A few weeks before Vlatko Andonovski was unveiled as the new Kansas City Current head coach and sporting director in Oct. 2023, he was already on a business trip. Andonovski was in South Africa for the COSAFA Women's Championship, an annual competition held for 14 national teams in the southern section of the continent. Malawi made history by winning their first-ever championship, thanks in part to the tournament's top scorer – Tenwa Chawinga, who scored nine goals in five games.
Such is the legend of Chawinga, whose Wikipedia page is full of jaw-dropping statistics like 55 goals in 57 games in Sweden with Kvarnsvedens IK and 84 goals in 83 games for Wuhan Jianghan University FC in China. She was one of several players in women's soccer charting impressive careers but doing so on the fringes, playing in leagues with limited visibility both in their home nations and abroad. That does not mean, though, players like Chawinga are resigned to staying there.
Chawinga signed for the Current the following January, one of several players from a wide variety of international clubs to find their way to the NWSL this season. Many have found success with their big breaks, too – Chawinga scored 20 goals in the regular season, while fellow league newcomer Barbra Banda is second on the list with 13. It reflects new strategies by the NWSL itself as it navigates an increasingly competitive women's soccer landscape, as well as an embrace by the league's clubs.
"Soccer's the most global sport that's out there right now, bar none," Caitlin Carducci, the Kansas City Current's director of soccer, told CBS Sports. "[It's a] no-brainer that we should be looking at every possible place to find the best players and that's the way that you say we're the best league in the world."
NWSL's spending spree
NWSL rosters have long relied on domestic talent, largely because international roster spots were few and far between. Teams were limited to just four international slots for several years and though it increased to five ahead of the 2022 season, the league made a big call before the 2024 campaign to expand the allotment to seven. They also introduced a new transfer fee policy with a threshold of $500,000 that could be used for both domestic and international signings. Introducing those measures was key to the league's strategy for staying competitive.
"When we talk about things we as a league can do to provide teams more opportunities to attract and retain top talent, expanding international roster spots and adjusting parameters around team spending were key levers we knew we could pull to offer teams more flexibility to invest in high-quality players from around the world," NWSL chief sporting director Tatjana Haenni said. "Allocating more international roster spots has also preceded an increase in international scouting and awareness of the global marketplace. That in turn has introduced different playing styles and identities into clubs around the league."
Teams around the league were not only able to sign more international talent but splurge while doing so. Expansion side Bay FC set women's soccer's transfer fee record in the winter when they signed forward Rachael Kundananji from Madrid CFF for a reported fee of $862,000, while the Pride currently rank second in the category for their acquisition of Banda from Shanghai Shengli after reportedly spending $740,000.
"I think that it's made the league more competitive globally," the Pride's sporting director, Haley Carter, said. "To be able to spend those resources to bring athletes like that in, and that's the direction the transfer market is going and it's not something that the NWSL can control so we don't want to be in a position where we're reactionary so I think getting ahead of it [by] having that transfer mechanism."
The NWSL's new rules have coincided with several clubs upgrading their scouting operations considerably, spending money on hires and other measures to leave no stone unturned. The Pride, for example, have employed a director of scouting and analytics as well as a talent identification scout, who join a group of other club staff in establishing position-specific profiles and talent pipelines. Spending money on travel plays a part, and so does watching hours and hours of tape on potential recruits.
Finding that footage is sometimes easier said than done, with the Chinese Women's Super League serving as a hub for talented players who are hard to watch. Relying on connections is the key to recurring those players – former Racing Louisville head coach Kim Bjorkegren, for instance, had pre-existing knowledge of players in that league after working for Beijing Jingtan. Andonovski knew Chawinga's agent and used that as a starting point for negotiations. The Pride, meanwhile, phoned a friend while recruiting Banda, who made a name for herself after scoring two hat tricks in three games at the 2020 Summer Olympics, as well as Grace Chanda.
"To be honest, scouting her is all about the international game and Lisa Cole, who's an American soccer coach, was the technical advisor for Zambia," Carter said. "She was with them in the lead-up to the 2023 [Women's] World Cup and so of course, we were watching those games … We [also] watched [Chanda] in the lead-up to the World Cup. Unfortunately, she didn't get to participate in the World Cup but at the same time we're watching Barbra, we're seeing Grace and then talking to Lisa."
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"An easy sell"
The new and improved scouting operations around the NWSL reflect a wide-ranging uptick in investment across the league. Teams can spend more on transfer fees and salaries than in years past, while ownership groups are eager to put their money into training facilities, stadiums, medical staff, private chefs and more to improve player experience and performance. Coupled with the level of competition, it makes it easy for clubs to pitch themselves to prospective talent.
Each club naturally has its own selling points, especially the Current. They are one of a handful of NWSL teams with their own training facilities and are the first women's sports team in the country with their own stadium.
"We are never second fiddle to anyone else," Carducci said. "We never have to adjust our schedule because some other team is there and everything is meant and intended for a women's professional soccer team and so when you can look at someone and say, 'Look at this stadium that is yours and no one else's. You are always the priority in this building,' and then to have an office to come to every single day in the training facility with two top-notch, all grass pitches, everything one could want from modalities and an athletic training room and a meeting room and a locker room, not to mention a cafeteria and a full-time chef who learns our players, knows what they want, makes stuff that they want. Everyone knows everyone's tendencies. That's an easy sell."
Carducci said that description helped to convince Chawinga, who had never been to the U.S. before joining the Current, while Carter said moving to the country was "a dream come true" for Chanda. Moving to the NWSL also comes with financial benefits – Carter said salaries are "better, on the whole, than any other league in the world," and can introduce players to other business opportunities. Banda, for example, was a speaker at the Business of Women's Sports Summit hosted by Axios and Deep Blue, a sports and entertainment agency.
A new-look calendar
The NWSL's global focus was not reserved for signing new players this season, either. Clubs took part in the inaugural NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, which the Current won, while Concacaf also launched the W Champions Cup this season. International friendlies were a big part of teams' winter and summer schedules, with trips to Colombia and games against opponents from England, Spain and South Africa were on the calendar for a variety of NWSL sides.
"The NWSL has become so much more sophisticated in styles of play," Carducci said. "There's, rightly or wrongly, a reputation of, 'It's just a big, fast physical league,' and that's not the case. We've so much talent in the league, both coaches and players. … Seeing other teams and other leagues and then making yourself uncomfortable and seeing players you don't see every week and the adjustments you have to make, that also helps with the weekly chess match that's happening in the NWSL."
The batch of international friendlies and global talent also allows the NWSL to expand its footprint abroad. The league now has broadcast deals with nine companies across six continents, with Carter saying people in Zambia stay up until the early hours of the morning to catch Banda and Chanda play thanks to the NWSL's deal in Africa with ESPN.
It also offers a chance for staff at NWSL clubs to network with their counterparts elsewhere, which can be helpful in building relationships that are useful in scouting players since finding contact information for lesser-known clubs can be challenging, Carducci admitted. Chatting with international clubs also comes without the baggage of week-in, week-out competition, per Carter.
"Another aspect that is positive is having the ability to work with clubs in other leagues, to exchange best practices and it's not like you're having to worry about some sort of competitive advantage there because you're not competing against each other in the same way," Carter said. Topics of conversation range from "things like [organization] charts, job descriptions, policies around player care and player affairs and team operations. Planning out your preseasons, planning out what you're doing in any sort of break."
The global approach embraced by the NWSL is in line with other recent policy shifts that reflect international soccer more than it does American sports. The league simplified free agency in its new collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in August, and more notably abolished the college draft. There have also been inklings that the league is considering a switch to the fall-to-spring calendar that's common in Europe, per reporting from The Equalizer in 2023.
An NWSL spokesperson told CBS Sports that it has no comment at this time, though it has not stopped Carter from talking to clubs in England about their calendar. Though Carter said she has "no idea" if a schedule shift is imminent, she is in the process of collecting as much information as she can.
"One other thing that I'm kind of working on with some clubs in England with, for instance, Women's Super League clubs, is around a potential calendar switch," Carter said. "The FA Women's Super League switched their calendar a few years ago and there's implications associated with it. And if the NWSL ever decides to flip the calendar, I want to make sure that we're prepared and we know things we should be thinking about, contractual considerations and did they have to play a shorter season? How did they navigate some of those things?"