Debate surrounding young NWSL talent
Melanie Barcenas; Courtesy of San Diego Wave
This week, the San Diego Wave Football Club signed the NWSL’s youngest player ever. Melanie Barcenas, a 15-year-old San Diego native, signed a three-year contract with the team through the new Under-18 Entry Mechanism. Barcenas is the most recent in a line of minors signing for NWSL clubs.
The first of these was Olivia Moultrie, now seventeen, of the Portland Thorns. At 15, Moultrie sued the NWSL over their age restriction, which was 18. She argued that the restriction significantly limited her earning potential. Also that it violated the Sherman Antitrust Act because Major League Soccer does not have an age limit. The court ruled in her favor and she signed with the Thorns. Since then, teams have started turning to increasingly young talent. Moultrie is joined by Barcenas and Chloe Ricketts. Ricketts, also 15, signed with the Washington Spirit in early March.
Image 1: Chloe Ricketts; courtesy of Washington Spirit Image 2: Olivia Moultrie; courtesy of Portland Thorns
In international soccer, signing minors is quite common. The issue in the United States, particularly in women’s soccer is abuse. With the abuse scandals the NWSL has been dealing with in the last few years, it is surprising to see teams move to signing younger talent. The league and teams have proven that they cannot protect the adults they sign, so how are they going to protect children? San Diego in particular is a picture of this. Their president, Jill Ellis was mentioned by name during the scandal as ignoring a USWNT veteran’s reports of abuse. It is concerning.
Ricketts and Barcenas cannot legally drive or vote, yet they’ve signed multi-year professional contracts. In many states, they cannot even get a part-time job. Just because it is technically allowed, does not mean teams need to jump on this young talent train. There is an insane amount of talent at the college level that is already getting overlooked, not to mention all the adult players whose careers are being cut short despite their talent.
When the NWSL can prove they’ve made the necessary changes and can protect the adult athletes they’ve signed, we can revisit this issue. However, until then, the NWSL needs to stop signing children to their rosters.
