\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
San Diego Wave FC announced on Friday that the club has acquired U.S. women\u2019s national team forward Catarina Macario via transfer from Chelsea FC (Women\u2019s Super League, England).<\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO \u2013 San Diego Wave FC announced on Friday that the club has acquired U.S. women\u2019s national team forward Catarina Macario via transfer from Chelsea FC (Women\u2019s Super League, England).<\/p>\n
Macario has signed a contract through the 2030 season under the National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u2019s new High Impact Player Rule, marking one of the largest contracts in women\u2019s soccer history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to welcome Cat home to San Diego,\u201d Wave sporting director and general manager Camille Ashton said in a statement. \u201cCat is a world-class player who has consistently performed at the highest levels of the game. She is an intelligent, technical and creative attacker with exceptional vision and composure in the final third. Her ability to unlock defenses and influence matches in multiple ways will further strengthen an already strong foundation as we continue building toward Championship success. This signing reflects the ambition of our Club and having a player of her caliber return to her hometown and represent San Diego makes this signing even more meaningful for our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macario, 26, joins San Diego with extensive experience competing at the highest levels. Since making her professional debut in 2021, she has made 105 appearances across all competitions, scoring 44 goals while winning nine major trophies. She also has earned 29 caps for the USWNT, scoring 16 goals, including recording a team-high eight goals in 10 matches in 2025.<\/p>\n
She originally rose to prominence in college soccer at Stanford University, where Macario won two NCAA Division I championships (2017, 2019) and claimed the MAC Hermann Trophy twice (2018, 2019) as the nation\u2019s top player. Macario turned professional with OL Lyonnes in January 2021, becoming a key part of one of Europe\u2019s most dominant teams. In her time with Lyon (2021-2023), she contributed to a UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League title (2021-22), two Premiere Ligue championships (2021\u201322, 2022\u201323), the Coupe de France (2022\u201323), and the Trophee des Championnes (2022\u201323).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to join San Diego Wave FC and begin this next chapter of my career at home in San Diego,\u201d Macario said in a statement. \u201cThis city has played such an important role in my journey, and the opportunity to come back and represent it means a lot to me. From my first conversations with the Club, I felt the ambition and the vision for what we can accomplish together, including bringing trophies to this city. I\u2019m grateful for the belief they\u2019ve shown in me, and I can\u2019t wait to get started and give everything for this team and my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 5-4 Macario joined Chelsea in the summer of 2023, helping the club secure back-to-back Women\u2019s Super League titles (2023-24, 2024-25), along with an FA Women\u2019s Cup (2024-25), and Women\u2019s League Cup (2024-25) during her time in London.<\/p>\n
On the international stage, Macario has scored 16 times in 29 appearances for the USWNT since her 2021 debut. She was also a member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where the United States earned a bronze medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBringing Catarina back home to San Diego is a special moment for our Club and this city,\u201d Wave FC controlling owner Lauren Leichtman said in a statement. \u201cThis signing reflects our commitment to continuing to invest in this team, in this community, and in the future of women\u2019s soccer. We are building a Club that San Diego can be proud of, and Catarina represents the level of excellence and leadership we want associated with San Diego Wave FC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macario will wear No. 20. She is fluent in English, Portuguese and French. A San Diego native, she moved to the city at age 12 from Brazil and began her youth soccer career with San Diego Surf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: San Diego Wave FC announced on Friday that the club has acquired U.S. women\u2019s national team forward…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":685698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,113134,109542,5468,3549,80895,7264,113128,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,30493],"class_list":["post-685697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-catarina-macario","tag-national-womens-soccer-league","tag-nwsl","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-wave-fc","tag-sandiego","tag-u-s-womens-national-team","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-uswnt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116301638369588074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}