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Charlotte GibsonGAME
Angel City FC secured the top pick in next week’s NWSL draft in a three-team deal involving the Portland Thorns and NY/NJ Gotham FC, the Los Angeles club. announced Thursday.
Angel City FC will report used the #1 pick to pick 18-year-old electric striker Alyssa Thompson, who has yet to officially announce his participation in next week’s draft. Thompson, a senior at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, made her U.S. women’s national team debut in September.
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To secure the deal, Angel City exchanged the club’s 2023 first pick (number 5), their 2024 second-round top pick and allocation money to buy midfielder Yazmeen Ryan from the Thorns, according to the Thorns. An official statement from Angel City.
After acquiring Ryan, Angel City sent the midfielder and added $250,000 in allocations to Gotham FC for the top pick.
Thompson, the Gatorade National Women’s Soccer Player of the Year in 2021, verbally pledged to play at Stanford next year and said she is weighing all of her options.
The deadline to apply for the January 12 NWSL draft is 12 a.m. Monday Pacific Time, and Thompson is expected to be eligible to participate. If selected in 1st place, Thompson would become the first high school student to be selected first in the NWSL.
In June, Thompson and his sister Gisele made headlines after becoming the first high school athletes to sign a NIL contract with Nike.
Thompson made his national team debut in a 1-2 friendly defeat to England in September at the age of 17. Substituting Megan Rapinoe, Thompson made his international debut in the 83rd minute.
Although not shortlisted for the U.S. team’s first training camp of the year, was released on ThursdayThompson is still a hope for the team to attend the 2023 World Cup.
Angel City will enter their second season in the league. Despite narrowly missing out on the NWSL’s knockout stages, the team played four sold-out games and averaged 19,105 fans for 11 home games at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.
The team could see the return of striker Christen Press this spring, who tore her ACL last season.
“We know that to achieve these goals we must prepare for on-court success for many years to come, which is why we want to be able to control our destiny with a total draft pick. 1 of the 2023 Draft,” Angel City general manager Angela Hucles said in a statement. “We are focused on making the biggest impact possible on the pitch and we look forward to being able to do so in the second season.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
