When Angel City selected Alyssa Thompson With the choice n ° 1 in the draft of the NWSL two years ago, she had two choices: take what the team offered or transmit the chance to play in the NWSL.
But last month, when the team came to Thompson and it sister, Gisele, With contract extensions, their choices were almost unlimited.
“They both attracted considerable attention from several clubs in the Champions League,” said Takumi Jeannin, the players' agent. “Almost all of the best European teams have shown interest at some point.”
The Thompsons still chose Angel City.
“We are very attached to Angel City,” said Alyssa. “We like to be here and play in front of our friends and family. Angel City puts a lot of efforts and resources in their players and the team shows their commitment to the future and develops us.
“So I felt like Angel City would be a very good place to keep us growing up.”
In doing so, the sisters, the natives, chose the community rather than the continental celebrity. They chose to build a club at home to contribute to one abroad and chose to reward the people who gave them a chance rather than taking a chance on the people who promised awards.
This vote of trust – and is massive – arrives at a key moment for the team. During his first three seasons, Angel City lost more games than he has won and conceded more goals than he scored. So, while he enters his fourth season with a New majority owner in Willow Bay and a new sports director in Mark ParsonsThe team is also looking for a new management.
“It's Angel City 2.0,” said Parsons. “The base to have a real alignment of vision of football is noisy and clear and it is a perfect timing for that.”
Perfect for two reasons. First, because Parsons rebuilt with patience and objective. Returning a football team is a bit like turning around a cruise ship in that it should be done slowly and carefully. Thus, while Angel City added five players this winter and re -signed five others, he is ready to wait for the season to sign a coach – he opened the training camp last month with an acting manager in Sam Howry – if that's what it takes to find the right person.
“We cannot make decisions depending on emotion,” said Matt Wade, deputy director of the team. “We must be rational, thoughtful, intentional and make decisions aligned on a strategy that we have created.
“We would prefer to get it a lot (well) to make it possible quickly.”
However, the team provided the foundations on which a new coach will rely on two of the most dynamic young players in the United States Alyssa Thompson, 20, one of the fastest NWSL players, already played 53 games for Angel City and, in 2023, became the second largest woman to play for the United States in a World Cup. Gisele, 19, helped the United States finish third in the U-20 World Cup last summer and was already called in the training camp with the senior national team twice.
On Monday, Parsons added to this, sending $ 300,000 in transfer funds to Bay FC for defender Savy King, the second choice of NWSL draft last season. Three days before that, he signed the former veteran of the Japanese World Cup Miyabi Moriya.
The second reason why the timing is suitable for Angel City is that Thompsons' decision to stay up to 2028 Buck a growing trend in women's football. Last month, Naomi Girma, his teammate from the Alyssa World Cup Thompson, became the first football woman at a million dollars when she left San Diego and the NWSL to join the Chelsea female League of England for a record transfer of $ 1.1 million. Over the past two weeks, MVP NWSL Kerolin and Crystal Dunn and Gotham Jenna Nighswonger's defender also left NWSL for Europe, bringing the number of USWNT players to 11.
“They believe in vision,” said Parsons about Thompsons. “They believed in what we shared and we have to reimburse this.”
This vision includes more than sign players. A week before the announcement of the contract extensions for the Thompsons, Angel City unveiled its several million dollars performance center, the largest and most opulent NWSL. As part of the new ownership group led by Bay, the dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and her husband, Disney Director of Disney, Bob Iger, Angel City, also invests is analysis, technology, even a sensory deprivation tank to accelerate games and training.
Then there was Parsons, who did not come cheap after winning six trophies in as many seasons as the coach of the Portland thorns. But perhaps its greatest success was in the development of adolescent players such as Olivia Moultrie, Ellie Carpenter and Sophia Smith at a time when adolescents were rare in the NWSL. Angel City will have at least four, including Gisele Thompson, this season and two 20 -year -olds in King and Alyssa Thompson. Parsons thinks that history is another reason why the Thompsons have decided to stay.
“You have to do it in the right way and you have to be there, you have to support them (them),” said Parsons, 38, who joined Angel City three weeks ago. “You have to understand with young players, there are ups and downs. They are young. They have to cross things on the field and learn to face it.”
Keeping them also demanded significant investments in the bay, IGER and the team president Julie Uhrman. Angel City's first Angel City contract, according to her agent, was worth $ 1 million out of three seasons, making it the richest in the short history of the club. Gisele signed last winter the day before its 18th birthday, for $ 525,000 over three years, more bonuses and allowances. The extensions, according to the two parties, included increases which probably pushed the value combined nearly $ 2 million.
For the Thompsons, the commitment was counting.
“Angel City is just really attached to the future and I think they are attached to us,” said Alyssa. “This is an important factor in the signing with the club. We really want to win and help bring a championship back to the”
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