Five NWSL 2026 rookies you should know: From impactful defenders to game-changing scorers
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This is the second one without a preseason draft, after the league and its players’ association agreed to abolish that system of signing college-level prospects ahead of the 2025 campaign.
So far in 2026, 48 rookies have signed their first professional contracts as free agents. In that group could be future MVPs, World Cup winners and global superstars. But, before looking too far ahead, let’s highlight a few newcomers who spark intrigue and could impact the league in their debut years.
Here are five rookies to keep an eye on in NWSL 2026.
Elise Evans — Chicago Stars, defender
Stanford University is in Evans’ blood.
She grew up in nearby Redwood City, Cal., and was inspired to play the sport because of her mother, Dena, who was a Stanford soccer player in the 1990s. Evans’ Cardinal roots run even deeper than that, too. The 21-year-old is a fifth-generation Stanford student. Her parents even met on the campus. Her father, Marlon, was also a student-athlete, competing in football and track.
In the NWSL’s draft era (2013-2024), no university had more No. 1 picks than Stanford (four: Andi Sullivan, Tierna Davidson, Sophia Smith and Naomi Girma). The Cardinal are soccer royalty.
But, for Evans, living up to the team name on the front of the jersey was not as big a task as replacing a certain name that appeared on the back: Girma. As a center back joining Stanford in 2022, Evans walked into a team to play the same position as one of the school’s greatest defenders, who had just left for the NWSL.
“(The Stanford coaches) used her (Girma) as an example of how we should play, or look to her and watch her games to continue to learn and develop,” Evans told the “Full Time” podcast during preseason. “We have a similar style of play, and so I think I’ve learned a lot from getting to watch her.”
Evans was a constant, calm presence at the back for Stanford over her four-year career. She rarely left the pitch, notching 85 appearances and over 7,000 minutes as the Cardinal got to the National Championship game in 2023 and 2025 and reached the final four in 2024.
There’s no doubt the Chicago Stars saw Evans as a potential cure for what was the leakiest defense in the NWSL last season (54 goals conceded, 12 more than the next worst). While the Stars already have two established starters at center back in Sam Staab, who turns 29 in a couple of weeks, and Kathrin Hendrich, 34 in April, this is a position where depth and youth are in demand.
Don’t be surprised to see Evans push to start straight away for Chicago or even to quickly become the next Stanford defender to take the NWSL by storm.
Jordynn Dudley — NJ/NY Gotham, forward
Arguably the highest-rated forward in the NCAA signed with the reigning NWSL champions.
It is not something that we have been used to in the worst-team-picks-first draft era.
But that is the beauty of the post-draft free agency market present in the NWSL, and Gotham FC has certainly shown its ambition by securing Florida State graduate Dudley.
The 21-year-old forward elected to leave Tallahassee, Fla., a year early, after scoring 30 goals and notching 29 assists in 53 matches between 2023 and 2025. A ludicrous average of a goal involvement every 59 minutes as FSU lifted the national title twice (2023 and 2025). Dudley will be well-fancied to be the highest-scoring rookie in NWSL 2026.
A paradox of on-pitch and off-pitch personality, Dudley is renowned for her menacing ball-winning and pressing ability, mixed with a quiet demeanor. While playing together on the U.S. youth national team, Bay FC’s Claire Hutton said Dudley is best described as “dangerous” and someone she would “never want to be a defender against.”
Dudley arrives in a Gotham team where only last season’s 13-goal top scorer, Esther Gonzalez, 33, feels like a guaranteed starter at center forward. Dudley offers a perfect starting option for her new squad as a secondary striker or could be devastating as an inverted left-winger, to stretch the pitch and cut inside.
Leah Klenke — Houston Dash, defender
Houston struck gold when they drafted Avery Patterson 19th out of the University of North Carolina in 2024.
The 23-year-old U.S. women’s national team (USWNT) player has been incredibly reliable in a multitude of positions for club and country. But there is perhaps an over-reliance on the Dash playing through whichever wing Patterson tends to start on.
Enter Klenke, 21, a left back who could be the perfect foil to balance out Houston’s wings and even free up coverage on Patterson on the right.
Klenke started all four years (2022-2025) at Notre Dame and graduated with 78 appearances, five goals and 17 assists, which, for a defender, is impressive. Her special move was driving forward from the back and wafting in threatening crosses with her left foot.
A Houston native, she is returning home and is already familiar with her hometown team after training with the Dash during the offseasons while still enrolled at school.
Klenke is also a former Texas state high school track and cross-country champion. Her speed, endurance and familiarity with the hot and humid Houston climate will be invaluable as a rookie.
Yuna McCormack — Denver Summit, midfielder
Denver’s 2026 expansion team made a splash by signing a pre-contract agreement with USWNT captain and Colorado native Lindsey Heaps. But, before the 31-year-old 2019 World Cup winner arrives in June after her season in Europe with Lyon ends, who will take control of the Summit midfield?
The answer to that question could be McCormack.
The 21-year-old is another on our list who left the college game one year early, after two years with the University of Virginia (2023 and 2024) and one with Florida State (2025), where she won the national championship.
A rangy central midfielder who can cover ground fast, McCormack’s bread and butter for FSU and the U.S. youth national team was breaking into the box and scoring on late runs from deep. She has always showcased excellent timing of runs and dynamism in the midfield.
Yes, McCormack might be one of the lesser-known rookies on this Denver roster, after 2025 Hermann Trophy winner Jasmine Aikey, from Stanford, and electric goalscorer Olivia Thomas, out of North Carolina, but she could surprise as a workhorse in a midfield group that isn’t bristling with too many big names.
It’s hard to know exactly how coach Nick Cushing will set up his team, and he could ask the versatile McCormack to be a more box-to-box option or to share the holding role with Canada international Emma Regan. That would allow Denver’s more esteemed rookie, Aikey, to join in with the attack.
Wherever McCormack is used, there certainly will be a clean slate to impress and more opportunities in the midfield as the Summit will play at least 11 matches before Heaps jets in from France.
Gianna Paul — Kansas City Current, forward
Last but certainly not least, Paul is another potentially overlooked impact rookie. The 21-year-old is coming to the record-breaking reigning NWSL Shield winners after four incredible years at the University of Alabama, where she scored 40 goals and had 14 assists in 90 matches. Nine times, she scored the game-winning goal for Alabama.
Players coming out of that school, especially strikers, aren’t always rated particularly high. Unlike every other player on this list, Paul hasn’t played for the U.S. youth national team at a major tournament, and her last call-up to represent her country was with the under-19s in 2023.
Paul and her silky first touch will also have to adjust from being the star player at Alabama to figuring out her role in the well-oiled machine that is the Current. So far, she has shown signs that she is a driven individual relishing the chance to work with the coaches and roster to hone her game in a new environment.
“The attention to detail, it’s amazing how much of a difference taking one step to the left versus one step to the right can make,” Paul said about how she adapted during the preseason. “It’s been a transition, for sure. There’s a lot to pay attention to, and there’s a lot going on at once.”
Paul has been lining up for the Current on the left of the attack during preseason, perhaps with NWSL Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga’s fitness still up in the air ahead of the new season. The Long Island, N.Y., native brings speed to the party, and is another former high-school track athlete, but I don’t see her necessarily being billed as a straight Chawinga alternate.
With the departure of Bia Zaneratto to Palmeiras in her homeland Brazil in the offseason, Paul’s height (5-foot-10) and presence could be used as both a target in the air, as well as a decoy to draw attention in the penaty area and make space for others or as a prime target for new arrival Croix Bethune, signed from the Washington Spirit, to feed passes to.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chicago Red Stars, Houston Dash, Gotham FC, Kansas City Current, Denver Summit FC, NWSL, Women's Soccer
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