For Washington Spirit, 2025 was a successful year, even if their hope of an NWSL Championship trophy eluded them. Michele Kang has already promised her team will be back “louder and prouder in 2026,” but every offseason brings change. Today, we’ll look at some of the biggest decisions and possible departures awaiting the Spirit this winter.

Roster overview

The Spirit ended the season with 28 players under contract, ten of whom required international slots and five of whom were on maternity leave or season-ending injury. Luckily for Spirit fans, the vast majority of these players will remain under contract going into 2026. An additional three players — Tamara Bolt, Emma Gaines-Ramos, and Shadia Nankia — were loaned out to teams in the Gainbridge Super League for the year and will be returning to the senior roster soon.

Current NWSL rules require that teams maintain between 22 and 26 players on their active roster, with only seven spots per team allocated to international players. This means the Spirit will have some work to do in the coming months to ensure that they’re compliant before the next season starts.

Possible departures

Player departures as contracts expire often bring teams some wiggle room, but the Spirit only have four players who will be out of contract at the end of this year.

Kysha Sylla, the French centerback who was loaned to Washington for the year from OL Lyonnes, has already announced her departure. Sylla made a big improvement over the course of the season and added some depth to their backline, but her need for an international spot means a longer-term deal with the team was probably not in the cards.

The impending end of Trinity Rodman’s contract has been much discussed (and will be again below), but her exit would undoubtedly have a major impact on the team. At her best, Rodman is one of the top players in the world. She’s also spent her entire professional career in Washington and become an important part of the team’s identity and connection with their fans. The Spirit were forced to do without Rodman for much of 2025 as she recovered from injuries to her back and knee, so they know that success on the field without their star is possible, but her off-the-field impact would be a tremendous loss.

Ouleye Sarr joined the Spirit from Paris FC in 2023 and became their top goal scorer and first-choice striker in 2025, forming a strong partnership with Croix Bethune and helping the team to a second-place finish. She was injured in the playoffs, though, and remained on the season-ending injury list for all of 2025. Though she traveled to cheer on her team for this year’s Championship match, it’s likely she will be returning home to France.

Goalkeeper Kaylie Collins has now ended her second season with Washington, having been signed to two consecutive one-year contracts. In that time, she made several game day rosters but did not appear for the team. Whether she’s asked to return for another year will likely depend on the health of Lyza Jessee, who injured her wrist in early 2024 and remained unavailable throughout this year.

Biggest decisions of the offseason

Negotiate with Rodman

Whether Trinity Rodman remains in Washington next year comes down to money. The NWSL’s $3.5 million salary cap greatly restricts how much she can earn in the league, and it’s been reported than Rodman has several offers from other leagues that outstrip any that could be made an NWSL team. This has led to calls to increase the salary cap or introduce a “Rodman rule” that could allow some players to be paid above the cap, but that is a decision that will ultimately be made for the Spirit. If the league is unwilling to amend salary rules (and soon!), they will have to accept Rodman’s departure and start recruiting new attackers to supplement their roster.

Even if the rules are changed to allow a greater offer, Washington could have a fight on their hands to keep Rodman and will need to balance making her a sufficient offer with the budget to keep the entire roster strong.

Manage international spots

The Spirit became much more international in 2025, boasting players from 11 countries on their Championship roster. To make this happen, they had to trade $230,000 in various funds with other teams to increase their number of international slots from seven to ten. Two of those spots will revert to Orlando Pride and Racing Louisville in 2026, leaving the Spirit only eight spots to spread among 12 players.

This problem can be attacked in a variety of ways, including initiating more trades, though the team will need to strategize and negotiate well to keep the costs per spot low. They can also loan players to other teams both within and outside the league, though that comes with the obvious drawback of making those players unavailable to play for Washington. Another option that the team should be pursuing is assisting players in getting green cards, as they did with Gabby Carle in advance of 2025. Achieving green card status means that the player no longer requires the use of an international spot.

Hire a GM

Both of those situations, plus the looming specter of ten contracts expiring at the end of 2026, mean Washington have one big non-roster decision to make: hiring a general manager.

The Spirit have been without a president of soccer operations and general manager since Mark Krikorian left at the beginning of the 2025 season. Though sporting director James Hocken and assistant general manager Nathan Minion have managed well in his absence, finalizing deals to bring in Gift Monday and Sofia Cantore, it’s essential that the Spirit select a long-term GM to manage recruitment and guide their roster decisions toward the future.