Gotham FC

NWSL

Gotham Football Club is an American professional football team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).The club also known as The Bats was found in 2006.

Signature Fun Facts

What makes Gotham FC what it is.

During a standout 2024 season, Harper scored 17 goals, including back-to-back hat tricks, making her the first Minnesota player to achieve such a feat since 1998.

During her remarks at the White House, she delivered the now-iconic line, “You would never expect a flower to bloom without water, but women in sport who have been denied water, sunlight, and soil are somehow expected to blossom.”

More Fun Facts

Quirky facts from the Gotham FC squad.

She played a lot of futsal with her brothers as a child. The coach of local futsal club worked also as supervisor in school where Ouahabi went to. He saw her play on the corridor and asked her mom, who worked here in the kitchen, if she can come to the training.

In 2019, at just 15 years old, Sofia Cook had the honor of lifting the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy alongside USWNT legends like Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Mia Hamm, and others. It was a special moment, symbolizing the future of the team.

She grew up watching Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press play for Stanford, just ten minutes from her hometown of Menlo Park, California. They were her role models, and later, her teammates on the U.S. National Team.

She played on a boys' team since she was 6, until she had to leave at age 11 due to rules against mixed-gender teams.

At the 2024 Women's Cup exhibition tournament in Colombia, she scored a last-minute winner for Gotham FC against Deportivo Cali, becoming the youngest player to appear and score for an NWSL club in any competition.

She won the prestigious Hermann Trophy two years in a row (2020 and 2021), recognizing her as the best college player in NCAA Division I women's soccer.

In 2003, 8-year-old Rose dressed as Mia Hamm for a third-grade book-sharing project, wearing Hamm’s No. 9 jersey, white shorts, and a gold medal around her neck.

She is a first Australian player to scored a hattrick in the World Cup.

In 2016, her move to Houston Dash made her the first Glasgow City player to command a transfer fee.

At just 13 years old, she signed a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with Nike, making her the youngest athlete to do so in the company’s history.

She once dreamed of becoming an astronaut, not just as a childhood fantasy but as a serious career goal. She even planned to take flying lessons and attend a military academy, such as the Naval Academy or West Point, to help make that dream a reality.

Beyond soccer, she values quality time—especially with her family and friends, who have had a tremendous impact on her career. “There was a point where we moved into a one-bedroom apartment so that we could have extra money to fund all of my opportunities,” Shaw says.

She made history in 2024 when she signed with NJ/NY Gotham FC at just 13 years old, becoming the youngest player ever to sign with a team in the National Women's Soccer League.

She’s renowned for saving penalties under pressure — including a shootout hero moment at the 2024 Olympics, where she not only saved two but scored the winner herself.

She started her senior career at just 16, debuting for Birmingham City in a UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final — and was named Player of the Match!