Real Madrid have secured the future of one of the most promising players to emerge from their academy, La Fábrica, with Noe Bejarano signing a first-team contract until June 30, 2030.

While most leagues in the world allow clubs to spend as much as they’re willing to build their squad, the NWSL in the United States follows a time-honored American sports tradition: a salary cap. Let's deep dive into it.

“Tiny but incredibly strong. Unstoppable. When you say ‘Siria Crotti’, you actually mean ‘Rome’. It’s her against everyone.” That was how Italian journalist Andrea Barilaro described the performance of Barcelona’s brand-new signing, Siria Crotti.

This week was dominated mainly by the change in the Manchester United dugout, where Marc Skinner left after six years. Unfortunately, we also have a sad injury new from OL Lyonnes. But there’s good news too: WAFCON has moved into the playoffs, and Brighton Women gonna enter the season not only with some interesting new signings, but also with a brand new sponsor.

Rayo Vallecano's story is one of the clearest examples of how neglect can bring down a historic women's football team. In 2026, the club's decline reached a new low as Rayo's women's side were relegated to Tercera RFEF, the fourth tier of Spanish women's football.

The path to professional football is relatively simple in Europe: players come up through professional clubs’ youth academies where they play for free and then join a senior club squad once they graduate from their academy. In the US, with most professional women’s clubs not having affiliated youth clubs, the landscape is a little more complicated. What does youth football development look like in the United States, and what are the different pathways to going pro?

FC Barcelona continue rebuilding their squad after another historic campaign in 2025/26. The Catalan side completed a remarkable quadruple, defeating OL Lyonnes in the UEFA Women's Champions League final (4:0) before also lifting Liga F, the Copa de la Reina and the Spanish Super Cup.

The transfer window is still in full swing, and women's footballalready witnessed some big moves. Alexia Putellas to London City Lionesses, Katie McCabe to Chelsea, Georgia Stanway to Arsenal. But this summer has also been interesting from a financial perspective. Real Madrid invested in young talent Felicia Schröder, while Barcelona put their faith in experienced Kerolin.

When the NWSL first kicked off in 2013, there were only three official league-wide sponsors and one broadcasting partner who agreed to air just nine matches that season. The club themselves relied on small local partnerships for their front of kit sponsors, with each club having only one to two. Today, the league has 15 league-wide partnerships with brands and 12 media partners, including four broadcasters. More impressively, clubs’ individual sponsorships add up to over 400 brand partners.