San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
S.F. teenager on the fast track to pro soccer
McKenna Whitham stood a head shorter than teammate Delanie Sheehan as they embraced, hordes of white jerseys streaking toward their celebration.
Whitham had just scored what would be the game-winner for NJ/NY Gotham FC in a preseason match last month against Deportivo Cali in Colombia. She entered the game for her NWSL debut in the 60th minute, replacing Kelly O’Hara.
O’Hara, 35, fist-bumped Whitham on the way in, further opening a generation gap in the NWSL. Whitham is 13 years old, 22 years younger than O’Hara, and she became the youngest person to score — and play — in an NWSL match of any type.
The San Francisco native is home-schooled and plays for a club team in Huntington Beach along with the U-15 U.S. women’s national team. Just over a week prior, Whitham became the youngest person recorded to sign an NIL deal when she joined Nike. She has been playing soccer year-round for as long as she can remember, and she just might be the future of the women’s game in the states.
“I’m really focused on my soccer,” Whitham told the Chronicle. “I’m focusing on the future, because what I did (in Colombia) was great, but I have to set it aside and be smart and get better, too.”
Women’s soccer in the U.S. is clearly beginning to lean young, and the NWSL, led by third-year Commissioner Jessica Berman, has bought in. Whitham stands to benefit if she signs before her 18th birthday, which appears likely.
That, coupled with the endorsement deal, highlights the elite athletic opportunities youth athletes have earlier and earlier in the modern era. Corporations — and teams — have been quick to capitalize.
Athletes as young as 8 years old are seeking financial compensation to use their name, image and likeness. As youth sports have become more commercialized, the potential for exploitation of young athletes with millions of dollars at stake is a legitimate concern. Compensation for elite athletes capable of going pro is a part of that balance.
“It’s a huge responsibility,” Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch
Courtesy of Gotham FC
said. “It’s not just about identifying who’s talented right now, but about what makes sense in someone’s life, and what I’ve said to every player who has come in, especially our U-18s: This has to be a process we embark on together, has to be a twoway street.”
Whitham didn’t think she would play in the Colombia match, but she took the opportunity to train with her third NWSL team — previously she had done so with Washington and Kansas City — and gain more pro experience.
She said Gotham head coach Juan Carlos Amorós told her before coming into the game, “We all believe in you. You’ve been doing great in training. Just have fun.”
Whitham isn’t the only uberyoung player to figure into the NWSL equation. Seven players aged 15-19 played in the NWSL regular season or Challenge Cup in 2023. Olivia Moultrie, now 18, became the league’s youngest player at 15 years old following a legal fight.
Moultrie had been training with the Portland Thorns but was not allowed to sign. In 2021, she filed an antitrust suit that alleged the NWSL, as the “only acquirer of talent in the market,” violated the Sherman Antitrust Act with its age limit.
She won, and since then, other under-18 players such as Chloe Ricketts, Melanie Barcenas and Moultrie’s USWNT teammate, Jaedyn Shaw, have had NWSL success. In 2022, the average age in the NWSL was 27.1 years old, oldest in the world for tier-1 women’s soccer leagues. The USWNT was the oldest national team at 28.6 years old on average at last season’s World Cup.
“What she did for young players was absolutely incredible,” Whitham said of Moultrie. “She’s the reason why I could play for a professional team. She’s been encouraging of us, and I hope I can be for the young players coming up, too.”
Whitham’s goal is to go professional as soon as possible; she isn’t considering playing for a college team. If she were to sign this season, she would be the youngest contracted player in league history.
For a teen to play in the NWSL, the league requires teams to provide housing for the player and her parents, and the contract must run through the season when the player turns 18. Players under 18 also can’t be waived or traded before they turn 18. Angel City FC will have three teenagers this season, most in the league, including 16-year-old Korean Casey Phair.
“I think time will tell” if under-18 players are a success, Averbuch said. “I don’t think we’ve yet had enough time in NWSL to really see how the players who have come in early develop year over year and what.type of professional careers they make for themselves in terms of longevity.”
Whitham recently signed with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat, a semi-pro team on the second level of the U.S. Soccer pyramid that has helped more than 20 players reach the NWSL.
If she goes pro, she would continue home-schooling as she moves into her professional life full time in the NWSL. Her NIL deal with Nike would turn into a more traditional sponsorship.
Whitham’s path might be close to what the most talented girl soccer players in the country expect in the near future.
But that’s not her responsibility. Her focus is just performing the best she can with the best players in the world at her side.
“I know most teenagers want to be in high school or are focused on those things,” Whitham said. “But I’m pretty organized in how I do everything. I can balance everything.”