Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champion, will be the first NWSL team to visit the White House for a championship celebration. President Joe Biden will welcome the team on Monday, reuniting most of last season’s squad — including Ali Krieger, who retired at the end of the year.
“This is such a monumental moment for the NWSL,” Krieger told The Athletic. “I’m so excited the NWSL is getting recognition at the White House and that we’re the very first NWSL championship team to celebrate. This is going to be such a great moment for the team and for us as a whole.”
While the White House has previously honored the U.S. women’s national team for winning the World Cup, only one women’s professional soccer team has been honored by the White House with a celebration: Sky Blue FC in 2010 for their 2009 championship win during former President Barack Obama’s first term. While it was in a different professional league — Women’s Professional Soccer, which ran from 2009 to 2011 — the same franchise will earn the same honor 14 years later.
Krieger and Gotham investor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett referenced the team’s worst-to-first storyline and the way Gotham barely made it into the 2023 playoffs, needing the final day of the regular season.
“We’re really thinking of…
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