Kansas City Current’s owners read from the same “we’re building a championship” script every franchise does when they took over the franchise from Utah in 2020, but unlike most, nearly everything they’ve done since has led to them actually doggedly constructing a juggernaut.
That ambition hit yet another peak when they announced the signing of two-time champion Debinha on Monday.
The Brazilian superstar had been on Arsenal’s radar since becoming a free agent during the NWSL’s first such period. It was thought that the allure of Champions League competition, plus a globally recognized club like Arsenal, would be enough to capture her signature. It wasn’t.
“Being in a competitive team, which fights for titles, has its own training structure and soon its own stadium,” the Brazilian goalscorer told The Athletic, “[these] are things that I think are very important and that made my eyes shine."
Debinha is speaking of the Current’s brand new, team-specific training facility that was built and opened in 2022. The club has already broken ground on their new NWSL-specific stadium – a first – which the team expects to move into next year.
Prior to the 2022 season, they signed Debinha’s former North Carolina Courage teammates Sam Mewis and Lynn Williams. While Mewis is still battling injury, Williams is fit enough to head to New Zealand with the USWNT. This offseason they’ve been active again, making two huge free agent signings in midfielders Morgan Gautrat and Vanessa DiBernardo.
In the battle for woso league supremacy, this is the kind of ambition required to compete for talent, not just within the NWSL, but globally.
Kansas City is trying to stomp your favorite team into dust. They want to make dishing out embarrassing losses the state’s chief export. They will not rest until your favorite team is hugging its knees and nervously reciting nursery rhymes to soothe itself.
With slightly less hyperbole, it means Kansas City has built a championship team.
They were in the 2022 NWSL Championship game just a handful of months ago, but it was obvious against eventual champions Portland that they didn’t have the midfield or attack to match up.
No matter what happens with Sam Mewis’s recovery, Gautrat and DiBernardo are immediate and perfect fits who would have changed the game versus Portland. The same can be said for a healthy Lynn Williams, and even more so with the addition of Debinha.
Keeping Debinha in the NWSL is a win for the league overall. Adding her to an already loaded Kansas City team means we need Joe Biden to sign an executive order to start the 2023 NWSL season yesterday.