USWNT star Trinity Rodman's record deal: Why it's a boon for her, but NWSL worries linger

The most complicated sort-of-transfer saga in the NWSL's history of them finally concluded on Thursday: U.S. women's national team forward Trinity Rodman and the Washington Spirit announced they have signed a new deal for Rodman to return to the team.

Rodman and the Spirit agreed to a three-year deal on a salary of more than $1 million annually, making Rodman the highest-paid player in the history of the NWSL and the highest-paid player in the world.

Rodman's return is a huge win not just for the Spirit but for the NWSL, which nearly fumbled the approach enough to let the face of the league walk away despite her clear interest in staying. Over recent months, the NWSL clung to its principles of a salary cap while expediting a new rule to pay star players -- only for that solution to be opposed by the NWSL Players Association. The union has filed two different grievances against the league, and months of arbitration appear to be in everyone's future.

Rodman's future, at least, is settled, which brings closure to a soap opera that the entire world watched in anticipation of a superstar's next move and a league's defining choice.

What does Rodman's return to the Spirit, her only professional team to date, mean for her, for Washington, and for the NWSL? Let's dive in.

Rodman cements herself as the face of the NWSL

The NWSL can fight the narrative all it wants, but the creation of the High Impact Player (HIP) rule was prompted -- and urgently so -- by the need to retain Rodman. The new rule will allow NWSL teams to spend up to $1 million over the salary cap for elite players who meet certain criteria, like Rodman. Just as MLS's Designated Player rule is known colloquially as the "Beckham Rule" after the league orchestrated a new way to sign David Beckham, the High Impact Player rule will go down as the "Rodman Rule" in kind.

As the NWSL scrambled to find a way to keep Rodman in a league-created fiasco, it became increasingly clear that Rodman wanted to stay with the Spirit, which made the NWSL's inability to get out of its own way that much more confounding.

Rodman has made Washington, D.C. her home, and she has become the face of the NWSL, leading the next generation of USWNT stars who move the needle beyond core NWSL fans. The NWSL in recent years has seen some its biggest stars retire or go abroad, but Rodman remains as a player that resonates with casual fans in the wider sports world.

Rodman will now carry on as the NWSL's top star, a premise some might reject as irrelevant to what she delivers on the field, but one which is undeniably part of the sports marketing landscape. She also steps in line, at the age of 23, as a player who picked up where the last generation left off in fighting for their worth and equitable pay by forcing the NWSL to reconsider its salary restrictions.

On the field, the NWSL also suits Rodman. Yes, experiencing soccer abroad can enhance a player's game and expose them to new styles of play that are critical to advancing their games, especially when preparing for a World Cup. Those who came before Rodman, such as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan did exactly that and credited their respective time in Lyon as reasons for their mid-career development. Rodman can still make that leap someday, and she already told ESPN in early 2025 that a move abroad is a matter of when, not if.

Rodman's flashy 1-v-1 play and remarkable nose for goal in clutch moments fits the NWSL's fast-paced, transitional style. She is a dynamic forward who can beat players in the open field and in tight spaces on the wings, and she is a proven goalscorer with a wide range of finishing abilities. A healthy Rodman should be a future MVP and Golden Boot candidate -- a player worthy of having a new roster rule named after her.

And of course, there is a piece of legacy to all this. Rodman's new deal makes her the highest paid player in the league and, more importantly, rewrites the rulebook for the NWSL's future.

This move wouldn't have happened without the ability and desire of Rodman, nor without the willingness to push against the NWSL establishment from her agent Mike Senkowski, Spirit owner Michele Kang, and a Spirit front office that added president of soccer operations Haley Carter in the middle of the process. That they forced the league to change its way of operating will forever be viewed as a turning point in the NWSL, not entirely unlike Olivia Moultrie's legal battle in 2021 to force the NWSL to allow teenagers to play professionally.

Years from now, the fights of Rodman and Moultrie will be taught as case studies in sports law and crisis management classes, and they will be stories of players prevailing against the suppression of their wages and rights.

The right result to the wrong fight for the NWSL

Rodman remaining in the NWSL is a win for the entire league, not just Washington. Sure, opponents won't be rooting for her success, but Rodman's return is a boost to the profile of the entire league, especially given the rate at which Berman and team owners talk about their desire for a massive new media rights deal. Stars drive media value.

This league has long called itself the best in the world, but as one general manager questioned in our anonymous survey last year: what is the league doing to back that up? (That GM voted England's Women's Super League as the best in the world.)

Losing Rodman, a star who wanted to stay, after the recent departures of Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson to Chelsea, and Sam Coffey to Manchester City, would have sent the NWSL's panic into DEFCON status. The league has been losing stars to teams abroad and seemed to have little idea of how to counter -- up until the passage of the Rodman Rule, as it will henceforth be known.

Longer term, Rodman's decision to stay and her fight for her worth is an inflection point for the league. The Rodman Rule could usher in a new era of stars and, at minimum, could make million-dollar salaries a norm. (Imagine saying that when the NWSL launched in 2013 with $6,000 annual minimum salaries.)

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If MLS is an example -- and this new rule looks like the NWSL copied MLS' homework from years back with Beckham -- this is just the starting point to more expansive roster mechanisms to come. The NWSL has chosen this path of controlled spending and regular tinkering rather than abolishing the salary cap entirely.

Using our anonymous GM survey as a snapshot, most sporting executives feel that it is better to raise the cap rather than abolish it. But several sources around the league also called the High Impact Player rule "a Band-Aid." The extra $1 million per team each year will help, those sources argue, but it will need to increase within a year or two to remain competitive.

The top clubs in England, some sources said, don't need to pay that much more than they already pay to remain competitive for top salaries, and those English clubs are not constrained by a salary cap like the NWSL still is. Not to mention the fact that the markets for player salaries and transfers continue to balloon at unpredictable, exponential rates. Just look at how many times the world transfer record has been set in the past year alone. Some sources look at this more optimistically: HIP can be tweaked as the market evolves, they argue.

The NWSL also faced one of its longtime flaws in this fiasco. The league has been too reactionary since it launched over a decade ago: decisions, from salary caps to calendars or basic roster rules, take too long, and deliberations drag out until they must be made up against a pressure-packed deadline. The true world-leading league should be far more proactive than it has been historically or was in this case.

Rodman signed her previous contract four years ago. She signaled to the world nearly a year ago that she was thinking about a move to Europe at some point, and even the most naïve observer could decipher that, at minimum, it was a strong piece of leverage for her impending negotiation. The NWSL thought that Rodman would stay in the NWSL based on what Berman has called a wider "value proposition" of competition and media exposure, but money talks.

Berman said before the NWSL Championship that the league would "fight" for Rodman. From the outside, the NWSL looked like a fighter standing in the corner of the ring trying to dodge contact until the final minutes before the bell went off, hoping for a split decision in their favor. The Spirit, Rodman -- even the NWSLPA -- kept coming for the league.

The worst look for the league came in early December, when the NWSLPA filed its first grievance after Berman vetoed an agreed-upon deal between Washington and Rodman because it violated the "spirit" of the rules. The union has also filed a grievance opposing the HIP rule and arguing the cap should simply be raised by $1 million with no restrictions.

The NWSL has been told by many executives that the salary cap set forth in the CBA is too low, and that it was projected to be too low when the CBA was signed. Most general managers said as much in our recent anonymous survey, as did NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke in recent interviews. The salary cap was set as a floor that was meant to rise through media rights and at the discretion of the owners.

The Spirit can now plan their future

Washington finished second in the league and runners-up in the NWSL Championship each of the past two years -- and both times they did so with Rodman managing injuries in the home stretch of the campaign. She played sparingly in the 2025 playoffs, and the Spirit still flexed their depth and tactical acumen to nearly snag the title, falling to Gotham 1-0 in November's final.

Now, imagine Washington with a healthy and newly motivated Rodman. The "healthy" part is really the key here, and perhaps why some might consider the scale of the Spirit's investment to be a gamble. But injuries happen, and the sprained MCL she sustained in October is more of an unfortunate occupational hazard that all players face.

Rodman returned from the summer break feeling like her chronic back issues were under control, and her strong form (from literally her first minutes on the field in August) supported that claim. She is back with the USWNT in training camp this week for the first time since April.

Now, Rodman is set up for the long-term to deliver another championship to the Spirit after winning a title as a rookie in 2021, and to make Washington even more dangerous in attack. Gift Monday and Rosemonde Kouassi were sensational for Washington in the playoffs. Now imagine adding a full season of a healthy Rodman back to the mix with a full season from Croix Bethune and Sofia Cantore. Add to that the longer-term potential of new acquisition Claudia Martínez, an 18-year-old Paraguayan forward.

You get the picture. This is a team hunting championships and staying power. Rodman is a cornerstone of that quest.

Crucially, retaining Rodman through this rule change means that the Spirit don't have to sacrifice the rest of a talented roster to pay one star. The HIP rule means that as little as 12% of Rodman's salary can hit the salary cap. With that money freed up and Rodman secured, Carter can keep planning for the long term, as she did successfully in Orlando before this.

Sources have previously told ESPN that, no matter what happens to the HIP rule in potential arbitration, the league still has to honor existing contracts. One way or another, there's a bigger pot of money coming for NWSL players.

Away from the field, and focusing beyond just Rodman, the retention of the 23-year-old is an immediate, major win for Carter and her staff, who only started the job officially on Dec. 1. And it reinforces the power and ambitions of Kang, who is one of four members on the NWSL board's executive committee. Both are disruptors who find themselves on the winning side of change. This success is likely just one of many. And, to rule out any doubt, the Spirit have made it clear that their ambitions won't be entirely confined by the NWSL's current structure.