Angel City FC has given their attack a significant boost, as they’ve completed a trade to bring Sydney Leroux over from the Orlando Pride.
In the deal, Orlando will receive Angel City’s natural first round pick in the 2024 NWSL College Draft, $75,000 in NWSL allocation money, and a potential $10,000 allocation money bonus this year and in 2023 based on Leroux’s performance.
“I am so excited to be a part of Angel City and everything being built with this club,” said Leroux in a press release from Angel City. “The atmosphere I felt playing at the Banc [of California Stadium] on Mother’s Day was unbelievable. It really feels like I’m coming home, between going to UCLA and living in LA. Angel City is truly putting women’s soccer on the map in Los Angeles and it shows if you invest in women, great things will happen. I am excited to be a part of that.”
Leroux, 32, had two goals and an for Orlando this season, as the Pride struggled throughout the spring and suffered the added difficulty of new coach Amanda Cromwell being suspended during an investigation into alleged retaliatory conduct.
In 2019 and 2020, injuries, pregnancy, and Orlando having to miss out on the original Challenge Cup kept Leroux off the field, but she came back with a vengeance in 2021. An 8 goal/2 assist season in which she played in all but one Pride game marked her best season since 2013.
For Angel City, the rationale for the trade is straightforward. Christen Press suffered a torn ACL earlier in June, and when coach Freya Coombe has looked to rest striker Simone Charley, the alternative has often been to push attacking midfielder Savannah McCaskill up as an ad hoc forward due to a lack of attacking depth.
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