Alyssa Thompson is staying in Los Angeles with Angel City, and all it took was some NWSL draft history to do it.
With the first overall pick of the 2023 NWSL draft, Angel City made the Harvard-Westlake forward the first high school athlete in the league's 10-year history to hear her name called first.
Thompson's selection was widely expected after Angel City acquired the first overall pick from NJ/NY Gotham FC last week in a deal that saw it trade its natural No. 5 pick and a second-round pick in 2024, plus $200,000 in allocation money, to Portland Thorns FC for Yazmeen Ryan, then send Ryan and $250,000 in more money to Gotham.
That deal made the 18-year-old Thompson essentially the most expensive player in league history, as the previous most expensive deal by allocation money was the San Diego Wave's acquisition of USWNT star Alex Morgan for $275,000,Angel City is certainly expecting the price to be worth it. Thompson, who was previously committed to play at Stanford, won the prestigious Gatorade High School Player of the Year award in 2021 after scoring 48 goals in 18 games. That statistic is not a typo.
Thompson won't be entirely unprecedented as a top player entering the NSWL with no college experience, as Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman joined her team in 2021 after not playing a game in her college career at Washington State. That move has more than worked out for the Spirit.
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