Washington Spirit have declined the contract option for Chloe Ricketts to remain with the team in 2026, the team announced yesterday. The 18-year-old attacker remains under contract for the rest of this season but can begin negotiating with other teams when free agency begins on July 1.

The Spirit also picked up the 2026 option for winger Tamara Bolt, currently on loan to Dallas Trinity FC in the USL Super League, and said goodbye to injury replacement players Meg Boade and Kiley Dulaney, whose contracts have now ended.

Ricketts joined the Spirit in 2023 at age 15 — briefly the youngest player to sign with an NWSL team. Her obvious zeal for playing, tricky ball movement, and ferocity despite her small stature quickly made Ricketts a fan favorite, whose appearance on Audi Field always elicits loud cheers.

Under Mark Parsons’s system in 2023, Ricketts was a frequent member of the diamond midfield. She played in 17 matches that year (11 regular season, six in the Challenge Cup) and made seven starts. She also scored her only credited goal in Washington’s 4-2 victory over Gotham FC in the Challenge Cup.

As the team moved to a new system under coaches Adrián González and Jonatan Giráldez in 2024 and began recruiting more experienced international attackers, there seemed to be less room for Ricketts on the game day roster. She appeared in only four matches in 2023 for a total of 20 minutes. The shift in the Challenge Cup from a year-long tournament to a single match also meant there were fewer developmental opportunities.

Things seemed to be looking up for Ricketts this year. One of the few healthy players on the team, she’s played in seven of 13 matches and had two starts, arguably scoring the game-winning goal in Washington’s first match of the season against Houston Dash. (Official credit went to Ashley Hatch, but we saw Chloe’s ball cross the line!) She also started in the Spirit’s Challenge Cup-winning game and joined the USWNT U-18s and U-20s in two separate camps this year. However, as other Spirit players have returned from injury, Ricketts’s playing time has decreased again. She last appeared in their May 2 match against Angel City.

Ricketts is a talented and extremely fun attacker with lots of development potential. While it’s unfortunate she couldn’t get more opportunities with Washington, finding a new team where she can get more match time may be the best thing for her career at this point. Though at 18 she’s now eligible to be loaned to another team, we do hope the Spirit give fans the chance to cheer her on at Audi Field at least one more time before her contract ends.

Lead image courtesy of the Washington Spirit