KANSAS CITY, Missouri — One thing is undeniably true about the recent and continued influx of talented young players in the National Women’s Soccer League: they would not be in the league right now without Olivia Moultrie.
Moultrie is 18 years old, but is playing in her fourth NWSL season for the Portland Thorns. Her decision to sue the NWSL in 2021 for her right to sign a contract at 15 was the catalyst for the league’s current youth movement, an era in which most clubs now have full-team players under the age of 18 — with several of them already stars.
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“I guess it is cool now, just the amount of signings that are happening because of that,” Moultrie told ESPN. “Obviously that wasn’t the intent going into it, but of course it’s pretty cool to see the game grow that way because that was the intent the whole time: that [if] you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
“There shouldn’t be some number that’s stopping you from going toward [your goal].”
Moultrie made international headlines in 2019 when, at age 13, she decided to forego her college eligibility — she had committed to the University of North Carolina two years earlier — to turn “professional” by signing a contract with Nike…
