- New rule will allow clubs to exceed salary cap by up to US$1m for players who meet commercial or sporting criteria
- Initiative to be rolled out from July 2026 but faces opposition from league’s players union
- Move comes amid competition from Europe for stars like Trinity Rodman
SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes ranking will be among the criteria used by the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to determine ‘High Impact Players’ as part of a new rule the competition hopes will help its teams attract and retain the sport’s biggest stars.
Coming into effect from July 2026, the ‘High Impact Player Rule’ will allow each NWSL club to exceed the US women’s soccer league’s salary cap by up to US$1 million for players who meet one of the following commercial or sporting criteria:
- Player is on SportsPro’s top 150 Most Marketable Athletes within the one year prior to the current league season
- Player is selected in the top 30 in Ballon d’Or voting in the two years prior to the current league season
- Player is selected in the top 40 of the Guardian top 100 players in the world in the two years prior
- Player is selected in the top 40 of ESPN FC top 50 football players in the world in the two years prior
- Top 11 minutes played for the US women’s national team (USWNT) in the prior two calendar years for field players for all competition types
- Top one minutes played for USWNT in the prior two calendar years for goalkeepers for all competition types
- Player selected as NWSL MVP finalist within previous the two league seasons
- Player selected to the end of year NWSL best XI first team within the previous two league seasons
Washington Spirit’s Trinity Rodman (120) and Portland Thorns forward Sophia Wilson (138) were the only NWSL players to feature in the top 150 of this year’s 50MM rankingwhich was produced in partnership with NorthStar Solutions Group.
The introduction of the rule comes at a time when the NWSL is facing growing competition for its star players, including Rodman, who is considered one of the most exciting youngsters in the game and has reportedly received lucrative offers from Europe ahead of her contract with the Spirit expiring at the end of this month.
Other high-profile moves in recent years have seen Alyssa Thompson swap Angel City for Women’s Super League (WSL) champions Chelsea and Crystal Dunn switch from Gotham FC to French side Paris Saint-Germain.
The NWSL will therefore be hoping that the High Impact Player Rule will enable it to keep players who contribute to the marketability and commercial value of the competition.
“Ensuring our teams can compete for the best players in the world is critical to the continued growth of our league,” said NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman. “The High Impact Player Rule allows teams to invest strategically in top talent, strengthens our ability to retain star players, and demonstrates our commitment to building world-class rosters for fans across the league.”
However, the new rule has been met with opposition from the NWSL players association (NWSLPA), which has argued that the league cannot unilaterally alter compensation structures without collective bargaining.
The NWSLPA said in a statement that the decision leaves it with ‘no choice but to take action’ to enforce the rights of its players – though it did not specify what that action would entail.
‘Under federal labour law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining – not a matter of unilateral discretion,’ the statement read.
‘Fair pay is realised through fair, collectively bargained compensation systems, not arbitrary classifications. A league that truly believes in the value of its players would not be afraid to bargain over it.
‘The NWSLPA has put forward a clear, lawful alternative: raising the team salary cap to compete in a global labour market. Additionally, we have proposed that through collective bargaining, we work together to create a system for projecting revenue sharing numbers in future years so that teams and players can negotiate multi-year deals with certainty. The union remains ready and willing to engage in good-faith bargaining.’
The NWSL said the additional US$1 million can be spent on a single player or distributed among several athletes. It also noted that the threshold will increase each year at the same base rate as the salary cap, which stood at US$3.5 million in 2025.
For now, the rule will increase league-wide spending on player salaries by US$16 million in 2026 and up to US$115 million over the term of the NWSL’s current collective bargaining agreement (CBA)which runs until 2030.
The High Impact Player Rule is similar to Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Designated Player initiative, which was introduced in 2007 to allow the Los Angeles Galaxy to sign David Beckham. Clubs in the US men’s league are now allowed to sign up to three players who are not subject to the competition’s salary cap.
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