Angel City acquires No. 1 Pick in NWSL Draft

Angel City FC has made its first major move for the upcoming season.

Angel City made two moves early today that ended up in them acquiring the top pick in next Thursday’s NWSL Draft. First, Angel City sent its own pick in that draft, which was slotted No. 5, along with $200,000 in allocation money, to the Portland Thorns in exchange for defender Yazmeen Ryan. Angel City then turned around and traded Ryan along with $250,000 in Allocation money to Gotham FC for the top pick, pending conditions met.

Who Angel City will take with the top pick remains to be seen, though there is speculation that Angel City is locked in on high school phenom Alyssa Thompson, who currently plays at Harvard-Westlake High School, located in LA’s San Fernando Valley. Thompson,who was the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021 and made her debut on the senior national team at age 17, has verbally committed to play at Stanford University upon graduating this year, but she may decide to forgo college for the NWSL in order to strengthen her chances of making the USWNT for the upcoming World Cup in Australia/New Zealand. Thompson has yet to make a decision on whether to declare for the draft, and any player wishing to be in this year’s draft has until 12 A.M. on Monday night PST to declare for the draft.