From the NWSL’s recent announcement of the High Impact Player rule to the Player Association’s response (spoiler alert: they’re not happy about it), Sophia Wilson’s return to Portland and more, host Kathleen Gier breaks down all things women’s soccer this week.
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She also spotlights the latest Soccer Monday column from Annie Peterson, which recaps the past year in women’s soccer.
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The NWSL officially announced their High Impact Player Rule, which means “each club may exceed the league salary cap by up to $1 million for high impact players.”
“What this is going to look is somewhat like the mechanism that teams are allowed to use on the MLS side,” Gier says. “With that number set to grow based on the base rate of the salary cap each year…It’s going to be kind of interesting to see how people manage that. Obviously, that’s probably going to go into a lot of future negotiations as they look toward free agency at the end of next season, and potentially a lot of extensions would be kind of my main thought, as well as trying to kind of lure players over, potentially from other leagues, as we kind of see that battle playing out for a couple of the high impact players, like Trinity [Rodman].”
Greer then runs through the league’s criteria in order to be considered a high impact player, which has been met with opposition from the NWSL Players Association.
“The NWSL Players Association opposes the league’s decision to move forward without bargaining over the high impact player rule under federal labor law,” Gier reads from the official statement issued earlier this week. “Changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining, not a matter of unilateral discretion. Fair Pay is realized through fair and collectively bargained compensation systems, not arbitrary classifications. A league that truly believes in the value of its players would not be afraid to bargain over it. The NWSL PA has put forward a clear, lawful alternative raising the team salary cap to compete in a global labor market. Additionally, we have proposed that through collective bargaining, we work together to create a system for projecting revenue sharing numbers in future years, so that teams and players can negotiate multi year deals with certainty, the union remains ready and willing to engage in good faith bargaining. The league’s unilateral action leaves the NWSL no choice but to take action to enforce the rights of the players we represent.”
Moving on to the topic of Sophia Wilson, the Thorns just announced that she has exercised her 2026, player option and will return to Portland. “She’s a fan favorite also, and I think it’s so important to see a team like Portland really investing in that given just their history in the league – they have the name, they have the tradition they have so many players that are just established in that fan base, and I am not really surprised that they were the first to really take advantage of this,” Gier says. “She is such a perfect player to do it for.”
To round out the episode, Gier then spotlights Annie Peterson’s latest piece, which goes month by month and recaps the biggest storylines, both positive and negative, throughout the season. From the inspiring photo of Savy King in her hospital room after her medical scare to the US Women’s National Team successes and much more, it’s the perfect look back to end the year.
Lastly, Gier discusses which players to watch in the US Women’s National Team, which we’ll be sure to breakdown even further once the roster is officially announced.
