USWNT ahead Catarina Macario joins San Diego Wave in blockbuster transfer

The San Diego Wave have introduced the signing of U.S. ladies’s nationwide staff ahead Catarina Macario from Chelsea.

Macario joins the Wave on a contract via 2030, with the membership utilizing the NWSL’s new Excessive Impression Participant Rule to make the transfer.

Commercial

The Wave stated that the 26-year-old’s contract is among the many largest ladies’s soccer historical past.

San Diego pays a reported $300,000 to land Macario instantly , with the ahead’s Chelsea contract set to run out on the finish of the season.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Cat dwelling to San Diego,” stated sporting director and basic supervisor Camille Ashton. “Cat is a world-class participant who has constantly carried out on the highest ranges of the sport. She is an clever, technical and inventive attacker with distinctive imaginative and prescient and composure within the ultimate third.

“Her capacity to unlock defenses and affect matches in a number of methods will additional strengthen an already robust basis as we proceed constructing towards championship success. This signing displays the ambition of our membership and having a participant of her caliber return to her hometown and characterize San Diego makes this signing much more significant for our group.”

Catarina Macario, San Diego Wave FC

Macario will return to San Diego, the place she moved as a 12-year-old in 2011 after spending the primary a part of her life in Brazil.

Commercial

“I’m actually excited to hitch San Diego Wave FC and start this subsequent chapter of my profession at dwelling in San Diego,” stated Macario. “This metropolis has performed such an necessary position in my journey, and the chance to return again and characterize it means rather a lot to me.

“From my first conversations with the membership, I felt the ambition and the imaginative and prescient for what we are able to accomplish collectively, together with bringing trophies to this metropolis. I’m grateful for the idea they’ve proven in me, and I can’t wait to get began and provides the whole lot for this staff and my group.”

After a stellar faculty profession at Stanford, Macario turned professional in 2021 and signed with French energy Lyon. Macario scored within the 2022 Champions League ultimate, serving to Lyon to a European title earlier than shifting to Chelsea in 2023.

Macario’s progress was stalled by a torn ACL she suffered in 2022, which stored her out the higher a part of two years.

Commercial

However the ahead got here again robust with the USWNT in 2025, main the staff with eight targets in 10 matches.

General, Macario has 16 targets in 29 caps for the USWNT.

1 / 8