NWSL’s U18 Entry Mechanism: How football’s youngest stars are achieving their professional dreams

When 13-year-old Olivia Moultrie decided to forego her college eligibility in 2019 to start playing professional football, she ran into one major problem: she had nowhere to play. FIFA regulations did not allow her to play abroad until she became an adult, and the only professional women’s football league in her country, the NWSL, prohibited players who were under 18 years old. Two years later, she filed an antitrust case against the league, and within three weeks the court ruled in her favor. The 15-year-old was now free to play in the NWSL - the top tier american women's soccer league. 

It took almost two more years for that privilege to extend to other young players hoping to turn professional. Following the conclusion of the 2022 NWSL season, league commissioner Jessica Berman adopted a new policy where each club could sign two players under the age of 18. This regulation also allowed the league to codify formal processes for keeping these vulnerable players safe, such as not allowing teams to cut of trade these players, requiring the players to live with a parent or guardian, and requiring the use of separate showers and locker rooms.

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The first team to take advantage of the new U18 entry mechanism was the Washington Spirit, signing 15-year-old Chloe Ricketts on March 3, 2023. This signing made her the youngest player in the league, but only for a couple of weeks until the San Diego Wave signed 15-year-old Melanie Barcenas on March 21. Since then, 19 other players have followed this pair and turned their professional dreams into reality before they turned 18 years old. In July of 2024, Gotham FC made headlines by signing the youngest ever player in league history as Mak Whitham inked a long-term contract with the defending champions just one day before her 14th birthday.

Under-18 signings in the NWSL include players who have gone on to earn senior USWNT call-ups like Claire Hutton, Gisele Thompson, Riley Jackson, and Jordyn Bugg. The U18 entry mechanism allowed these very talented players to gain access to such opportunities earlier than they would have otherwise, benefitting the players, their clubs, and their national sides. 

The U18 entry mechanism also accounts for one of the NWSL’s biggest shortcomings: its lack of structured academies across the board. Although some clubs, like the Portland Thorns and the North Carolina Courage, do independently operate youth academies, it is still far from the norm in the league. Furthermore, these academies are associated with their parent clubs in name only, as academy teams can only compete in youth leagues and cannot appear for the senior club without a formal contract like how academies affiliated with European clubs tend to operate. Because of the U18 entry mechanism, players can now get valuable professional experience as a part of their development journeys in a way that they weren’t able to before. 

Moultrie’s lawsuit in 2021 has not only allowed the world to witness one of the most talented attacking midfielders in the world, but has also allowed 21 other players to achieve their dreams of playing professional football. The NWSL’s U18 players are among the most gifted players in the world, and four years into the implementation of this policy that talent only continues to grow.