In late January, U.S. women’s national team star Trinity Rodman signed a three-year contract to remain with the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. Her new deal was worth over $2 million per year, according to ESPN’s Jeff Kassouf, which made Rodman the highest-paid player in NWSL history.
Rodman held that title for all of two months.
On Monday, Sportico was the first to report that another USWNT star has signed the richest contract in NWSL history. Catarina Macario, 26, is expected to join the San Diego Wave from Chelsea and will earn approximately $8 million fully guaranteed over the next five seasons, per Sportico.
“It is believed to be the largest deal by total value in the history of women’s professional soccer,” Justin Birnbaum, Eben Novy-Williams, and Scott Soshnick reported.
“Prying the 26-year-old striker away from Chelsea as the club chases a Women’s Super League title wasn’t cheap,” they wrote. “The Wave shelled out a roughly $300,000 transfer fee to bring Macario over this month before her contract expires this summer, one of the people said. ESPN first reported that she was in advanced talks with the club in February.”
Macario has 29 caps with the USWNT. She has 16 goals and five assists since debuting in January 2021, but she’s never played club in the U.S.
After winning two national championships at Stanford, Macario went pro rather than play her senior season. She signed with Lyon in January 2021. In June 2022, Macario tore her ACL, which cost her the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. A knee injury also cost her the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the U.S. won gold.
With Lyon, Macario scored 23 goals in 32 games and became the first American to score in a Women’s Champions League final, according to her Chelsea player page. After her two-year contract expired in 2023, she moved to the Women’s Super League and signed with Chelsea.
Last weekend was the NWSL’s 2026 opening weekend. The Wave lost their opener 1-0 to the Houston Dash. Last season, San Diego finished sixth on the NWSL table. The Wave’s season ended at the hands of Portland in the first round of the NWSL Playoffs.
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