NJ/NY Gotham FC has signed 13-year-old phenom McKenna Whitham to a historic three-year deal, making her the youngest-contracted player in the NWSL.

Whitham’s guaranteed contract, announced on the eve of her 14th birthday, will be effective beginning January 1, 2025, through 2028. The club also announced it has signed Whitham as a national team replacement player, with the teen available for selection at Gotham’s upcoming matches during the Olympic window.

“I am really excited to sign and begin my professional career with Gotham FC,” Whitham said in a club statement. “Gotham FC is a great place for me to continue to push myself as a player. I can’t wait to get to work and to continue to grow as a player with the great players, coaches and staff at Gotham FC.”

Whitham could join the squad as soon as Sunday when Gotham faces the Washington Spirit during the ongoing Summer Cup tournament at Subaru Park in Chester, Penn. Seven of Gotham’s players are in Paris for the Olympics representing the U.S. (Tierna Davidson, Jenna Nighswonger, Emily Sonnett, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Lynn Williams) and Germany (Ann-Katrin Berger).

GO DEEPER

Meet McKenna Whitham, Gotham FC’s 13-year-old trainee

The teen is the first player Gotham has signed using the league’s U18 Entry…

National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side Gotham FC will play Chelsea Women in a friendly at the Red Bull Arena, New Jersey on August 19.

The match pits the holders of the NWSL against the Women’s Super League (WSL) champions Chelsea, who secured their fifth successive title on Saturday with a six-goal victory at Manchester United on Saturday.

It will be a summer of change at Chelsea with USWNT-bound Emma Hayes leaving her position as manager after 12 years in the role. The Athletic has reported that Chelsea have offered a contract to Lyon head coach Sonia Bompastor to replace Hayes.

The friendly announcement follows on from goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger — who has twice finished third in The Best FIFA Goalkeeper award and spent six seasons at Chelsea — joining Gotham from Chelsea earlier this year.

Gotham won their first NWSL title last year but are currently seventh in the 2024 table, with 15 points from their opening nine league matches.

The friendly will be during Gotham’s league campaign and will continue Chelsea’s preparations for the 2024-25 season, with the WSL due to get underway on the weekend of September 21-22.

(Ira L. Black – Corbis/Getty Images)

Lynn Williams scored her 79th goal across all competitions in the NWSL on Sunday against the Chicago Red Stars, making her the new all-time goal-scoring leader. Her tally surpassed Sam Kerr’s record.

In the 57th minute, Gotham’s Jenna Nighswonger sprinted up the left wing and delivered a looping ball across the face of goal. Her teammate Esther González volleyed the ball back toward an open Williams, who smoothly headed it into the back of the net. It was her ninth career-headed goal, according to Opta, and her first since 2021.

Any time Williams touched the ball on Sunday, fans screamed. The Gotham captain almost scored in stoppage time to close the first half, a momentum shift that carried into the rest of the game.

A moment we won’t forget… Take a bow Lynn Williams!

Goal #79 in all competitions, a new league record. pic.twitter.com/IoJX12tOQe

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 19, 2024

Williams equaled Kerr’s record of 78 goals earlier this month, with a score against the Houston Dash in a 1-0 win.

Kerr left the NWSL in 2019 after seven seasons in the league, appearing for the Western New York Flash (2013-2014), Sky Blue FC (2015-2017) and Chicago Red Stars (2018-2019). All-time international goal scoring leader Christine Sinclair rounds out the NWSL…

U.S. women’s national team and Gotham FC defender Kelley O’Hara announced she plans to retire from soccer following the conclusion of the 2024 NWSL season. A stalwart for more than a decade, O’Hara played in four World Cups (winning two in 2015 and 2019) and three Olympics with the national team, as well as adding a WPS championship and two NWSL championships in her professional career.

She announced the decision in a video created for Just Women’s Sports as part of her series Kelley on the Street.

O’Hara has played limited minutes for Gotham FC so far this season and has struggled with ankle and knee injuries. “To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you,” she told Claire Watkins in an interview for JWS.

O’Hara’s first cap for the USWNT came in March 2010, and, while she was named to the 2011 World Cup roster, broke out for the USWNT during the team’s gold medal run in the 2012 London Olympics, playing every minute as an outside back. She previously won the 2009 MAC Hermann Trophy as a forward at Stanford (scoring 26 goals and adding 13 assists), but it was the conversion to outside back that cemented her place on the national team for years.

(Notably, the 2012 Olympics were also the…

Rose Lavelle celebrated her return from injury and her debut for Gotham FC with a stoppage-time equalizer in a 1-1 draw against Racing Louisville on Sunday.

Lavelle has not appeared in a match for club or country since suffering a leg injury while on USWNT duty at the W Gold Cup at the start of this year. She entered Sunday’s match as a 74th-minute substitute for Lynn Williams with the score tied 0-0.

Reilyn Turner had seemingly delivered three points away from home for Louisville with a goal in the fifth of 10 minutes of stoppage time, but Lavelle’s equalizer came not long after, off an assist from Ella Stevens in the 97th of stoppage time.

“I mean, it’s never fun to start the year injured,” Lavelle said after the game. “So that was kind of frustrating but, I think credit to like the team and the staff, they helped much of me get me back out there, made it fun for me, and I think the crowd was great. You never want to fall behind in stoppage, but I think our reaction to that was really great and to get the goal immediately after was it was good.”

Rose to the occasion

Lavelle pulls Gotham level just in time! pic.twitter.com/QLCNNcQIA8

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) April 28, 2024

The goal marks a significant milestone for Lavelle, who will likely…

Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger has joined Gotham FC for an undisclosed transfer fee.

The Germany international, 33, joins the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) side on a one-year deal with the option of a further year.

Berger leaves Chelsea having made 114 appearances for the Women’s Super League (WSL) champions across six years.

“I am incredibly excited to join Gotham FC for this season,” Berger said. “The NWSL is one of the top leagues in the world right now, and I am very excited to compete and be a part of this league.”

Chelsea paid tribute and wished Berger — who has twice finished third in The Best FIFA Goalkeeper award — well in her next move.

A statement said: “Everyone at Chelsea would like to express their sincere gratitude to Ann for her service to the club, and we wish her every success during her time in the United States.”

Thank you, AKB.

After many amazing years at Chelsea, @Berger_Ann has joined Gotham FC on a permanent transfer. pic.twitter.com/NntqzuLUHg

— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) April 19, 2024

Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros is delighted to add such an experienced player to his squad.

“Ann is a very strong and experienced goalkeeper, who is a true professional,” he said.

“She brings international experience…

McKenna Whitham scored against Deportivo Cali in added time at the Women’s Cup in Colombia in February, finding her footing in a sea of defenders and tucking the ball away to send Gotham FC to the finals of the four-day preseason tournament.

The goal was the 13-year-old’s first in a professional environment, and it came after weeks of preseason training with the NWSL defending champions. Whitham, who goes by Mak, was unfazed.

“It’s just been spectacular,” she told The Athletic following her preseason debut. “I’ve always kind of been playing up at a high level, so I’ve just been motivated to be the best and just give 100% effort, and, I mean, just because they’re older, it doesn’t scare me.”

The teen has made a name for herself already, garnering headlines for being the youngest women’s soccer player to sign an NIL deal with Nike. In doing so, she joined a roster filled with well-established college stars, like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, and followed the path forged by Angel City’s Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, who in 2022 became the first high schoolers to sign an NIL deal with the sportswear giant.

GO DEEPER

Sixteen-year-old Pfeiffer becomes NWSL’s youngest scorer

Whitham continued training with Gotham as the team prepared for its 2024 season and, on the eve…

USWNT and NJ/NY Gotham FC forward Midge Purce will undergo surgery for a torn ACL, the player and her club announced Wednesday.

“It’s a reality I’m still struggling with and has left me with not too much to say,” Purce wrote on social media.

The season-ending injury happened during Gotham’s season opener against the Portland Thorns on Sunday. Purce left the game just prior to the end of the first half after repeated blows to her knee.

“I’m heartbroken to no longer be available for my season with Gotham FC or for Olympic selection with the USWNT — know I’m rooting for you both all year long,” Purce said. “Though you may not see it, I’ll be doing everything I can to get back on the field.”

| Midge Purce has suffered a season-ending ACL injury.

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Midge.

— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) March 27, 2024

Purce, who was left off the World Cup roster last year, was a strong hopeful for Emma Hayes’ Olympics squad this summer. She recently helped lead the USWNT to the team’s first CONCACAF W Gold Cup title earlier this month, in the event’s inaugural year in San Diego.

Losing Purce is a major blow for the reigning NWSL champions. The 28-year-old was crowned NWSL Championship MVP last year when Gotham FC secured its first…

The NWSL will spend its break during the 2024 Olympics playing a tournament with teams from Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, the leagues announced today.

The NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup will feature all 14 NWSL clubs and six Liga MX Femenil teams with the highest points earned in the 2023 Apertura and Clausura tournaments.

It will feature a group stage commencing on July 19 with a semifinal round ending the week of Aug. 4. The championship match will take place on the weekend of Oct. 25.

The tournament will feature five groups, with the top four teams in terms of points advancing to the semifinals.

A quick look at the NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup tournament groups and format. pic.twitter.com/TztnU0udEO

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 20, 2024

How does this impact the NWSL schedule?

Analysis by Meg Linehan

We always knew the NWSL was planning a summer tournament to overlap with this summer’s Olympic Games, and while the league deserves credit for tapping crossover appeal with Liga MX Femenil, the Summer Cup definitely feels like the 1.0 version of a standalone summer tournament.

To be fair, this has been in the works before CONCACAF announced its new qualifiers for the first FIFA Club World Cup, but three NWSL teams are about to have to pull double…

Alex Pfeiffer became the youngest goalscorer in NWSL history in a thriller Saturday, finishing the KC Current’s fifth goal in the team’s inaugural match at its new stadium., a dramatic 5-4 win over the Portland Thorns.

Pfeiffer came on as a second-half substitute and pounced on a chested-down layoff at the top of the box in the 68th minute to make the score 5-1 Kansas City.

At 16 years, 3 months and 20 days old, Pfeiffer beats the previous record for youngest goalscorer set by the Thorns’ Olivia Moultrie in 2022 by about five months.

Another bit of history today

Alex Pfeiffer becomes the youngest goalscorer in league history at 16 years, 4 months! pic.twitter.com/XgjQmumn7t

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) March 16, 2024

“It’s huge for any player in her generation,” Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the game. “She’s proved that it’s possible, we proved that all together that it’s possible.”

Portland made things very interesting in the closing stages, scoring three unanswered to make things 5-4, but KC was able to hold on.

Who is Alex Pfeiffer?

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Pfeiffer became the fourth-youngest player to sign in the NWSL when she joined the Current last year, inking her deal at 15 years and 338 days old.

She came to…