OL Reign acquires Alana Cook on loan from PSG for NWSL Challenge Cup

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Jun 16, 2020

OL Reign has signed defender Alana Cook for the NWSL Challenge Cup, bringing her into its camp in Montana on a short-term contract, on loan from Paris St. Germain, whose season was cancelled in April due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Cook starred at Stanford but passed on the 2019 NWSL College Draft to sign with PSG. In two seasons, she played eight league games, all starts. PSG was the runner-up to Lyon, OL Reign's sister club, in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 Division 1 Féminine seasons.

“Alana is a player we’ve been following for many years. We are excited to have join the squad, if only on a short-term basis,” said OL Reign CEO Bill Predmore. “We very much appreciate PSG allowing Alana to join for the tournament in Utah. Alana will add both depth and quality to the squad, which will be critical given the short rest between matches in the preliminary stage of the NWSL Challenge Cup.”

Cook, whose father is English, trained with England last September but made her senior debut for the USA two months later under new head coach Vlatko Andonovski. She previously captained both the U.S. U-17s and U-23s.

The 23-year-old New Jersey product started all 93 games in her four seasons at Stanford. Her Cardinal class went 82-6-5 overall (41-1-2 in Pac-12-play) and won four conference titles and a national title in 2017.