Alyssa Thompson became the first high schooler selected No. 1 overall in the National Women’s Soccer League draft on Thursday.
Thompson, a senior at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, was drafted by Angel City FC, her hometown team.
“I would’ve never thought, even a year ago, that I would be the first high schooler to hold that spot,” she told ESPN.
On Jan. 5, Angel City F.C. traded the no. 5 overall pick in the 2023 draft, their second round pick in the 2024 draft and $200,000 in allocation money to the Portland Thorns for Yazmeen Ryan. The Los Angeles team then traded Ryan and $250,000 in allocation money to NJ/NY Gotham FC for the No. 1 overall pick. The $450,000 spent on the pick to draft Thompson makes her the most expensive player in the NWSL, Yahoo Sports reported.
“Alyssa Thompson, for us, is a phenom and generational player,” Angel City F.C. general manager Angela Hucles Mangano said on the team’s website. “She’s a player who can make an immediate impact, but she’s also young and can develop and look to be a player that we’re building a future off of, too.”
In 2021, Thompson won the Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year after scoring 48 goals in 18 games, according to Gatorade’s website. In May, she and her younger sister Gisele Thompson became the first high schoolers to sign a name, image and likeness deal with Nike, Bleacher Report reported.
The No. 1 pick made her international debut for the U.S. women’s national soccer team in October during a match against England.
How will turning professional affect Alyssa Thompson’s schooling?
The week before the draft Thompson was still verbally committed to playing college soccer at Stanford. She told ESPN the decision to play professionally and decommit from Stanford was the hardest decision she’s ever made.
Thompson still wanted to make her education a priority. Having been in contact with Angel City in the months leading up to the draft, Thompson and the team had discussed how the 18-year-old could still continue her education while turning professional.
“From the beginning it’s always been something that if I’m going to go pro, I’m still going to get an education,” she told ESPN. “I want to continue to get better, and since there’s opportunity to still go to college, why wouldn’t I do it?”
The team and the Thompson family are still finalizing the plan for how and where the soccer “phenom” will get her degree, ESPN reported.
For now, Thompson will continue attending Harvard-Westlake and will transition to online classes when the NWSL season starts on March 25. She will attend class in person when scheduling permits.