The dust has yet to settle on Trinity Rodman’s club status, but the star USA forward’s near future has ignited an emphatic revival of an old debate on this side of the Atlantic.

How does the National Women’s Soccer League stack up against its top competitor leagues? At what point should the league be worried, if top USWNT talent trickles across the Atlantic? And what, if anything, can be done to stop the flow?

The questions swirling stateside have been around for quite some time, though they once operated in much different conditions – a less competitive global landscape, diminished investment abroad, NWSL’s formal management by US Soccer.

Those conditions have drastically shifted over the past decade, especially in the past six years. Since winning Olympic gold at the Parc des Princes, some of the USA’s biggest names moved abroad. That includes the starting right-back Emily Fox (Arsenal), the centre-back and sometimes captain Naomi Girma (Chelsea) and the ascendant winger Alyssa Thompson (Chelsea). Key players such as Catarina Macario, the captain Lindsey Heaps (who has signed for her home town club in Denver this month), Phallon Tullis-Joyce and Lily Yohannes were already abroad.

As the Guardian noted after the defensive midfielder Sam Coffey – who was among the team’s top scorers in 2025 – signed for Manchester City, if Rodman moves abroad, she would be the sixth starter from the Olympic gold-medal match now plying her trade in Europe.

One thing is clear: the NWSL regards the outward flow of the USWNT’s marquee names as a matter of grave importance. Given the historic link between US national team stars and the NWSL’s biggest crowds and marketability, that concern is merited. (Though notably, the league’s health isn’t as solely reliant on national team marketability as it has been in the past.)

But what the league can do to stymie the flow – and whether the present trend is worthy of outright panic – is less obvious.

The league’s initial attempt to stop the flow (and prevent Rodman’s departure in particular) is the High Impact Player Rule, which has already been officially contested by the NWSL Players Association. The NWSLPA alleges that the terms of the HIP Rule violate the terms of their collective bargaining agreement, as well as federal labour law, and advocates for raising the league’s salary cap instead.

Nicknamed the “Rodman rule”, the HIP Rule lays out criteria for identifying highly sought-after international talent, and allocates an additional $1m beyond the salary cap to accommodate them in the roster. Criteria includes things such as minutes on the USWNT, and a high ranking on year-end lists such as ESPN’s top 50 and the Guardian’s top 100.

Emma Hayes has told the press that she was not consulted on the league’s criteria for the HIP Rule and that it would not change her approach to management of the team. The former Chelsea manager has addressed this topic at several points publicly, always emphasising that she is there to support each player in their own decisions, and is not pointedly directing them abroad.

So far as the HIP Rule itself is concerned, the NWSLPA may be correct to suggest that renegotiating the salary cap is a better way to stay competitive. But to some extent, it’s worth noting that USWNT talent going abroad isn’t all about the money. Coffey, for example, moved to Manchester citing the same reasons international talents such as the Spain striker Esther González (who was the top scorer at last summer’s Euros) or the Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger gave when they came to NWSL; moving either way across the Atlantic provides players with new challenges in different systems.

With the game growing globally, expecting any international star to play out their entire career in one league could be unrealistic. From the individual or national team perspective, it may also limit the growth of that player as they seek out new elements to their game. In the case of USWNT players moving to Europe, the unique experience of playing in the Champions League – which challenges players to adjust to a variety of styles across Europe’s top leagues – is irreplaceable. Fox cited the opportunity to compete in the Champions League as a key motivator in her move to Arsenal, going on to win the competition in her debut season. Hayes has emphasised Champions League experience is a valuable tool for her players to have as they prepare for the 2027 World Cup.

To help assuage fears, at the opposite end of migration, returning to NWSL remains an appeal for USWNT players such as Heaps or Catarina Macario, who have long charted their careers abroad. And while the league hustles to keep Rodman in the US, the other two members of the famed “triple espresso” forward trio that combined for 10 goals in Paris (Mallory Swanson and Sophia Wilson) are set to return to action in 2026, with all the star power they bring.

Eyes remain trained on the future for Rodman, and the NWSL is right to attempt to keep her in the states. Whether the HIP Rule proves consequential on that front (as well as any renegotiated salary cap) is highly uncertain. But long term, USWNT stars spending some time overseas may not necessarily be cause for panic, and from a national team perspective, may add dynamism to the team as they seek to compete at the next World Cup.

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