Angel City Signs USWNT's Christen Press as Its First Player

Christen Press will head home to Los Angeles to join Angel City FC as the expansion team's first player after a year with Manchester United.

In a landmark day for NWSL expansion franchise Angel City FC, the club has made U.S. women's national team star Christen Press the first signing in team history. The move, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, was confirmed by NWSL upon the completion of a trade between Angel City and Racing Louisville FC, which had held Press's rights. 

The news comes just hours after the hiring of current NJ/NY Gotham FC head coach Freya Coombe as the club's first coach ahead of its debut season in the spring of 2022. 

Press is a two-time World Cup winner with the USWNT and is ninth on the all-time goal-scoring list with 64 goals in 155 appearances. After spending the last year at Manchester United, where she scored four goals in 14 appearances, and earning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Press will now head home to Los Angeles as the expansion club's star attraction, and she'll do so in lucrative fashion. According to the Times, her deal with Angel City is for two seasons and an option for a third. In total, the value of the deal could be about $550,000, which is substantial in NWSL terms.

"The dream of being a pro player in L.A. was always elusive for me,” Press told the Times. "Every team that I’ve played for has always been like 'you know, when L.A. gets a team, we promise we’ll send you there.' And it always felt everyone's been able to say that because no one knew when it was happening.

"For it to really be happening, to be able to bring professional soccer back to Los Angeles and to be a part of that team, is nothing but a dream come true. A dream that didn’t even feel possible for the majority of my career."

Press, who is the all-time leading scorer in Stanford soccer history, last played in the NWSL with Utah Royals FC, which folded in December. In a season-and-a-half in Utah, Press scored 10 goals in 25 appearances before leaving for Manchester United last September. 

The 32-year-old forward's NWSL rights belong to Racing Louisville after the club selected Press in the 2020 NWSL expansion draft. However, Louisville will send Press's rights to Angel City in exchange for a 2022 first-round draft pick, $75,000 in allocation money and a guarantee of full roster protection in December's expansion draft, according to the league's announcement. 

Los Angeles has been without a women’s team since the WPS's Los Angeles Sol folded in 2010, but Angel City will take the field in 2022 with plenty of fanfare. The team is backed by a star-studded list of investors and founders that includes Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Serena Williams, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, Billie Jean King, Candace Parker and Lindsey Vonn, among others.