When the whistle blows on a new season, the excitement of a fresh start is often tempered by a very personal decision: where to live, where to raise a child, and how to keep a family together while chasing a professional soccer career.
Crystal Dunn, a World Cup champion and Olympic gold‑medalist, experienced that tension firsthand when she left Portland for New Jersey after the birth of her son, Marcel. The move required uprooting her family on short notice, navigating unfamiliar schools and support networks, and redefining her daily routine to accommodate both training and parenting.
Goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan of the North Carolina Courage faced a similar cross‑country shift when she transferred from the San Diego Wave to the East Coast team after welcoming her baby. Sheridan has spoken about the difficulty of building a community in a new city and the emotional weight of repeatedly starting over.
A New Era for Family‑Focused Soccer
The league’s recent collective bargaining agreement marks a turning point, guaranteeing contracts, expanding free agency and, crucially, treating parenthood as part of a player’s career rather than a disruption. Full salary and health‑insurance coverage during pregnancy, along with stipends for childcare and travel support for children up to 14, are now built into the standard player contract.
These benefits have begun to change the calculus for many athletes. Angel City FC’s Brazilian midfielder Ary Borges moved to the United States in 2023 to join Racing Louisville with her then‑two‑year‑old son, Luca, who was still learning English. After relocating to Los Angeles this season, Borges said the transition felt smoother thanks to the league’s expanded childcare aid and travel allowances.
Some players choose to keep their children in a more stable environment, sending them to live with relatives or trusted caregivers while they compete elsewhere. Others, like Dunn, decide to keep the family unit together in a location that offers the best support system, even if it means staying farther from the team’s base.
The experiences of Dunn, Sheridan, Borges and their peers illustrate a broader shift: the NWSL is slowly moving from a model that expected mothers to sacrifice personal stability for the sport, to one that recognizes family as a core component of an athlete’s professional life.