United States forward Catarina Macario will reportedly join the San Diego Wave from Chelsea before the end of the NWSL\u2019s transfer window. The deal, which was first reported by Sportico, is believed to be the largest in total value in women\u2019s soccer history, worth $8 million over five seasons.<\/p>\n
Macario\u2019s current contract with Chelsea, where she\u2019s played since 2023, is expiring this summer, so the timing here is ideal. She is expected to join the Wave immediately.<\/p>\n
Macario, who is originally from Brazil, has never played in the NWSL. She attended Stanford, where she won two NCAA Women\u2019s College Cups and back-to-back MAC Hermann Trophies, which honors the nation\u2019s top player. She skipped her senior year and turned pro, joining Lyon where she scored a goal in the club\u2019s Champions League final win over Barcelona in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She moved to Chelsea in 2023, but her time there has been frustrating due to injuries. Macario actually didn\u2019t make her debut for Chelsea until March 2024 because she was recovering from a torn ACL that she suffered in 2022. Her return to form has been up and down \u2013 for example, she was initially named to the USWNT\u2019s 2024 Olympics roster but had to pull out at the last minute due to knee irritation, and was not part of the most recent national team camp during the SheBelieves Cup because of a foot issue. She did have a stellar 2025 under Emma Hayes, though, leading the U.S. with eight goals.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s time for a change. One that will benefit everyone involved.<\/p>\n
(Photo by Christian Bruna\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Macario\u2019s move to the Wave is perfect for many reasons. One being that she grew up in San Diego after her family moved to the U.S. from Brazil. This is a chance for the 26-year-old to be closer to family after playing her entire professional career up to this point in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the field, it\u2019s an exciting move for a team in rebuilding mode. In the last few years, the Wave have lost USWNT stars like Alex Morgan (retirement), Naomi Girma (now with Chelsea) and Jaedyn Shaw (with Gotham FC). They have a handful of teenagers, including Melanie Barcenas, some veterans like French national team midfielder Kenza Dali, and recently signed several Brazilian players like Dudinha, Ludmila and Gabi Portilho. Macario needs more minutes \u2013 which were difficult to come by at Chelsea whether she was healthy or not. And once she’s fit and in form, she figures to play a major role in helping the team become a championship contender.\u00a0<\/p>\n Similarly to Trinity Rodman and the Washington Spirit, the Wave will utilize the NWSL\u2019s new high impact player rule to pay Macario. This allows teams to pay players outside the salary cap \u2013 which is up to $3.7 million in 2026 after revenue sharing adjustments \u2013 if a player meets certain criteria. Rodman’s new three-year deal, which she signed in January, reportedly pays her north of $2 million annually with bonuses.<\/p>\n Getting this deal done is massive for the league. In a matter of a few months, the NWSL has been able to keep Rodman and gain Lindsey Heaps and now Macario. With young national team stars moving to Europe over the last couple years \u2013 including Girma, Emily Fox, Alyssa Thompson and Sam Coffey \u2013 getting a star player to come back and play at home is a huge coup for the health of the NWSL.<\/p>\n (Photo by Jeremy Reper\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY United States forward Catarina Macario will reportedly join the San Diego Wave from Chelsea before the end of the NWSL\u2019s transfer window. The deal, which was first reported by Sportico, is believed to be the largest in total value in women\u2019s soccer history, worth $8 million over five seasons. Macario\u2019s current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}