How The Folarin Balogun Saga Could Impact The Uswnt. Plus: Nwsl Free-agency Primer

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I don’t know how to feel about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding, but U.S. players Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Julie Ertz’s attendance did remind me of their post-World Cup appearance on Swift’s 1989 tour. How was this 11 years ago?!

In today’s Full Time:

???? Sophia Wilson free-agency update

???? What it’s like to move teams

???? And yes, Folarin Balogun’s red card (we’ll explain)

But first, let’s talk about NWSL free agency.

NWSL News

Catch up on NWSL free agency

Free agency opened at 12:01 a.m. last Wednesday, when every player with a contract expiring this year became eligible to start negotiating with their current club or other teams for 2027 and beyond. Players and their current teams have until Dec. 31 to decide if they are looking to extend their time together.

Top names include: Gotham’s Rose Lavelle, Orlando Pride’s Marta and the Portland Thorns’ Sophia Wilson. If you are a fan of any of these teams, don’t panic yet. As Thorns GM Jeff Agoos told Meg last week, teams are still working aggressively to retain top talent.

The Pride have the most free agents, with 14 players on the list, followed closely by the Houston Dash (12).

The Washington Spirit (with 10 free agents) have the added challenge of having very publicly used their High Impact Player money on Trinity Rodman’s extension in January, leaving key players like Andi Sullivan, Leicy Santos and Hal Hershfelt to consider their worth against what the Spirit can feasibly offer.
The Thorns have nine players on the list, still toward the league’s higher numbers of free agents, with plenty of work ahead for 2027.

You can find the full list of free agents here. Over to Meg for more of Portland’s efforts to keep Wilson …

The free-agency list isn’t at true blockbuster levels compared to previous editions, but Wilson is the name to watch. The 25-year-old helped Portland win the 2022 NWSL Championship and earned league and championship MVP trophies the same year.

Though she considers Portland home, Wilson now has a potential hometown option in Denver Summit. For the Thorns, retaining Wilson is the top objective. “We’re doing everything we can to put together a package that speaks to the importance of Sophia,” Agoos said, citing an “aggressive” offer on the table already.

The Thorns locked Wilson in with a new contract in 2024, then paid over $1 million for her extension last offseason. That’s why the rest of the league should be watching, especially with changes to salary rules. Wilson and fellow Triple Espresso member Rodman have helped push the ceiling of player value while they leapfrog each other with their respective deals.

Portland wants to be the epicenter of women’s sports. They can help bolster that ambition by keeping their superstar in Providence Park for the long term.

Meg’s Corner: Reverberations of a red card reversal

Before a ball was even kicked, narratives swirled around forward Folarin Balogun’s ability to play for the U.S. men in their World Cup round-of-16 match against Belgium on Monday.

The 25-year-old was available despite receiving a red card in the previous match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prompted, in part, by an intercession from President Donald Trump directly to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the red card reversal could have a ripple effect that reaches the U.S. women, too.

FIFA’s decision immediately sparked backlash regarding the integrity of the game. We’re still in the middle of the saga. It has me wondering if this will prove to be U.S. Soccer’s biggest reputational crisis yet — even bigger than its ill-advised legal approach to the equal pay fight in 2020.

“Ultimately, we aren’t victims, but we aren’t the villains of this story either,” coach Mauricio Pochettino said.

But the latter point might not hold up.

As my colleague Henry Bushnell wrote on Monday, Balogun is now the unwitting face of this controversy, and the team’s hopes of a quarterfinal berth have become a story of “alleged favoritism and American arrogance.”

This has a massive impact on American soccer, including potentially on the reputation of the USWNT, even as total bystanders.

The U.S. women are winners. They get plenty of criticism over scorelines and celebrations; arrogance is an adjective they are familiar with. We can only imagine what the discourse would have been if a phone call had been made over that sliver of space between the ball and the line in the penalty shootout between the USWNT and Sweden in the 2023 World Cup, but what if we get a repeat of June’s red card-laden friendly against Brazil in next summer’s World Cup?

FIFA’s call to rescind Balogun’s suspension has sparked global concern, and for good reason. While the USMNT could end up the villains in the eyes of the world, the USWNT might also end up unexpected victims down the line.

– Meg Linehan

Notables

What it’s really like to move clubs

Player transfers are a part of sports that can feel, well … transactional.

But beyond the numbers and headlines are real people moving across the country and sometimes beyond national borders, uprooting their lives to continue chasing a dream.

Take England international Georgia Stanway’s journey to Arsenal, which took her from Manchester City to becoming the first England woman to play for Bayern Munich before coming to north London. She took a chance in 2022 to test uncharted waters with the German team and helped build a dynasty.

Charlotte Harpur traveled to Munich in May, and spoke to Stanway again during a whirlwind few days last week, for a behind-the-scenes look at how a footballer actually moves clubs, including a great detail about two suitcases packed with baked beans.

I asked Charlotte a few questions to get the behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes:

Charlotte, you’ve covered player moves before — what specifically did you learn in Stanway’s case?

???? Player X moving from club Y to club Z is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many things that have to align; timing and personal relations are key. The aspect that hit me the most was how much Stanway felt wanted by Arsenal and how influential that was in her decision-making.

Once the transfer is done, although a player may feel at home on the pitch, there are still some unexpected surprises, like finding out some of your wages are going to the church or the differences in countries’ medical insurance policies.

???? You can listen to more of Charlotte’s interview with Stanway here. I highly recommend it!

Your story has so many rich details. What was your favorite insight into Stanway’s life?

???? It was when she had just moved from Manchester City to Bayern Munich. She had lugged her suitcases into a tiny lift of a high-rise building, walked into her studio apartment, closed the door, and thought: “Oh, s—! What have I got myself into?”

We have all been there, right? Professional athletes go through similar doubts of major life decisions just like us mere mortals, too.

More news

Manaka Matsukubo’s move from North Carolina Courage to Chelsea on a five-year deal last week was one of the most shocking deals this year — and has gone over relatively quietly, considering the talent the 2025 NWSL Midfielder of the Year possesses. Good signing for the WSL side, though.

Foudys, a women’s soccer retail store selling and customizing jerseys online, opened its first storefront in Manchester, England, this week. The business, hoping to build on the growing demand for women’s soccer shirts, started in a bedroom with a single heat press.

Sparks flew (literally) after Friday night’s Angel City FC home game against the Orlando Pride when a postgame Fourth of July fireworks show malfunctioned. The pitch filled with smoke, and some projectiles flew into the stands. Yikes!

First Looks

Money matters: Amid the drama of this men’s World Cup is an important reminder: Beginning this year, the U.S. men and women will split 80 percent of World Cup prize money, in accordance with the landmark collective bargaining agreement signed in 2022. Just for reaching the round of 16, the men earned $15 million. After U.S. Soccer’s 20 percent, the players and staff of the men’s and women’s teams each split at least $6 million.

Making memories: Brazil might be out of the men’s World Cup after losing to Norway yesterday, but Charlotte tells the tale of the 1994 team that still has an impact on a sleepy California town.

Pinky up: San Diego Wave’s Melanie Barcenas celebrated her goal in a 2-0 win over Gotham FC on Saturday with a tribute to Alex Morgan’s iconic tea-sipping celebration from the 2019 World Cup. Even better, Morgan, now a Wave investor, was there to witness it.

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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