WASHINGTON, D.C. January 9, 2013 — America’s newest women’s professional soccer league - the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) - has announced a list of 55 U.S., Canadian and Mexican national team players that will be allocated to the eight clubs that will begin play this spring.
All 18 U.S. players from the gold medal-winning 2012 London Olympic team are included in the allocation, while 13 of the Canadian players were part of the bronze medal-winning team.
The allocation process will be conducted by a panel of experts familiar with the player pool and the location for all 55 players will be announced on Friday, Jan. 11. The eight founding clubs are the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Sky Blue FC (New York/New Jersey), Seattle Reign FC, the Washington Spirit and the Western New York Flash.
“Ultimately, the goal is to pair the teams and players in such a way that we achieve a fair distribution of talent across all eight teams,” said NWSL executive director Cheryl Bailey. “This is another important step as we continue to build towards the inaugural season of the National Women’s Soccer League.”
U.S. Soccer is subsidizing the salaries of 23 players, while the Canadian Soccer Association and the Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for 16 players. All but one of the eight teams will receive three U.S. women’s national team players. Each club will also be assigned two Canadian stars and two Mexican stars from those nation’s national teams.
See the Full List of Allocated Players:
USA PLAYERS
Pos., Player Name
GK, Nicole Barnhart
M, Shannon Boxx
D, Rachel Buehler
M, Lauren Cheney
GK, Ashlyn Harris
M, Tobin Heath
D, Ali Krieger
D, Amy LePeilbet
F, Sydney Leroux
M, Lori Lindsey
M, Carli Lloyd
GK, Jill Loyden
D, Heather Mitts
F, Alex Morgan
D, Kelley O’Hara
M, Heather O’Reilly
D, Christie Rampone
M, Megan Rapinoe
F, Amy Rodriguez
D, Becky Sauerbrunn
GK, Hope Solo
F, Abby Wambach
M, Keelin Winters
MEXICO PLAYERS
Pos., Player Name
D, Alina Lisi Garciamendez Rowold
M, Veronica Raquel Perez Murillo
M, Teresa Noyola Bayardo
F, Maribel Dominguez Castelan
F, Monica Ocampo Medina
GK, Aurora Cecilia Santiago Cisneros
M, Lydia Nayeli Rangel Hernandez
F, Renae Nicole Cuellar Cuellar
M, Teresa Guadalupe Worbis Aguilar
F, Anisa Raquel Guajardo Braff
M, Dinora Lizeth Garza Rodriguez
D, Jennifer Marie Ruiz Brown
D, Luz del Rosario Saucedo Soto
D, Rubi Marlene Sandoval Nungaray
GK, Pamela Tajonar Alonso
D, Marylin Viridiana Diaz Ramirez
CANADA PLAYERS
Pos., Player Name
D, Melanie Booth
D, Robyn Gayle
M, Kaylyn Kyle
GK, Karina LeBlanc
M/F, Adriana Leon
M, Diana Matheson
D/M, Bryana McCarthy
GK, Erin McLeod
D, Carmelina Moscato
M/F, Jodi-Ann Robinson
M, Sophie Schmidt
M, Desiree Scott
D, Lauren Sesselmann
F, Christine Sinclair
D, Rhian Wilkinson
D, Emily Zurrer
John Haydon wrote a weekly soccer column for The Washington Times. He has covered two World Cups and written about Major League Soccer from the league’s inception in 1996.
Follow John on Twitter at @Johnahaydon
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