Trinity Rodman has re-signed with the Washington Spirit, ending a months-long saga that led the NWSL to regulate its wage cap guidelines with a purpose to retain one in all its greatest stars.
Monetary particulars of the three-year contract weren’t launched, however ESPN stories that the deal is value greater than $2 million yearly, together with bonuses, making Rodman the highest-paid athlete in NWSL historical past.
In a information launch, the Spirit described the deal as “one of the crucial vital contracts within the NWSL and the ladies’s recreation worldwide.”
“I feel I’ve at all times had a imaginative and prescient and an concept of what I needed my legacy to be,” Rodman mentioned at an occasion saying her new deal Thursday at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. “And for me, we’re doing that and I’m so grateful for that.”
Rodman is presently coaching with the U.S. Ladies’s Soccer Group in Carson. At age 18, she was chosen No. 2 total by Washington within the 2021 draft. Rodman went on to win the league’s rookie of the yr award and report the game-winning help in further time through the NWSL championship recreation that season.
In 2024 and 2025, Rodman helped the Spirit return to the championship recreation.
“Getting drafted right here and creating and maturing and studying — and failing — on the Spirit, in D.C., it’s develop into a lot of my legacy and my story,” Rodman mentioned. “However on high of that, I nonetheless really feel like there’s a lot extra I’ve to present and a lot extra that I wish to do.”
Rodman’s preliminary contract with Washington expired on Dec. 31, making her a free agent. A gold medal winner for the USA on the 2024 Paris Olympics, Rodman was rumored to be getting curiosity from European groups that don’t have the identical wage restrictions.
“I can’t consider the Washington Spirit with out her,” Spirit proprietor Michele Kang mentioned at Thursday’s occasion in L.A. “And I hope she will be able to’t take into consideration her profession with out the Washington Spirit. So that is actually monumental and it was actually necessary, not just for the Spirit, particularly for our followers who anticipate to see her. They arrive to Audi Discipline and that’s the place Rowdy Audi clearly got here out.”
Lakers legend Magic Johnson, a minority stakeholder within the Spirit, referred to as Rodman’s re-signing a “large win for your complete Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League!”
“Michele and the Spirit management spoke concerning the imaginative and prescient for the franchise, creating sustainable success, implementing innovation and being a normal bearer for ladies’s sports activities,” Johnson wrote on X following Thursday’s occasion. “Protecting Trinity as a Spirit participant was a giant step to fulfilling that imaginative and prescient. I wish to congratulate your complete Spirit group for getting the deal performed! I do know our unbelievable fan base is as excited as I’m.”
Rodman and the Spirit had beforehand reached an settlement on a four-year, multimillion-dollar contract in early December. That deal was rejected by the NWSL as being towards the spirit of the league’s wage cap, which is about at $3.5 million for every group for the 2026 season and can rise annually till hitting $5.1 million in 2030.
The NWSL Gamers Assn. filed a grievance towards the league for nixing the contract settlement, alleging that the transfer violated the collective bargaining settlement.
Weeks later, the league adopted a “Excessive Influence Participant” rule permitting groups to spend as much as $1 million over the wage cap for star gamers that meet sure standards. The union additionally has filed a grievance over that rule, claiming that the league isn’t allowed to “unilaterally create a brand new pay construction.”
Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter says the “Excessive Influence Participant” rule figured into Rodman’s new contract and that neither NWSLPA grievance would alter the deal.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
