What’s next for USWNT striker Catarina Macario with contract talks and an injury lingering?
· Yahoo Sports
Catarina Macario was immaculate last year. The leading goalscorer for the USWNT showcased her ability to hold up play, connected across generations with international teammates and found the back of the net eight times in 10 appearances with two assists. Three of those goals came in the last two months of 2025 as the U.S. finished the year with two friendlies against Italy.
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“It has been a good year. It has been a year that I’ve tried to find some consistency,” Macario told TNT Sports at the time. “I’m still trying to find my rhythm and whatnot, but it’s been good.”
By all accounts, Macario, who plays for Chelsea in the Women’s Super League (WSL), made clear through her national team performances that 2026 held plenty of promise. It felt like, after two years of managing injuries, she was peaking at just the right time as the USWNT prepares to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
Two months into the year, however, and the picture looks different.
Macario picked up another injury in late December that has kept her out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad, as well as the latest U.S. roster for next month’s SheBelieves Cup. That Macario is currently unavailable for selection has only exacerbated the question of her professional future; the 26-year-old’s contract with Chelsea expires in four months.
Macario’s decision about her future carries high stakes. Here is what we know so far.
What is her status with Chelsea?
Chelsea face Arsenal in the quarterfinals of the Women’s Champions League next month. The reigning WSL champions look to right the ship against the reigning continental champions after a period of poor form and internal tension among Chelsea’s top brass.
Macario, though, won’t be playing. She was left off Chelsea’s roster for the tournament, which was published on Feb. 7, due to a heel injury.
The Brazilian-American striker’s future has been a prolonged topic of discussion over the past two months. Her contract with Chelsea is set to expire this summer and with the World Cup in Brazil 16 months away, Macario’s next move will be critical.
The forward, who has been dealing with injuries for much of the season, last featured for Chelsea on Dec. 10 in a Champions League match against Roma. The week prior, she was with the U.S. for a pair of friendlies against Italy in Florida, scoring three goals across the two fixtures.
She has not been on the pitch since.
“Cat had some heel pain before Christmas and she’s managing that,” Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said on Jan. 16 ahead of the FA Cup game against Crystal Palace. “She’s progressing in her rehab and heading in the right direction, but won’t be available for the weekend.”
Questions continued as Macario was left off of the USWNT roster for the SheBelieves Cup, which runs from March 1-7 and features matches against Argentina, Canada, and Colombia.
“My understanding is that there has been a heel injury that I think she’s getting closer and closer with every day, but she’s not available for selection yet at Chelsea,” U.S. head coach Emma Hayes said after announcing her roster. “I don’t know when that is going to come. I don’t know if it’s one week, two, three weeks away, but I know she’s not available for selection.”
Hayes has experimented heavily with the U.S. roster; she capped 44 players in 2025 alone and awarded 16 debuts. While that phase of her development is over for this cycle, Hayes said she still sees Macario fitting into her depth chart, even while injured.
“Honestly, if Cat Macario and Sophia Wilson were fit for selection, they would have been selected as the nines,” she said, adding an update for fellow forward Wilson, who missed 2025 on the field while pregnant with her first child.
How do Chelsea’s struggles impact Macario?
Chelsea have had a turbulent season domestically. They sit third in the WSL, trailing front-runners Manchester City by nine points. Their 5-1 loss to the Manchester side on Feb. 1, which followed a 2-0 loss to Arsenal on Jan. 24, raised serious concern over Bompastor’s future with the club; the French manager had never lost two consecutive matches in her coaching career.
Before joining Chelsea, Bompastor coached OL Lyonnes, where Macario began her professional career. In 2021, the two won a Champions League title together. Macario signed with Chelsea in 2023 when Hayes was still managing the team. When Hayes departed for the USWNT in 2024, Chelsea hired Bompastor to replace her.
Bompastor guided the team to a domestic treble last season, but this season has been significantly more challenging on and off the pitch, with some sources describing to The Athletic a power struggle behind the scenes. On Feb. 6, Chelsea and Bompastor agreed to a contract extension that will run until 2030, a vote of confidence by the front office. Three days later, the team parted ways with former head of women’s football Paul Green, who had been with the club since 2013 and worked closely with Hayes.
Still, it is unclear whether or to what extent these realities factored into Macario’s decision to reject Chelsea’s contract extension offer. As she enters what could be the peak of her career with the 2027 World Cup on the horizon — Macario’s first opportunity to win a major trophy with the U.S. — her next club will play a key role in her trajectory.
Where could Macario go next?
Macario moving back to the U.S. for the first time since she played at Stanford University is a possibility, as The Athletic previously reported. The San Diego Wave are located in the area where she grew up after moving to the U.S. from Brazil when she was 12 years old.
One source told The Athletic that Macario had turned down Chelsea’s contract extension offer and said she also received offers from other European clubs. In order to protect relationships, the source spoke with The Athletic on the condition of anonymity. Another source said the San Diego Wave were front-runners to sign her.
On Feb. 13, ESPN reported that the Wave were in advanced negotiations to sign Macario. They reiterated that a deal had not yet been signed, but that Macario had expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of returning home and playing in the NWSL for the first time. The NWSL team declined to comment when approached by The Athletic. Macario is yet to publicly voice an opinion on her preferred next step, but the attraction of returning home and playing in the NWSL for the first time is clearly tempting from the outside.
On the sporting side, it makes sense for Macario to land somewhere she’s all but guaranteed substantial and consistent minutes on the pitch — something she was not able to do at Chelsea due in large part to injuries, including an ACL tear in 2022 and the nagging knocks that have occurred since.
Unlike European leagues that lack evenly distributed competition, in the NWSL, Macario could find consistent game time and consistent competition. It could also be advantageous to experience the pace and physicality for which the NWSL is known.
The league allows incoming transfers up until March 16, three days after the first match of the season. The introduction of the High Impact Player rule, which allows NWSL clubs to spend up to $1 million above the salary cap on a player or players who meet predetermined qualifications, could also help an NWSL team sign Macario. The rule was established in December but is currently being disputed by the NWSL Players Association, which claims the rule misinterprets the “roster classification” as described in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Macario may decide to stay put at Chelsea until her contract is up this summer, but if she does have her sights set on the NWSL, it would behoove her to begin the season with them and give herself the extra time to adjust and gel, especially with Champions League play no longer a consideration for her and Chelsea’s hopes of a domestic title growing thin.
Meanwhile, an early exit for Macario could benefit Chelsea, who could receive something in a transfer before the summer. After June, she becomes a free agent and could walk away on her own accord, and she’s not the only Chelsea player with contract talks on the horizon.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women's national team, Chelsea, NWSL, Women's Soccer
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