USWNT star Trinity Rodman: Matter of time before I play abroad

United States and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman said it’s a matter of time before she plays abroad but added that she remains focused on the upcoming NWSL season that kicks off Friday.

Over the past year, there has been a growing trend of NWSL players leaving for Europe. In January, three of Rodman’s U.S. teammates — Naomi Girma, Crystal Dunn and Jenna Nighswonger — sealed moves to Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, respectively.

Rodman, who has spent her entire career with the Spirit since being drafted in 2021, could soon follow suit.

“I’ve always thought about playing overseas at some point in my career,” she said in an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Futbol W.

“I think I would kick myself if I retired and hadn’t done that. So it’s just a matter of when I think. But yeah, just focused on this year and we’ll see what happens when the time is right.”

Girma’s move to Chelsea from the San Diego Wave has been the most high-profile NWSL exit. The $1.1 million deal that took her to west London made it the most expensive transfer in the history of women’s soccer, but the fee didn’t surprise Rodman.

“Nay has just [been] outstanding for years. It’s not like this just happened. So I’m so proud of her and I’m so happy,” she said.

“Just she is so humble, the most humble human I’ve ever met. She never wants to talk about herself and even when she plays, she’s so unfazed by everything. But yeah, it’s not unexpected what happened. I was like, ‘Oh, classic, biggest ever transfer fee.’

“I’m excited to see where this takes her and how much she grows even more.”

Meanwhile, Rodman said she expects further growth from the Spirit in the upcoming NWSL season. The Spirit lost in last season’s final to the Orlando Pride, and she believes they will carry the lessons from that defeat into the new season.

“I think in that last game, what we had struggled with was finding someone on the team to lean on in terms of being mentally locked in,” she said. “And I 100 percent could have been that person, but I think the whole season I had been struggling with so much and I had been calm the whole game. But I don’t know that game … it wasn’t me to be that voice.

“And I think our team had bad communication and we should have had somebody step up to bring the energy and push the tempo. So I think that’ll be a huge part for us this year.”

The Spirit kick off their season against the Houston Dash on Friday.