SAN JOSE — Were it not for the No. 2 emblazoned on Trinity Rodman’s yellow shorts, the Washington Spirit star would have been unrecognizable as she marched to the PayPal Park locker room after Saturday night’s NWSL final. The hood of her warmup jacket was fastened snugly around her head. Her gaze was directed downward as her cleats clattered against the concrete. Streaming tears, her face remained buried in her hands.
Rodman has long embraced her raw feelings. That often means exhilaration for a player who has won an Olympic gold medal and an NWSL title while establishing herself as one of the U.S. national team’s most tantalizing talents. If she’s exasperated or exhausted, she won’t hesitate to broadcast it. When devastation hits, it floors her.
That was the case after the Spirit dropped the NWSL final to New Jersey-based Gotham FC, 1-0, on a late strike by Rose Lavelle, Rodman’s U.S. teammate. Whether it was Rodman’s final game in a Spirit uniform remains to be seen. But as she braces for free agency, the possibility surely amplified the emotion.
“I’m sad,” Rodman said. “It sucks. And it’s not just that we lost a soccer game — it’s all the work we put into it.”
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This season, the Spirit got electrifying if intermittent production from Rodman, who notched five goals and two assists while starting nine of 15 regular season appearances. After taking a 3½-month absence to manage a chronic back injury, she returned with a dramatic winner off the bench in early August, then rounded into form and earned NWSL player of the month honors for September.
A mid-October knee sprain sidelined Rodman for the Spirit’s final two regular season matches and its playoff-opening victory against Louisville. Having returned for a late cameo in the semifinal win over Portland, Rodman logged 33 minutes off the bench against Gotham but never found a rhythm.
Bemoaning her lack of influence, Rodman said she “was not my full self tonight” and “definitely underperformed.” She called losing two straight finals — the Spirit dropped last year’s title game against Orlando — “the worst feeling in the world.” As Rodman gamely addressed a line of reporters, she at one point paused mid-thought, cursed, began welling up and stepped away to collect herself.
“We just got really close this season, and we’ve supported each other in every way,” she said. “Even in times like this, it’s hard — but we have each other.”
Rodman’s future in the Spirit’s locker room — or potential lack thereof — seized the narrative ahead of Saturday’s game, which marked the end of a four-year, $1.1 million extension she signed after her rookie year. Rodman reportedly has fielded big-money offers from clubs in England and the Super League, a fledgling U.S.-based circuit, that outstrip what the Spirit realistically can offer under the NWSL’s roster rules — even with an owner as free-spending as Y. Michele Kang.
Yet that’s not stopping the league from aiming to retain her.
“We want Trinity in our league,” Commissioner Jessica Berman said Thursday, “and we will fight for her.”
Speaking with reporters hours after Berman’s remark, Rodman appeared both flattered by the attention and overwhelmed by the implicit expectations that came with it.
“I started and I got drafted in this league, so it’s created such an amazing soccer player in myself,” Rodman said. “I’ve learned a lot. This league has grown every single year. So obviously I’m honored to have her say that. … But at the same time, I don’t want to put that pressure on myself of, like, because she said that, now I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot, I’m trapped.’”
Rodman’s free agency is an inflection point for the NWSL, which earlier this year lost U.S. national team regulars Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson to English club Chelsea. Last year, U.S. defender Emily Fox left for England’s Arsenal. Lindsey Heaps, the U.S. team’s captain, departed for French power Lyon in 2022. And several rising American stars — Lily Yohannes, Catarina Macario and Korbin Shrader — bypassed the domestic circuit entirely.
“I think it’s important to try to retain really entertaining, explosive talents like Trinity Rodman,” said Gotham defender Tierna Davidson, Rodman’s U.S. teammate. “She is a marquee-type player for our league and someone that we can build a league around. But, ultimately, she has to make a decision that’s best for her.”
The NWSL salary cap will rise from $3.3 million to $3.5 million next season, and it will increase each year before reaching $5.1 million in 2030. While there is no maximum salary, clubs can offer top players only so much without wrecking their rosters.
“Ultimately, you can get a lot more money overseas, where they aren’t bound by a salary cap,” Spirit captain Aubrey Kingsbury said. “So I’m a big proponent of raising the cap. I think that will help us retain and even attract top talent, because it is a little bit one-sided — I don’t think we see too many top players coming in their prime.”
Kingsbury has a point: Although the NWSL has attracted its fair share of international standouts — Gotham’s Esther González (Spain), San Diego’s Delphine Cascarino (France) and the Spirit’s Sofia Cantore (Italy) among them — the elite tend to stay in Europe. Voting for the Ballon d’Or skews European, but it’s noteworthy that an NWSL player hasn’t finished in the top three for the world player of the year honor since 2019.
Although Rodman has five NWSL seasons under her belt, the 23-year-old emphasized her age while positing that it’s not her place to upend the league’s norms. If negotiations between her agent and the NWSL set the stage for more financial flexibility, Rodman is all for it. Still, she doesn’t see herself as an off-the-field crusader.
“There’s only so much I can speak on,” she said. “Obviously, players want to get paid as much money as they possibly can, so if that can grow, that’d be amazing. But at the same time, the league is slowly but surely growing every single year.”
Wherever Rodman decides to play next year, her choice will be closely monitored by U.S. Coach Emma Hayes ahead of the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. Yet the London-born manager — who has coached clubs in the United States and England — isn’t placing her thumb on the scale.
“Women have fought hard for the right to choose whatever they want to choose,” she said. “Whatever feels right to them, my job is to support that.”
Rodman’s body of work speaks to her game-changing influence. She claimed 2021 rookie of the year honors while powering the Spirit to its first NWSL crown. Two years later, she represented the United States at the World Cup. Ascending to a new level of stardom in 2024, she scored three goals and started every match as the Americans won gold at the Paris Olympics, then finished as an NWSL MVP finalist for her exploits with the Spirit.
A crafty dribbler with a pristine finishing touch and eye-catching style — think the pink braids she flashed at the Paris Olympics or the aquamarine extensions she broke out Saturday — Rodman also has cultivated a reputation as a fan favorite and a locker room leader whose value stretches well beyond the box score. It all makes her the kind of player that many a club would giddily build around.
“She’s just so explosive and efficient and dynamic in everything that she does,” Lavelle said. “But then I think off the field, obviously, she’s just a personality that we’re all so drawn to. So I think when you put that together, that’s somebody you want to keep.”
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