Captain of the Olympic football team predicts a wave of investment in women’s sport after major contracts similar to Caitlin Clark

The 30-year-old co-captain of the US women’s national team is preparing for her third Olympic Games this summer after helping her team win a Bronze medal on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

In her third Olympic Games, Horan will lead the 18-player team. announced just last week in Paris, because the team attempted to recapture a gold medal the U.S. had not won since 2012.

The call-up to the Olympic squad “still makes me super, super emotional,” says the veteran Assetsand although she describes the method as “exhausting,” it also brings lucrative financial opportunities for the team.

“A lot of our success with partnerships and brands is always tied to major tournaments,” Horan explained.

But while investment in women’s sport is increasing, “there is still a huge difference” between the contracts of men and girls, Horan admits, whose status as costliest As a USWNT player, she earns only $1.5 million in off- and on-field earnings, based on Retrieved 2018-08-18.

“When you look at the contracts of European men’s football teams compared to those of women’s football teams, it’s crazy,” said the midfielder, who also plays for French club Olympique Lyonnais Féminin. “We’re talking about millions and millions a week.”

In 2022, five USWNT players reached an agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation to file a criticism with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging unequal pay and treatment.

Nevertheless, female footballers on the 2023 Women’s World Cup earned on average only 25 cents for each dollar the lads earned at their World Cup, a CNN evaluation found.

Accordingly Forbes’ List 2023 Of the highest-paid athletes on the planet, the highest three players Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé each earned $120 million this 12 months. For comparison: The 15 highest-paid women within the 2023 World Cup rankings together earned made lower than a 3rd from each of those individual players.

“It’s so crazy to look at some of these contracts and see the investment in men’s sports,” Horan says. But she’s still optimistic that the rising interest in women’s sports will enable change.

“You know what Caitlin Clark has done for her team in [WNBA]”, says Horan, referring to Clark’s starting salary of just $76,000 in comparison with the tens of millions earned by NBA rookies like Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, who earned nearly $12.2 million in his first 12 months.

“But then you look at the sponsorship deals that overshadow that.” Specifically: The Indiana Fever rookie player has signed contracts price tens of millions of dollars, including a rumored $28 million cope with Nike, essentially the most lucrative sponsorship deal for a female basketball player in history.

The No. 1 pick within the 2024 WNBA Draft has helped the league reach latest highs, including the June 23 game against Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, which was the most costly WNBA game ever. The average ticket price was $271 – greater than 3 times the typical Sky ticket price of $88 for home games, based on online ticketing platform TickPick.

“It’s an investment that we’ve talked about before. It just has to keep growing, and I think it will because you see the direction women’s sport is going,” Horan says.

Sponsorship as a rescue

Soccer is big business, and because the USWNT and its players proceed to succeed on and off the sector, brands are taking notice.

A transparent sign of the USWNT’s popularity is the record sales of their home jersey, said Nike CEO Mark Parker The Wall Street Journal in 2019. It is “the best-selling football jersey (men’s or women’s) ever in a season on Nike.com.”

Even without the Olympic stage, women’s football is growing. In November 2023 Yahoo Sports reported on the four-year “Record-breaking” transfer agreement valued at $240 million with coverage on CBS, ESPN, Scripps Sports and Amazon.

In addition, research firms SponsorUnited found last 12 months that the variety of brands buying sponsorship or media within the NWSL since 2019 is growing 4 times faster than in Major League Soccer.

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“A lot of brands are investing more and more, which has always been the goal. So it’s really exciting,” says Horan, who represents eight major brands, including cherry juice brand Cheribundi, Microsoft’s Xbox and most recently, famous film director The winery of Francis Ford Coppola.

Of her latest brand deal, Horan says: “Football is the love of my life, but I really cherish these moments with my family over a glass of wine. I usually choose partnerships that I really believe in… so this is a really exciting partnership for me.”

Outlook for the 2024 Olympic Games

As Horan sets her sights on the Olympics this month, she leads the youngest U.S. women’s team because the 2008 Beijing Games.

With newcomers like 19-year-old Jaedyn Shaw, the typical age of this 12 months’s team is 26.8 years, 4 years younger than the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team. Half of the players are, based on US Soccer.

Horan, who has had the longest goal streak for the national team yearly since 2015, says she has “full confidence” within the young players.

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“Always radiate confidence,” she said Assetsand thanked her sports psychologist for her 4 years of collaboration.

“My basic attitude, especially at the Olympics, is to go out there and win the game,” she said. It’s game by game.”