Boston Legacy's Edward Gallagher on the challenges of building an NWSL squad from scratch
Boston Legacy’s director of recruitment spoke exclusively to The Cutback and detailed the expansion side’s approach to building a brand new roster
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has experienced rapid growth in recent years. As many as seven new teams have been introduced to the competition in the last six years, with even more to come. When the Atlanta and Columbus franchises join the field, the league’s size will have doubled from nine teams in 2020 to 18 in 2028.
Simultaneously, the competition has seen significant changes in its regulations. The NWSL has always been a unique league among global frontrunners thanks to its intricate squad-building and financial mechanisms, but many of them have been altered or even entirely abolished in recent years. The new high-impact player rule has been making headlines this year, but the biggest game-changer came with the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, which marked the end of player drafts, among other things.
This move was widely welcomed as it addressed long-standing concerns about players’ agency over their careers. At the same time, it also created an entirely new set of challenges for the fresh entrants in an ever-growing league.
The 2024 expansion sides Bay FC and the Utah Royals benefited greatly from their ability to select proven NWSL players through the expansion draft, as well as the cream of the collegiate crop with the first draft picks. When the next two teams joined the competition just two years later, those avenues were entirely gone.
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