2025 NWSL Free Agency Thus Far

Taylor Vincent
Taylor Vincent, Resident NWSL ExpertOctober 31, 2024
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September 1st, the 2025 Free Agency period opened up with chaos as the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NWSL and the NWSL Players Association (NWSLPA) significantly changed the offseason framework—neither the updated competition calendar for the rest of 2024 with window openings/closing nor the new CBA in full have been released. 

Years of service no longer matter when it comes to free agency and with that, there is no more unrestricted free agents versus restricted free agents. If a player’s contract expired in 2024, they were on the 2025 free agency list. With the new CBA, the deadline for clubs to exercise their part in options was pulled in from mid-October to the end of August, and when players could begin talks, negotiations, and even signing with other teams was also pulled in to September. 

Now the NWSL is in Week 9 of 2025 Free Agency being open, and unsurprisingly with the regular season not yet completed, of the 25 signings there has yet to be a player who signed for a new club.

2025 FA Tracker: view here

Of the 25 players now re-signed with their current clubs, contract length has been fairly varied, with a two year contract through 2026 being the most common:

Positionally, the spread of signings is pretty evenly spread across the 25 players, with eight forwards, five midfielders, six defenders, and six goalkeepers.


Where the 25 re-signed 2025 Free Agents have signed 

If you are worried your team might not be very active in the space, it’s also important to keep in mind teams’ 2025 roster status, read more here. 

Alongside the players signed, several players whose 2025 options were exercised ahead of the deadline in order to avoid them entering fray were announced. Additionally, four players have announced their retirement from professional soccer including Alex Morgan, Christine Sinclair, Desiree Scott, and Merritt Mathias.

Starting at the beginning of the 2024 regular season but ahead of the Free Agency deadline, 15 players who were slated to become Free Agents were signed to extensions in order for teams to avoid any potential bidding wars that come with Free Agency. Nine teams were involved in extending contracts of these players with Seattle and Bay leading the charge with three signings, while Houston and Orlando had two, and Portland, North Carolina, Kansas City, Chicago, and Louisville had one. 

As is visible from the chart below, the biggest part of extensions fall in the three year contract bucket:

The original published schedule footprint—which was removed following the announcement of the new CBA—included a December 10th entry for the end of season roster decisions. With 112 players remaining on the 2025 Free Agency list, it’s likely that following whenever that deadline ends up being, at that point there will start to be an uptick in free agents potentially choosing to sign with new teams.

To look back at how 2024 Free Agency went, read more here.


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