As Legends Retire, NWSL's Rising Stars Prepare for a Changing of the Guard

With the retirements of Alex Morgan and other household names, the league is ready for the next generation of players to take the mantle and usher in a new era.

All eyes are on Sophia Smith to become the league's next superstar. / Craig Mitchelldyer-Imagn Images

It was a cool spring day in Overland Park, Kan., on April 13, 2013. Almost 7,000 fans filled Shawnee Mission High School Stadium for the first-ever National Women’s Soccer League matchup between FC Kansas City and the visiting Portland Thorns, and Canadian midfielder Desiree Scott made sure to take it all in. 

“I just remember looking around with excitement because that was also my first pro experience,” Scott says. “Everyone [from both teams] was just smiling at each other out on the pitch, ready to go. We’re friends, but we’re ready to battle it out.”

The game would end in a 1–1 draw with the Thorns’ equalizer coming from fellow Canadian Christine Sinclair. Both players would go on to have illustrious careers for both club and country, and 12 years later, announced their retirement from professional soccer this year. 

From high school stadiums and baseball pitches to fighting for equality off the pitch and the league’s first-ever collective bargaining agreement, the players that fought for change and helped grow the sport have become household names. 

Scott and Sinclair joined with Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara, Sinead Farrelly and Merritt Mathias in deciding to hang up their boots this season, and last season the league said goodbye to Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe. 

Morgan hung up her cleats this year. / Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

Since Scott’s first game in April 2013, the 37-year-old has gone from playing at a high school to playing in the first stadium purpose-built for a professional women’s sports team, from changing in her car after practice to training at a top-class facility. “You recognize the journey and how far the game has come and how people are falling in love with it,” Scott says. 

Through all the highs and lows Scott never lost the love for the game and for her unique journey in helping to lead this league to where it is today. But now that Scott and her fellow legends are moving on, it's up to a younger crop of stars to determine the next iteration of the NWSL.

A new slate of stars

The 2024 season undoubtedly felt like a momentum shift in the league as household names leave behind their legacy in the capable hands of the current and rising stars. One young player has already begun her ascent in the NWSL having won the 2022 NWSL championship with the Thorns and the finals MVP award in just her second year in the league: Portland striker Sophia Smith. 

This summer, the 24-year-old added an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. women’s national team to her trophy cabinet, which has only just begun to fill with hardware. Smith credits much of her early success with getting to play and train alongside the legends of the game such as her former Thorns’ teammate Sinclair. 

“Sinc is who she is for a reason, and I’m just so lucky that I’ve gotten to learn from her every single day,” Smith says. “I think back to when I first joined the team and how surreal it was that I was in the same locker room as someone that I’ve grown up looking up to—one of the best to ever do it. I never really lost that feeling.”

Smith was 12 years old when the NWSL was founded and grew up watching the likes of Sinclair and Morgan scoring goals in an ever-growing domestic league. It was this set of now-retiring players that allowed Smith to grow up with the feeling that she could have a future as a professional soccer player. 

“I was so lucky to grow up with the NWSL as a dream for me to play in, and I think that Alex [Morgan] and a lot of the players who are retiring this year didn’t have that opportunity to look forward to—they had to fight their way to have a league,” Smith says. “I can only imagine the work, patience, dedication, and everything that they had to put into building this league for players like me.”

For San Diego Wave defender Naomi Girma, who had the opportunity to play with Morgan since getting drafted in 2022, she gained a front row seat to a player who not only helped transform the game on the field, but demonstrated how to use her platform to advocate for change off of it. 

The 2022 Golden Boot winner showed Girma how to set a high standard in the NWSL and continued to raise the bar, lessons that the 24-year-old Girma took to heart and helped motivate the team to a 2023 NWSL Shield.

“[Alex] was a huge part of us winning the shield in our second year, and as a person, as a captain, she did so much for the group to make sure that everyone was always taken care of and seen,” Girma says. “For myself as a player, getting to train with her every day was so huge, just to see what it takes to be great.”

Twelve years down, forever to go

Girma (right) is at the heart of a new generation of USWNT stars. / Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

From training with the Wave to USWNT camps, Girma has learned not just from Morgan, but from all the legends of the game who have helped build and sustain the ecosystem of professional women’s soccer in the United States. As Girma puts it, it is now up to her generation to do the same thing, continue to build on the work of the last 12 years in the NWSL and keep the momentum going—the ultimate show of respect and gratitude for what the legends have done for the game. 

“It’s hard to put into words how much they’ve done, but just being such incredible players and having that quality in the league has been amazing to make this one of the most competitive leagues in the world, and a big part of it was how much they fought of the future of this league with the CBA,” Girma says.

“There’s just a lot that this generation of players did to ensure that women’s soccer would keep moving forward and they don’t even get to see the full benefits of, but they stuck their necks out and fought for what is right.”

Aware of her status as a high-profile player in the league, Smith does not take for granted her stature or responsibility to continue the legacy that her retiring peers have left behind. The NWSL is flourishing, breaking attendance records and seeing unprecedented levels of investment, and although Smith is deep in the trenches of her own playing career, she understands the importance of every single player in the league to endeavor to leave the league better than they found it.

“The cool thing about this sport, this league, is that it’s a collective,” Smith says. “Everyone plays such an important role regardless of name or position, if you play or don’t play. Everyone plays a part in making this league what it is, so I think it’s up to all of us to continue to push for what we deserve, fight for the things that we don’t have and should have, and I’m definitely feeling that responsibility for sure.”

In a league full of stars, Smith knows that with the support of the players around her, especially those who are more experienced than her, she can continue to learn and grow both as a player and as an advocate for the league’s continued success, collectively using their platforms to do so. 

The NWSL certainly seems to be breaking containment and becoming a worldwide league, attracting top talent to the field and viewers to the screens. 

“This league is so competitive it’s hard to name [all the stars],” Scott says. “It’s not just one team with star players, they are full rosters of stars both locally from the U.S. and Canada, and so many international players hitting the scene like Temwa Chawinga here and Barbra Banda in Orlando. 

“... Obviously, there is a new era. Legends of the game are retiring, names you’ve grown to know over the last decade are leaving, and it opens the doors. Hopefully we’ve paved the way, inspired along the way and helped grow the game to let these new talents shine.”