The 2023 NWSL Draft takes place Thursday at 6 p.m. ET at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, and we’ve got you covered on everything you need to know to follow along.
How the NWSL Draft works
There will be 48 total picks (four rounds of 12 selections) from the pool of eligible players who have registered and been vetted by the league. The eligibility requirements include:
- Being a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or a foreign national who is currently or was enrolled at a university in the United States during the 2022-23 academic year; and
- Being an individual who has exhausted, lost, or renounced their remaining college eligibility during the 2022 calendar year, including high school graduates choosing to forego college eligibility; and
- Turning at least 18 years old on or before Jan. 1, 2023; and
- Not being under a current professional contract, nor having previously signed a contract to play soccer professionally.
The full list of registered players is here.
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In the first round, teams will have five minutes to announce their picks. That time goes down to three minutes in the second through fourth rounds. Teams can request up to three timeouts during the draft, all of which will be three minutes regardless of the round in which they occur.
Pick order
Angel City FC secured the No. 1 pick in a four-team blockbuster trade last week. More trades could occur before or during the draft.
Full first-round order as of Wednesday:
- Angel City FC
- NJ/NY Gotham FC
- Orlando Pride
- Racing Louisville FC
- Portland Thorns FC
- North Carolina Courage
- Chicago Red Stars
- Houston Dash
- North Carolina Courage
- NJ/NY Gotham FC
- North Carolina Courage
- Portland Thorns FC
The full draft order is available here.
Top names
Some NWSL teams have specific positional needs — Angel City and Gotham both need midfielders, KC could use another defender, etc. — and some teams are more willing to take on player development than others. But in general, these are some of the players expected to go high in the NWSL draft, with Alyssa Thompson expected to go at No. 1 to Angel City FC, per a report by the LA Times.
- Thompson — forward, Harvard-Westlake Prep/Total Football Academy
- Messiah Bright — forward, Texas Christian University
- Michelle Cooper — forward, Duke University
- Izzy D’Aquila — forward, Santa Clara University
- Emily Madril — defender, Florida State University
- Jenna Nighswonger — forward/midfielder, Florida State University
- Alexa Spaanstra — forward, University of Virginia
How to watch
Coverage of the draft will begin on CBS Sports Network and streaming on Paramount+ and CBS Sports HQ from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET. The draft live stream will continue on Paramount+ and CBS Sports HQ from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. Fans outside the United States can watch the whole draft on NWSL.com and the league’s YouTube channel.
CBS Sports’ Poppy Miller will lead broadcast coverage alongside analysts Jordan Angeli, Jen Cooper, Lori Lindsey and Saskia Webber, as well as reporter Marisa Pilla. Coverage will include commentary and analysis on each selection as well as interviews with draft picks, league and team executives and more, the NWSL said.
Required reading
(Photo of Alyssa Thompson: Peter van den Berg / USA Today)
