Angel City FC and Chelsea FC Women have agreed on a deal for 20 year old Los Angeles native Alyssa Thompson. Chelsea signed the USWNT winger on a 5 year contract. In exchange, Angel City received somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 million in transfer fees with possible escalators up to $2 million. Based on reporting, the deal was made right before the Women’s Super League transfer window closed on Thursday. Alyssa was introduced to fans via Instagram before Chelsea’s season opener against Manchester City with her presence expected at Stamford Bridge on Friday.

Rumblings of the trade came out the day after I posted my transfer window thoughts. At that time, I was skeptical. I don’t think there’s an interview out there with either Alyssa, Gisele, or both at the same time where they do not gush about the joys of playing together. Some have wondered whether either sister may be eager to get out from under the “Thompson Sister” umbrella, but every interview up to this point would suggest that the two actually like their brand as sisters. Any tidbits from the Thompson parents also suggest that their family is close knit. The two signed contract extensions through the 2028 season only a couple of weeks after the announcement of Mark Parsons as the new Angel City Sporting Director back in January, and well before hiring Alex Straus as Head Coach in April. In a press release announcing the Thompsons’ extension, Parsons stated:

To me that would suggest that Alyssa’s move is not just results driven. She re-signed at a time where the club was possibly at its lowest. Results could certainly be part of it, but considering the ambiguity around the direction of the club in January, it just feels like that’s probably not the whole story. Is it possible that the changes Angel City has made to its sporting side have come too little too late? Sure. I just don’t think it’s the only thing. 

Regardless, the Thompsons were clearly meant to remain marquee players and centerpieces for the club for the next few years and the club is aware of the positives of having them both at Angel City and in the NWSL. Perhaps to sweeten their long-term deal even more the club recently extended the honorary Thompson sister, Casey Phair, through the same timeline.

All that being said, the news felt like it came out of nowhere. Especially since the WSL transfer window would be closing in a matter of days. However, once Jeff Kassouf with ESPN and Charlotte Harpur and Megan Feringa with The Athletic reported the news, the deal felt pretty much done and dusted. Also yes, Kassouf was sure to mention that Chelsea has been scouting both Alyssa and Gisele for some time.

From a player perspective, it’s understandable why Alyssa would want to go to Chelsea. It’s an exciting move for her. One that potentially may not come around again. New exposures will help her develop and push her out of her comfort zone. It’s also understandable why she would want to stay in the NWSL through the end of her contract. That’s just not what she’s doing.

I’m sure there are many other pros and cons for Thompson that I’ve missed, but these feel like the basics.

Per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NWSL Players Association and the league, players must give their consent to be traded. As the saga surrounding this trade continued, it became quite clear that Alyssa wanted to make this move. Whether Thompson was unhappy at Angel City and asked for a trade at some point, or simply when Chelsea came calling she picked up the phone, she felt ready to make the hop across the pond. So as sad as it is for Angel City fans or nerve-wracking for NWSL fans, we should be supportive of an individual player doing what feels right to them and helps them achieve their goals.

Separately, I wonder what level of involvement Alexis Ohanian, minority shareholding in both Angel City and Chelsea FC Women, has in this move. After joining ownership, Ohanian told ESPN that Chelsea would be “America’s WSL team.” Chelsea is already the home of USWNT stars Catarina Macario and Naomi Girma. What would continue to fuel US audience interest in Chelsea? Signing one of the National Team’s brightest up-and-comers, and maybe shortly afterward, her sister… I digress.

Angel City will be looked at sideways in this whole situation. To be fair, it’s not amazing! However, I think that Thompson’s move poses big questions to the league and they should not ignore them.

For most of this season, there has been conversation swirling around USWNT and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman's next move. She is a free agent at the end of 2025 and has yet to be re-signed by the Spirit. Despite Michelle Kang’s multi-club ambitions, even she acknowledged that Rodman staying in the US is a priority for the club and the league. Thompson’s move may plunge the NWSL into an existential crisis a few months earlier than anticipated.

The NWSL boasts itself as the most competitive women’s soccer league in the world. On any given day, anyone can beat anyone else. Most of the other top-flight women’s soccer leagues are top heavy. More competitive ones among them, including the WSL, have a top four and everyone else, while others like La Liga F are basically Barcelona and everyone else.

Parity in the league is something the league and fans of the NWSL pride themselves on. In 2023, Gotham FC’s storyline was literally “From Worst to First.” Previously perennial underperfors Orlando Pride’s slogan in 2024, where they won both the Shield and Championship, was “Do You See Us Now?” This is achieved, in large part, due to the salary cap. 

For 2025, the cap is $3.3 million, up from $2.75 million in 2024, thanks to the aforementioned CBA. The contract goes through 2030 with yearly increases to the cap through that time period (up to $5.1 million), and opportunity to trigger early renegotiation.

It’s good that the cap is increasing. However, between flashy international names, years of service, and USWNT stars, that $3.3 million for 22-26 players still gets eaten up quickly. Talent distribution is therefore somewhat more even throughout the NWSL because teams cannot load up on stars to the same extent as European clubs. This means that teams that don’t want to spend as much still have some hope to make things happen. Salary caps are not really a thing for European soccer leagues, thus these leagues end up top heavy. Teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Lyon can attract top players of all stripes and can actually afford to pay them more than they could ever hope to be paid in the US.

While the Angel City and the NWSL will try to put a positive spin on this by way of big transfer fee for young, home-grown talent who spent their first years as a professional in the US; I think the reality is that this move is a problem for the league. If European clubs can offer Alyssa Thompson a deal to leave the NWSL with three years left on her contract, it means that pretty much all elite US players are vulnerable to getting poached and paid more somewhere overseas. There is also the layer of those players potentially not wanting to come back to the NWSL until its curtain call on their career due to having to then take a pay cut.

The NWSL needs to look in the mirror and make some decisions. If the salary cap remains, at least, some sort of Designated Player Rule then I’m not sure if they’re serious about becoming truly the best women’s soccer league in the world. Without the freedom to spend, elite USWNT talent will likely go out to other leagues at some point, and the biggest, known international stars will never touch the NWSL. I don’t really buy into the whole “Europe Exodus” hysteria. I also don’t deeply care about the “who has the best domestic league” discourse. Of course there are so many great players flowing both in and out of the league. The WSL doesn’t have Malawian Temwa Chawinga or Zambian Barbra Banda. Italian Sofia Cantore just joined the league after the Euros and has made herself known. It is not to say that the NWSL doesn’t have incredible players, but the ways rosters need to be constructed with a salary cap in mind limits General Managers choices. In the NWSL betting on young stars and scouting lesser known hidden gems who will come to the US relatively cheaply is a big part of the strategy. At the end of the day, players will always have their reasons for wanting or not wanting to go overseas that don’t have anything to do with intra or inter-league discourse. However, I do think the NWSL needs to make some sort of move to remain a competitive option for the very best in the global women’s football market due to how expensive it can be to pick up and retain a star in their prime.

As someone who did not feel connected to following or watching professional sports growing up, I never thought I would feel so sad about a player moving on. A past version of myself would probably be embarrassed by the current me. Alyssa is an exciting young player with a lot of potential. By all accounts, she also seems like a fun and good person. She’s just someone you can get behind and root for in many respects. I was looking forward to watching her star rise in my backyard for a couple more years. So yeah. I’m sad she’s leaving so soon. Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to my wife about how I thought Alyssa and Gisele might be the next high profile, one-club players in the NWSL. I thought that they would only leave on loan. Them being from Los Angeles it seems like they genuinely love the city, and I thought maybe they’d play their whole careers here. Oh, the naiveté!

There is now an Alyssa Thompson-sized hole in the Angel City attack and in our hearts, and perhaps a question mark looming over Gisele Thompson’s future with the club. It is a major loss. However, Riley Tiernan and Sveindís Jónsdóttir stepped up big time during the game against Bay FC while Alyssa was out with an “Excused Absence.” Hopefully Jun Endo can get healthy again which will help keep the playoff push engine running.

These players are professionals. They will continue to compete and progress throughout 2025 with playoffs as the goal. Whether they’ll be successful remains to be seen. However, I think the bigger question is for the future. The Thompson deal gives Angel City X in transfer fees and frees her salary from the books. That on top of the international spots and cap space with Katie Zelem, Alanna Kennedy, and Julie Dufour’s departures opened up, likely departures (i.e. Nabet, Eddy) and possible retirements (i.e. Riley, Press) at the end of the season. Parsons and Straus will have money to play with for 2026.

The Front Office is likely, and should be, disappointed to not have made out with more when players like Olivia Smith and Jacquie Ovalle commanded record-breaking fees of $1.34 million and $1.5 million, respectively, with less time remaining on their contracts. Alyssa was the face of the franchise, for crying out loud. Parsons’ moves prior to this point have been good, in my opinion. It’s still a big fee, but this situation is a tough pill to swallow.

The Front Office can “make this right” by getting back on track and making good signings in the offseason to position the team for strong campaigns in 2026 and beyond. On the morning the news of Alyssa’s departure became official, Angel City also announced that they had extended Gisele through 2029 (obviously, this whole situation begs the question of “really? 2029 for real or…”).

All is not lost, but it’s a tough look for the club and a bump in the road of this multi-year plan. The tiny bit of solace I’m taking right now is that according to Orlando Pride General Manager Haley Carter said that six or so other NWSL clubs were willing to pay the $1.5 million fee for Ovalle. This puts Alyssa’s transfer fee within the realm of possibility for other NWSL clubs. I’m telling myself that means Alyssa didn’t want to just go to literally any club better than Angel City. There had to be other factors (i.e. salary, development, new exposures, etc.).

These past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Only time will tell what the club will do in the aftermath.

All in all, I’m happy and excited for Alyssa. I look forward to watching her tear through WSL defenses and step foot on some of club football’s biggest stages. As a Chelsea fan, this will be fun. As an Angel City fan, the emotional rollercoaster ends for now, but will inevitably pick up again. As an NWSL fan, it will be interesting to see what the league does after losing another one of its stars with possibly more departures on the horizon.

**Images courtesy of Angel City