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Jeff Kassouf
Several NWSL teams are interested in acquiring Chelsea and United States forward Catarina Macario, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.
Macario’s contract with Chelsea ends on July 1. Per FIFA regulations, she is free to sign a pre-contract anywhere beginning six months prior to her current deal’s expiration, or in this case, Jan. 1.
Macario is also expected to draw strong interest from Europe, where she has spent her entire professional career to date.
Multiple sources confirmed to ESPN that there has been longstanding interest in Macario from several NWSL teams, but the restrictions of the salary cap prevented any serious transfer discussions to compete for the forward’s salary. That all could change if the NWSL adopts a new «High Impact Player» (HIP) rule, which ESPN reported on in recent weeks.
The HIP rule is meant to allow NWSL teams to retain and attract top world players, which has become a challenge for the league over the past year with top global teams like Chelsea spending more, and NWSL teams restricted by the salary cap.
The NWSL lost USWNT stars Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson to Chelsea in the past year, each in transfers of over $1 million.
But the HIP rule, as proposed by the NWSL’s Board of Governors, would allow each team to spend up to $1m over the salary cap on star players who meet certain criteria. The proposal is meant to keep USWNT forward Trinity Rodman in the league with the Washington Spirit in the short term, and retain more players like her in the long term. Seven-figure annual salaries would be possible across the league.
Whether the rule will be ratiifed remains unclear after the NWSLPA expressed opposition to it, but Macario fits the profile of those players which the NWSL seeks to acquire with the new mechanism.
Macario was born in Brazil and moved the U.S. at age 12. She starred at Stanford and became a U.S. citizen in late 2020. She immediately committed to playing for the USWNT under then head coach Vlatko Andonovski, and she was expected to be the focal point of the team’s attack at the 2023 World Cup.
Macario was twice named the MAC Hermann Trophy winner as college soccer’s best player. She left Stanford early to sign for OL Lyonnes in January 2021.
However, knee injuries robbed Macario of several years in her young professional career.
She tore her ACL in 2022 in the final game of the season with OL Lyonnes and didn’t play a completive game again for a year and a half, by which point she had moved to Chelsea on a free transfer. The injury caused her to miss the 2023 World Cup, which would have been her first major tournament.
Macario was then selected to the USWNT’s Olympic roster in 2024 but had to withdraw before the tournament due to what USWNT head coach Emma Hayes called a «knee irritation» at the time. The U.S. won a gold medal that summer.
Macario recently returned to form and a stretch of good health for club and country. Hayes, who was Chelsea head coach when the club signed Macario, has leaned heavily on Macario as the USWNT’s No. 9 recently, especially in the absence of the entire starting forward trip that won Olympic gold for the United States in 2024.
Macario prefers to play as a false nine, often receiving the ball with her back to goal to combine with attacking players around her.
She scored three goals in the USWNT’s two recent games against Italy to end the year.
