Angel City signed Maddie DiMaria before any of her 12 World Cup goals
The 17-year-old's deal runs through 2030 and was signed by Oct. 8, eleven days before her first goal in Morocco. She is available for Saturday's quarterfinal at Kansas City. The people who signed her keep changing the subject to later.
Angel City announced on Thursday that Maddie DiMaria, a 17-year-old forward from Fenton, Missouri, has signed through 2030. For two weeks, anybody with a sporting director's job and a working television could watch her score 12 goals at the U-17 Women's World Cup and start doing arithmetic about what she was going to cost.
Angel City had already done its arithmetic. Jeff Kassouf of ESPN confirmed that she signed before the NWSL's October 8 roster freeze, and the club's release says the deal came before the tournament. The United States opened against Samoa on October 19. So on the day she scored six goals in a 17-0 win, a professional contract with her name on it was at least 11 days old and the public had not been told.
The club has not released financial terms, so what it paid is private. The date is public, and the date is the better half of the story. Whatever Angel City agreed to, it agreed to for a forward who had 67 goals in a junior season at Cor Jesu Academy and a commitment to North Carolina. It now employs the American record holder.
(ESPN notes that the league has no rule on how quickly a team must announce a signing after the freeze. Teams often take days. This one took four weeks, and in those four weeks the asset appreciated in public.)
What the 12 were#
| Match | Result | DiMaria |
|---|---|---|
| Samoa | W 17-0 | 6 |
| Kenya | W 6-1 | 4 |
| China | L 3-2 | 1 |
| Spain, round of 16 | W 2-1 | 1, the winner |
| North Korea, quarterfinal | L 3-0 | 0 |
The total broke Michelle Akers's 10 from 1991, the old U.S. record for a single FIFA World Cup at any level, and U.S. Soccer has her with 24 goals in 23 caps at the under-17 level.
The table also has a second thing to say. Ten of the 12 came in two matches, against Samoa and Kenya. She scored two in the other three, and one of those two was the goal that put out a two-time champion, which is a fine way to spend a small sample. North Korea, the defending champion, held her and everyone else scoreless on November 1. None of that takes away from the record. It does suggest that Angel City's scouting, which Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times reports had been at this for almost two years, was reading more than the goal column, because when the contract got signed none of those 12 existed.
Saturday, and the people talking about 2030#
The club says she will be available for selection when Angel City, seeded fifth and unbeaten in 10, plays at the fourth-seeded Kansas City Current in Saturday's quarterfinal (9:00 a.m. PT, CBS). That is six days after she played the North Korea match in Salé.
The people who signed her would like you to look further ahead. Sporting director Mark Parsons told Tamerra Griffin of The Athletic that "this was more long-term player recruitment," and Griffin reports the club will not fast-track her into the league. Chief executive Amy Taylor said the excitement over DiMaria playing in this year's playoffs is "not really what it's about." Parsons also conceded the timing was not ideal, because the club was negotiating with her family without a permanent head coach. Leif Gunnar Smerud is the interim manager, and he is the one who picks Saturday's squad.
I think she stays on the bench. She has trained with this team for a week that anyone has reported, in the summer, and an interim manager unbeaten in 10 has little reason to change a playoff game for a player the front office is publicly describing as a project for later. My call: DiMaria plays no minutes on Saturday, extra time included.
The other side is real. San Diego signed Melanie Barcenas at 15 on March 21, 2023, and she was on the field in the 71st minute on April 29, 39 days later. DiMaria's contract will be at least 30 days old on Saturday, she is about two years older than Barcenas was, and a team that announces a signing two days before a quarterfinal and puts "available for selection" in the release is not exactly hiding her.
The door that is already shut#
Concacaf published the 51-player U.S. preliminary roster for the W Championship on November 2, the day after the U-17s went out. DiMaria is not on it. Three teenagers are: Melanie Barcenas, born in October 2007, and Kimmi Ascanio, born in January 2008, both of San Diego, and Lily Yohannes of Lyon, born in June 2007.
Under Concacaf's rule, every replacement for the final 23 has to come from that list. So the most prolific American in any World Cup has no route into the tournament that sends four teams to Brazil, starting against El Salvador on November 27. The list carries no reasons, and a 17-year-old with no NWSL minutes being left off a senior list is the least scandalous sentence available on this subject.
It does put the two clocks side by side. Her club has until 2030. Her national team's next tournament closed its doors three days before she had a professional team anyone knew about. She gave up her North Carolina commitment to start one of those clocks, and the first test of it is whether a substitute's bib comes off in Kansas City on Saturday morning.
Sources: Angel City FC release (November 5); Jeff Kassouf, ESPN (November 5); Tamerra Griffin, The Athletic (November 5); Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times (November 5); U.S. Soccer match recaps for Samoa (October 19), Kenya, China, Spain and North Korea (November 1); Concacaf, "2026 Concacaf W Championship Preliminary Rosters Revealed" and its roster PDF (November 2); San Diego Wave FC match report (April 29, 2023); Sports Illustrated on her signing (March 21, 2023).
