Wave, which reportedly involves the largest transfer fee in women’s soccer history.
Girma may not be the only United States Women’s National Team player heading to England, as it appears that Jenna Nighswonger will be traded from Gotham to Arsenal.
In other player news, forward Messiah Bright will be playing for her third team in three years after being traded from Angel City to the Houston Dash.
Five additional clubs — Bay FC, the Chicago Stars, the Houston Dash, the North Carolina Courage, and the Portland Thorns — have released their initial preseason roster for the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League season, leaving just Gotham FC as the only team to not officially publish their roster list.
The most curious nugget from those five clubs’ press releases is a note that Chicago Stars and United States Women’s National Team forward Mallory Swanson will not be with the Stars “for the start of training camp” due to unspecified “personal reasons”. Chicago’s roster release also included a quote from Swanson. At this point in time, this situation is just something to note and is only a slightly significant story.
All five clubs have at least one non-roster invitee:
Bay FC has just one unsigned player, forward Catherine Paulson, who signed a short-term contract with the club in October 2024 after previously being a National Team Replacement Player.
The Chicago Stars have seven invitees, including two Jamaican internationals: goalkeeper Sydney Schneider, who was with the Stars in 2024, and Ohio State midfielder Peyton McNamara.
The Houston Dash have five non-roster players, including UVA midfielder Alexis Theoret, who was called into a U-23 USWYNT camp back in February 2023.
The North Carolina Courage have invited six recent collegiate players. Among them is defender Emerson Elgin, who won a 2024 NCAA Division I title with the North Carolina Tar Heels last December.
Of the six non-roster players invited by the Portland Thorns, two are goalkeepers: Morgan Messner, who was with the San Diego Wave during the 2024 NWSL season, and Stanford’s Haley Craig.
Two of those players will be graduating a year early and have officially committed to NCAA teams for the 2025 fall season: Evan O’Steen and Jaiden Rodriguez, who are set to play for Florida State and Southern California, respectively. The 24-player roster for this camp also includes two other players who have reclassified for 2025 with official commits: Midfielder Pearl Cecil and forward Nyanya Touray, who will play for Virginia and Florida State, respectively.
This is the second camp of the current cycle for the U-17 USWYNT. The first camp was held back in September 2024 and did not involve any 2024 U-17 WWC players. From that roster, only nine players return, including just one goalkeeper, Josie “JB” Biehl, plus three defenders, one midfielder, and four forwards. One of the defenders from the previous camp, Pearl Cecil, is listed as a midfielder for this camp.
This U-17 camp, which exclusively has players with 2008 birth years, is being held concurrently with an Under-16 USWYNT camp that primarily features players with 2009 birth years. Both camps get underway on Monday, January 27th, in Mesa, Arizona, and run through Monday, February 3rd. The camps were scheduled to be held outside of San Diego, California, in Chula Vista, but were moved due to wildfires (USYNT x.com post).
The U-17 USWYNT is preparing for the Concacaf qualifiers to the 2025 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which is now an annual event and will be hosted by Morocco. Unlike the previous two-year cycles, the qualifying event will not be a standard tournament. Instead, the USA, which received a bye to the final stage, will be placed in one of three four-team round-robin groups. Only the top team from each group, along with the best second-place team, will qualify for the FIFA U-17 WWC. (2025 Concacaf press release; Concacaf Instagram post) The final stage of Concacaf qualifying is scheduled to be played from Monday, March 31 to April 6, 2025 (2024 Concacaf press release).
On Monday, January 27th, the United States Under-16 Women’s Youth National Team will gather in Mesa, Arizona, for a camp that runs through Monday, February 3rd, and which will be held concurrently with a U-17 USWYNT camp.
Four additional players from U-15 championship squad, including 2024 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year, Maddie DiMaria, are attending their first U-16 camp this cycle. Meanwhile, three members of the U-15 championship squad who attended the previous U-16 camp are not attending this present camp. Among those three is Gotham FC professional Mak Whitham, who has a 2010 birth year.
Five players will apparently be attending their first United States youth national team camp. Two other players have only attended a U-14 Talent ID mini-camp.
All but one player in this camp has a 2009 birth year. The lone exception is midfielder Loradana Paletta, who has a 2011 birth year and was the youngest member of the US U-15 USWYNT at the Concacaf Girls’ U-15 Championship in 2024.
On Friday, Sportico‘s Kurt Badenhausen reported that Houston Dash controlling owner Ted Segal has retained investment bank PJT Partners for the purposes of “assess[ing] potential investment options” for the Houston Dash, including a sale of Segal’s controlling interesting in the Dash. Sportico‘s reporting is based primarily on a memo sent to team employees.
Segal is also the majority owner of the Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo, which, according to the employee memo, is not currently for sale.
The possible investment options include (1) sale of Segal’s controlling interest in the Dash, (2) additional outside investment by adding new equity investors, or (3) no change in the current ownership.
Relocation of Houston’s franchise is not currently an option, according to reports from the NWSL’s recent media day event (Justin Horneker’s Substack).
Leading the player notables is the San Diego Wave’s acquisition of 33-year-old French midfielder Kenza Dali from Aston Villa. Dali joins the Wave via a two-year contract.
Two rookies signs were also announced:
UCLA center-back Jayden Perry was signed by the Portland Thorns for the 2025 season.
The Chicago Stars have signed 17-year-old forward Micayla Johnson through the 2027 NWSL season. Johnson played in the 2024 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup for the United States.
Women's Soccer Express 