The Next Big Things - professional women soccer players
Soccer Digest, April, 2001 by John Philip Wyllie

Homegrown players will grab the initial WUSA headlines, but Sun Wen and the league's other foreign stars won't be unknown quantities for long

THE FINANCIAL VIABILITY OF THE WUSA may be in question, but no one can say that the first-year women's professional soccer league will be lacking in talent. In addition to the 20 "founding members"--all of whom were plucked from the U.S. 1999 World Cup and 2000 Olympic teams---the new league will be stocked with dozens of the world's most talented non-American players.

With a franchise salary cap of $1.7 million and the world market for top soccer talent spiraling out of control, MLS can afford to sign only young, relatively unknown foreign players or marquee players well past their prime. While the WUSA franchise salary cap is a more modest $800,000, a relative lack of competition for talent will allow the league to not only field the best domestic players but corner the foreign market as well--albeit at relatively bargain prices. The most recognizable American stars will command approximately $85,000 per season. Foreign internationals will earn considerably less, typically somewhere in the $24,000 to $40,000 range. While some of them believe this unfair, all of them realize that they will be making substantially more than they do playing in their homelands.

One of the players who has been the most outspoken about the league's payroll discrepancy is Canada's Charmaine Hooper. The Canadian striker has earned the right to complain a bit, however--thanks to her play. In back-to-back performances against the United States in 1999, she torched the U.S. defense for a total of four goals--first as member of the FIFA World All-Star team and then for Canada in a pre-Women's World Cup friendly. With her speed and extraordinary strength, Hooper proved unstoppable again last November when she recorded a goal and an assist in Canada's shocking 3-1 upset of the U.S.
 

"If you look at other leagues, such as Major League Baseball or the NBA, and see how they write their contracts, it is not the American players in those leagues who necessarily get the most money," says Hooper who was allocated to the Atlanta Beat. "The best players get the most money. But that will just give me more motivation to get out there, do well, and kick butt." With Japan's talented Homare Sawa and Nikki Serlenga serving balls up to Hooper, Cindy Parlow, and China's Sun Wen, defenses around the league could be in for some trying times.

Sun, the fan's choice and FIFA runner-up for female Player of the Century honors--and the MVP of the '99 Women's World Cup--joins Hooper on the WUSA's impressive list of foreign strikers. Still rehabilitating a minor knee injury, Sun is expected to be fully recovered once the league kicks off in mid-April. Known for her surgical free kicks, nose for the goal, and ability to wreak havoc on a defense, Wen is a veteran of three Chinese World Cup teams. Most worryingly for her opponents, at the age of 28 she seems as if she is just hitting her peak.

Norway has contributed a pair of talented forwards to the mix: the New York Power's Ann Kristin Aarones, and Dagny Mellgren, who will make Boston her new home. While both are Norwegian, the two are as different as night and day. The 6'0" Aarones does much of her damage through the air; she'll be a nice addition to the Manhattan skyline. Mellgren, by far the quicker of the two, does most of her damage with the ball at her feet. She's best known for breaking Team America's heart with a somewhat suspect golden goal in last year's Olympic Final.

A quartet of Brazil's finest attacking players Will be on display for the WUSA's inaugural campaign. Pretinha and Roseli, teammates at Vasco da Gama, will join Mia Hamm in the Washington Freedom attack. Next to Atlanta's front three, that Washington trio could be the league's most dangerous front line. The versatile Katia da Silva, who is equally effective in the midfield as she is on top, has been a prolific goal scorer for the Samba Queens since the 1995 Women's World Cup. The fourth allocated Brazilian is Sissi, who dazzled American audiences with some of the finest goals of the '99 World Cup tournament.

England's Kelly Smith and Australia's Julie Murray are probably the least well known of the foreign strikers, yet both have had several years of experience playing in the United States. Murray has been a fixture for years on the Australian team, first in the midfield and--more recently--as a forward. Murray developed her skills as a youth playing in suburban Washington D.C., went on to star collegiately at Seton Hall University, and was a finalist in 1999 for both the Hermann Trophy and the Missouri Athletic Club Award.

Murray considers China's Sun Wen to be the most dangerous forward of this highly talented group. "I could say great things about all of these players, but Sun Wen is probably the most dynamic up front," she says. "She has unbelievable ball skills and is always a threat in front of the goal."