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For the first time in its history, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) commenced a regular season this spring with no draft. A quintessentially American event, defined by hopes and dreams being on public display while teams trade players into the professional leagues without their explicit input, was scrapped by a collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association in August.
In so doing, a league unafraid of reinvention became the first major professional sports league in the United States to forgo the draft. That’s a seismic shift by any measure, and while the move puts the NWSL in line with global football standards the long-term implications will take much longer to assess. After all, the draft was not simply an entertaining way to distribute talent while introducing them to the public on a celebratory stage; it was also a useful means of ensuring parity in a league proud of its competitiveness. In the words of the NWSL’s commissioner, Jessica Berman: “There actually is nothing to point to as a case study of how to make this transition, because there is no league that has gone from a world of a draft and having years of service, to being able to earn free agency and just having that melt away overnight.”
Berman has emphasised that in scrapping the draft, the league was in part motivated to meet global standards in the game surrounding recruitment and free agency in order to attract, or retain, the world’s elite talent. In an interview with The Guardian in August, she noted: “It was really clear that there is a global labour market for talent, and it was also clear that we weren’t operating in ways consistent with global standards around player movement in particular, and player agency.”
Quietly, or so it seems compared to the adrenaline rush and media blitz of a draft night, former collegiate athletes have spread out across the country, signing for clubs by mutual consent as free agents. The breadth of their impact varies by team and player, but notable members of this historic new rookie class have undeniably begun to make their mark. For instance, Duke University alumna Maggie Graham, a 22-year-old raised in Atlanta, collected the year’s first rookie of the month after a blistering debut for Houston Dash. Graham is the first collegiate player to sign for the Dash in the post-draft era and scored back-to-back goals in her first two games in NWSL, becoming only the third rookie to do so.
Angel City FC were undefeated in their first four games of the season, thanks in large part to a squad rife with young talent. That includes the Thompson sisters: 19-year-old Gisele and 20-year-old Alyssa, both of whom signed for ACFC straight out of high school, in addition to 18-year-old Kennedy Fuller, who signed as a 16-year-old through the under-18 entry mechanism, as well as a cadre of collegiate players who turned professional in the post-draft era. One of Angel City’s notable rookies is 22-year-old New Jersey native and Rutgers graduate Riley Tiernan, who has scored three goals for the LA club and is their joint top-corer alongside Alyssa Thompson.
Maddie Dahlien has turned heads with Seattle Reign after signing for Laura Harvey’s squad directly from the University of North Carolina, where the 20-year-old helped the Tar Heels to their 23rd NCAA National Championship in her third season there. Dahlien has made an impact for the United States at youth national team levels and took part in Emma Hayes’ Young Futures Camp in January, with her Seattle contract announced the same day as Hayes’ Futures roster. Dahlien scored her first NWSL goal in style, sealing a 1-0 victory in the Battle of Cascadia against Portland Thorns.
There has also been a handful of exciting defenders in this year’s rookie class, including Portland Thorns and UCLA graduate Jayden Perry, who signed for the three-time champs on 22 January. Speaking about the player, Thorns head coach, Rob Gale, said: “Jayden has been on our radar for some time now as an exciting young, natural left-footed defender at the college level where she was part of a record breaking defence.” That back-line included 21-year-old Boston-born defender Lilly Reale, who signed for Gotham on 3 January after collecting a cabinet full of trophies at UCLA.
We are only six games into a regular 26-game NWSL season and only a few months into NWSL’s first year without the draft. The long-term implications on parity, recruitment structures and much more will take time to come to fruition. For now, the league’s quiet transition into a vastly different era has got off to a solid start, with global standards taking shape and a spate of exciting rookie talent grasping a bold opportunity.
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