A second U.S. girls’s nationwide crew defender is about to hitch the Girls’s Tremendous League in England in per week’s span.
A couple of days after Naomi Girma left San Diego Wave for Chelsea in a transfer that made her the document switch in girls’s soccer, Jenna Nighswonger is about to signal for Arsenal, the Blues’ rival, The Athletic’s Meg Linehan reported Monday, citing league sources.
BREAKING: USWNT and Gotham FC defender Jenna Nighswonger is transferring to Arsenal for a $100,000 payment, sources inform @itsmeglinehan. Particulars:https://t.co/KrCzWMIxmR pic.twitter.com/0WoINk85tt
— The Athletic Soccer (@TheAthleticSCCR) January 27, 2025
The reported payment is for $100,000. For comparability’s sake, Girma left for Chelsea at $1.1 million.
Nighswonger, 24, has developed right into a key participant for the USWNT following her fast development at NWSL facet Gotham FC.
A late entry into the 2023 NWSL Draft, Nighswonger was seen as a midfielder with excessive potential. Nevertheless, Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amoros performed the left-footer at left-back, finally successful Rookie of the Yr honors in her debut marketing campaign.
Gotham additionally received the NWSL title that season. Nighswonger registered 5 objectives throughout 29 appearances in all competitions.
She made two appearances for the U.S. in 2023 however noticed that balloon to 16 in 2024, the place she scored two objectives. She had a task within the USWNT’s first-place finishes within the Paris Olympics, Concacaf W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup. Each of her objectives got here within the Gold Cup.
Her NWSL numbers dropped this previous season, as did her appearances. She scored twice in 17 complete video games.
However Arsenal, at the moment fourth within the desk and simply three factors away from second, wanted one other versatile left-footer within the backline. Nighswonger’s addition might also permit lefty Katie McCabe to play extra on the left wing slightly than in protection.
Fellow USWNT teammate Emily Fox can also be the crew’s common starter at right-back, so adapting might come faster beneath newly promoted head coach Renée Slegers.
