NWSL WILL ALLOW 17-YEAR-OLD TO PLAY
The National Women’s Soccer League will allow 17-yearold Jaedyn Shaw to sign with a team, making an exception to its age-restriction rule for an U.S. under-20 national team attacker who could’ve spurned the league for a European club next winter.
The Texas-born attacker trained with the Washington Spirit before this season but wasn’t allowed to sign because she was under 18 — the league threshold — and Washington didn’t own her NWSL rights.
On Thursday, though, the league announced it will allow Shaw to enter the NWSL through a discovery process involving all 12 teams. Ranked by how they finished last season, teams will be able to claim her rights next Thursday.
(The NWSL won’t say whether the 2022 expansion clubs, Angel City and San Diego, are at the top or bottom of the list.)
If Shaw doesn’t fall to Washington, which won the championship last season and is no higher than No. 10 on the discovery list, the Spirit would attempt to make a trade.
“We obviously think she’s talented and we would like for something to work out,” Spirit coach Kris Ward said during his weekly media session, “but it’s not always that simple.”
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