Sophia Smith signed a contract extension that will keep her with the NWSL’s Portland Thorns through the 2025 season. She will hold a contract option for 2026.
Both The Athletic and ESPN confirmed that Smith, whose contract was set to expire after the 2024 season, will be the highest-paid player on an annual basis in the NWSL.
Smith, 23, is in her fifth pro season with the Thorns, who won the 2022 NWSL Championship and the 2021 NWSL Shield. She was named the 2022 NWSL MVP and won the 2023 NWSL Golden Boot as the league’s top scorer.
“I’m feeling really at peace with the decision to stay in Portland. There’s still things that I want to do with this club, and trophies I want to win. With new ownership coming in, I have already felt that this club is going in the right direction and I want to be a part of that.” Smith told reporters in a roundtable before her signing.
The Bhathal family (Lisa Bhathal Merage and RAJ Sports) purchased the Thorns in January for $63 million.
This is GREAT News… More, Please… We Need to PAY MORE.!!!
The American Fan, will PAY, to SEE THE BEST, Look at Messi, Look at Summer “Friendlies”… etc…
This League has about a 2 year Window, before they get Eclipsed by British WSL… Once that Occurs, we will be a Feeder League, just like MLS is to Europe.
NWSL needs to SPEND it NOW, to get ALL the Best Players in the World on to their Teams… Otherwise the BWSL and the draw of Champions League will Suck away all the Talent, like it does on the Men’s Side.
NWSL needs to DRIVE A STAKE thru the Heart of BWSL and WCL or they will be SWAMPED by a Flood of “Transfers” to Europe.
Spend the Money NOW, on Transfers/Salaries, before the Prices get Too High.
I am not Too Sure how much the “Euro” Gals Salaries are… but, Double what they are getting Now. Throw the Transfer Money at the Euro Clubs, These Male Dominated Clubs, NEVER Expected to MAKE Money from the Women’s Side… They WON’T be able to Resist.!!!
On the Down Side… We are Approaching “Tulip Bubble”/Truth Social/Maddoff Situation, NO Way the Money going OUT, is Equaling the MONEY COMING IN.!!!!
And at some Point the “Balloon” is going to Burst and the Pyramid Scheme is going to come Crashing Down. Unless you can Draw enough Butts to the Seats and Clicks to the Tele.!!!
Santi, again it is because we have lousy coaching and player development here. We were ahead in the ball game for years and other countries took years ,culturally, to accept women playing are beginning to pass us by. I blame this directly on lousy coaching and development expertise here, …we should have stayed ahead when we had such a big jump on them at the start…BTW ,check out Lauren James who plays Chelsea/England…..I was impressed with her, then I found out she played with her older brothers all of the time…She moved with the ball that I don’t see women do. As I checked her bio, it came out she played pickup always with her brothers..
Frank, in a different column I mentioned that I had a player in high school soccer that returned to play her senior season but the wonderful dribbling abilities she had as a junior vanished. Unfortunately, instead of playing pickup during the off-season, she began lifting weights and her game diminished. When I saw Lauren James playing for England, she reminded me of my player. Very similar mannerisms with the ball. Subtle and sublime but it needs reinforcement because it can disappear. I wonder what LJ does now. Still pickup? I read or heard that Wayne Rooney would return home after Man U games and play pickup.
Philip, I remembered you saying that…Lifting weights does nothing for ball touch or skills or for your game….Maybe on your throw ins 🙂 :)..I have no idea what it does for you. I remember van Hanegem taking over as coach midway during the season locking up the weight room and saying basically this only makes you look good at the beach…And then he began the more teach the more intricate details of the game that they weren’t doing or being taught by the previous coach.
The few moment I watched LJ play for Chelsea, I could tell right away she has added something extra to the game which she received from outside influences. The way she carries her self with the ball told me that she didn’t get from doing soccer drills for it is something that developed as part of her essense. It told me right off she’s had male influences in her game and it turned out, looking into her backround, she played alot of pickup with her older brothers.
The are things ,subtle aspects which the more technical the viewer is/was as a player himself ,the more you can read those slight nuances about players…For example, a simple walk of a woman( not in heels 🙂 ,the arms ,the body, the stride, pace as whole differs from a guy. And that’s why we laugh when we a football player dressed as a woman try to walk…it’s an instant give away…
I noticed that LJ had quite male traits in how she handled the ball as compared to most of the females playing soccer…The closest to one of our players would be Horan ,who likewise exhibits some male traits in how she handles the ball but we don’t have anyone on the front line like a LJ.
Playing pickup is good for it builds individuality and best done with better players….Going into the weight room AIN’T doing it!!! All you’re doing is to strengthen and tighten the muscles , lets say better quickness, or speed. What Cruyff says, ” no matter how fast or slow you are, what counts is that you’re there ON TIME”, which nothing to do with speed or strength
Meaning, you need to be able to use your BRAIN, the ability to read what will happen a move or two ahead. What good are you muscles if you don’t the SEE the game…. This is why the old farts coming over from Europe still look good here and it certainly has nothing to do with strength and Turbo…just the opposite…
Remember Guardiola proved to the world less physical looking, like a Busquets , Messi, Xavi prove that good soccer has nothing to do with muscles….
The female player of mine that I’ve mentioned played pickup with a group of high school boys who were accomplished players themselves.
There you go…There is no secret and it is very simple and that is you learn to play with better players in pickup situations…The problem is as long as people don’t realize this Pay for Play will run the show, which it shouldn’t..
Play for play ONLY teaches the player to play soccer not develop the player….Teaching soccer and developing players are NOT the same. They are two different aspects of the same coin….If coaches in Pay for Play actually were developing the youth players, they wouldn’t teach the youth how the pros play for they represent the total compilation at the end of their development…
If you’re serious about developing players, you start them out playing man to man on defense and offense…Today the youth are set up in a structure how in the pros play. They teach the youth zonal defensive soccer….This is why pro players SUCK in man to man defense for they lack the individual man to man process…
Learning soccer FIRST begin with the INDIVIDUAL player which is represent as offense and defense not in as a group…Cruyff when he ran the youth development back in the 80’s when we played with sweepers/libero, made sure the defense played man to man and thereby he got rid of the libero…This it teaches the players how to play smart, employ savviness on your own without having someone behind you a libero for backup…First learn to survive on your own
Cruyff didn’t care about winning but developing players and that begins FIRST with the individual…for there is no other way….Zonal is concept applied once you have learned things that makes you survive individually…
Look around ,what youth coaches say that we are to begin to learn to play defense as man to man for I want the players to first become strong individuals than later in the development we introduce other concepts but first is the INDIVIDUAL….And what do you see, all these licensed Bozos , they immidiately follow how the pros play which has nothing to do or related in how players first much develop…
Realize we are teaching kids not developing and that is something the USSF coaching academy doesn’t understand . This is like having Phd’s teaching 2nd grade math and come across as if they’r teaching college students..
Lauren James; is a Flat Out BALLER … She is the one that makes that team Work … Haven’t really seen any Great “Shakes” Tactically or Technically that her Team is doing; from Emma…
Good Talent on the Team, but Very Little to “Write Home” about.
Santi, Yes, you can spend more money ,but where can you find more and better talent, since it seems the product itself our WNT for example gets beaten playing 15year old boys…We have reached a certain ceiling of player development in women. The only way to find better women talent is to hope they grow up playing with older soccer playing brothers….If you find a better than average woman player then you will find a woman who as a girl played lots of pickup soccer with boys….
There is a limited pool of women players with pickup soccer background. In other words you can’t compare the men’s situation with the women when it comes to spending big ‘bucks’. Where do you find great players even older ones who can influence a game with their technical ability and tactical acumen other than in the men side ,not women….
There are so few women players in the world player pool to spend money on. But then again , who knows, for it seems sofar women soccer can get away with playing low quality soccer and still draw crowds ,for the average women soccer fan does not look or is even aware of what is good or bad soccer….I don’t know how long this will last until the average women soccer fan show more discernible intelligence for the game.
Santi, the club owners took a big hit when USSF stopped subsidizing salaries for USWNT players. Now the owners have to foot the entire bill for their star (US) players if they want to keep them. I have no clue how this has impacted NWSL, but clearly the change encouraged USWNT players to go overseas.
Bob, what was the USSF doing in subsiding salaries for the USWNT players? Did they ever do this for the men?
Bob, Seems like The Money is Splashing around NOW.!!!
What you think of the “Buy or Die” Theory.???
And The “Tulip Bubble” Theory.???
Team America… Look it Up
Frank, What you think about my “Tulip Bubble” Theory… Your Dutch, you should get it.!?!?!?