Celebrating women’s soccer in 2025, and previewing 2026. Plus: Most-clicked in Full Time this year

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Full Time Newsletter ⚽| This is The Athletic’s weekly women’s soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive Full Time directly in your inbox.

Everyone, of course, watched women’s sports in 2025. Relive the top moments as chosen by The Athletic’s staff.

In today’s Full Time:

🥂 Celebrating 2025

🌀 The latest on the “Rodman Rule”

⌨️ Most-clicked stories of the year

Let’s begin with the celebrations …

Looking Back, and Forward

What a year!

2025 was a season of growth for women’s soccer at The Athletic.

We welcomed Asli Pelit and Tamerra Griffin to the team in March and expanded our coverage globally under one metaphorical roof with the continued reporting of Charlotte Harpur, Megan Feringa and more in Europe. Our weekly coverage from the “Full Time” podcasts increased, led by our masterful producer Theo Lloyd-Hughes (nothing would get done without him!) and Jillian Sakovits, who hosted on the feed alongside Tamerra and Meg.

Oh, and we welcomed TWO new babies, as both Meg and Asli became first-time moms!

When I stepped into the role of head of global women’s soccer in January, I imagined the progress we would make this year. Reflecting now, I’m overjoyed with the result and looking forward to sharing more soon. Before we take a look at the biggest stories of the year, here are a few of the ones I personally read over and over again:

Meg was first to report both Tobin Heath and Christen Press’ retirements, with heartfelt profiles. Press shed her “villain” label while Heath came to terms with the painful reality of ending her playing days.

On a happier note, I really enjoyed reading about Sophia Wilson’s decision to stay with the Portland Thorns after the birth of her daughter.

This profile from Tamerra on NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman is one of those pieces that will be used as a benchmark for whatever happens next with the league. The access to the NWSL’s top decision-maker was unprecedented.

For this piece on the often-overlooked medical challenges of losing your period as an elite athlete, Megan spent the better part of this year reporting the story out.

We’ve all seen the pink headband holding back Alex Morgan’s slick ponytail, but this is the story of how it launched her business empire.

🎙️ Watch or listen to “Full Time” with Meg and Tamerra for the full recap of the biggest moments of 2025.

What to watch for in 2026

The year ended on a bit of a cliffhanger as Trinity Rodman’s contract drama continued and the league pushed for more spending — but with a catch (more on that in a second). There’s plenty to look forward to in the short term. Also ahead, and not to be overlooked, are qualifiers for the 2027 World Cup. Here are Meg and Tamerra’s most-hyped moments for the year ahead:

Meg’s 2026 watchlist:

NWSL arms race: Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West went out and signed a plethora of big-name free agents after the team’s 2023 championship. What will she do after the 2025 victory with another FIFA competition around the corner? What will Haley Carter do in her new role with the Washington Spirit after leading Orlando Pride to so much success? How will Portland make the most of its year with Wilson? Look for owners to step up their game.

Vermont Green getting a USL W team: As a diehard supporter of my local team, Vermont Green, I cannot wait to watch what the club does with its new lower-division women’s team — especially after the men’s championship run changed the city of Burlington. On a more personal level, I cannot wait to take my son to games.

World Cup qualifiers: We made it through U.S. head coach Emma Hayes’ experimentation in 2025, and now the serious business starts as the team looks to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil. We’ll have to wait a little as the U.S. qualification doesn’t kick off until November.

Tamerra’s 2026 watchlist:

NWSL expansion: Expectations are high for teams entering the league. Just look at the resources franchises like Angel City, San Diego Wave and Bay FC put into launching their teams (to varying degrees of success). Denver and Boston have the potential to reach the moon and beyond.

WAFCON 2026: The Chawinga sisters and Malawi will be part of this can’t-miss tournament. I’m a little nervous about the March timing as it clashes with UEFA Women’s Champions League and the start of the NWSL season, but there’s no way I’m missing this one.

The returns: Will we finally be caffeinated again in 2026? I hope so. I’m looking forward to the return of “Triple Espresso” to the USWNT with Rodman healthy and Mallory Swanson and Wilson coming back from maternity leave. I also feel like 2025 was a year of recovery globally, and I can’t wait to see players like England’s Lauren James and Germany’s Lena Oberdorf return to full form and raise the bar even higher.

Need to Know

‘Rodman Rule’ drama

We couldn’t end the year without another update on the ongoing saga that is both Rodman’s future and that of the NWSL.

What happened: Two days before Christmas, the NWSL announced the High Impact Player rule, a roster mechanism that allows teams to pay certain players up to $1 million above the current salary cap. It was created, in part, as a way to keep Rodman in the NWSL, but the 23-year-old free agent wasn’t the only motivation for changing the way the league spends.

To qualify, a player must meet one of the criteria put forward by the league, which include making the Ballon d’Or top 30, appearing on annual lists compiled by sports publications that rank the world’s best players and getting game time for the USWNT.

The problem: The league’s board approved the mechanism earlier this month, but the NWSL Players Association rejected the change. The union’s executive director Meghann Burke told The Athletic two weeks ago that they did not think the league “clearly thought through all of the practical implementation” of the rule. The NWSL proceeded anyway.

The sides agree spending on players must increase to compete with the global market, especially after players like Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson joined Chelsea in 2025, but they disagree on how to do it. The league and its owners want to limit how the money is spent, whereas the players union wants the decision to lie specifically with the teams and their sporting directors.

The solution: It’s still unclear. There’s no guarantee this change keeps Rodman in the league; she still has not announced a decision on what’s next. What we do know is both the NWSL and the players association are prepared to take legal action if the disagreement over the rule change comes down to it.

The league office closed for the holidays at the end of last week but opens again this week, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, read Tamerra’s column on how the league’s criteria prioritizes commercial value over on-field contributions.

Across the ocean

In England, the Women’s Super League is in its midseason break for the holidays and will return Jan. 10 when Arsenal hosts Manchester United.

The FA Cup resumes shortly after that, followed by the Champions League round of 16 in February. Meanwhile, the transfer window opens Friday and closes Feb. 3. Some of the names we are watching include: Catarina Macario, Bunny Shaw (whose contract is up in June) and of course Rodman — though with her contract ending Dec. 31, she’s free to sign anywhere at any time.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, Charlotte Harpur and Michael Cox looked back at what stood out in European women’s football in 2025: from Arsenal’s Champions League title to England’s second Euros crown and the continued dominance of Spanish midfielders.

Full Time Wrapped

It’s always fun to revisit this newsletter’s most-clicked stories as one gauge for what you, the readers, care about most. So here are some from 2025:

Fond memories: A year ago, we said goodbye to one of our long-time WoSo writers when Steph Yang took a job with Boston Legacy. Before she left, Steph and Meg went through years of priceless women’s soccer memorabilia with some serious lore.

Smile down the runway: All 14 NWSL teams got a new secondary kit for the 2025 season. With new kits come our favorite type of commentary. We did our best “Project Runway” impression with these, judging the cosmic to the concerning.

New look: Even eight-time Champions League legends need some refreshing. At least that’s what owner Michele Kang thought when she rebranded Olympique Lyonnais Féminin to OL Lyonnes.

Do-over: Boston will return to the NWSL in 2026 alongside the Denver Summit. But before a ball was even kicked, the team learned a valuable lesson when it came to branding: It’s OK to try again.

Building momentum: U.S. head coach Emma Hayes quickly established a development pipeline between the senior team and the under-23s. The result was the most debut caps in USWNT history since 1985 (16).

Watch it again: Before she broke the transfer record this summer with a $1.5 million move to the Orlando Pride, Lizbeth Ovalle was scoring bangers for Tigres in Mexico. Watch this “scorpion kick” again.

Money moves: The “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” shirt continued to take over the world in 2025, and now it has found its way into England’s top league as London City Lionesses’ front-of-kit sponsor.

Hair matters: Our best stories are the ones that go beyond the pitch. For Black British women footballers, hair is a matter of pride and precision.

A WTF moment: The story about former president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales getting egged was just downright bizarre. I think a lot of its popularity had to do with the fact that Luis Rubiales was the one who threw the egg.

📫 Love Full Time? These stories can also be found on Yahoo’s women’s sports hub, in partnership with The Athletic. Also, check out our other newsletters.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

US Women's national team, NWSL, Full Time Newsletter

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