Catarina Macario tallied 63 goals and 47 assists in 68 NCAA matches and won the last two Hermann Trophy awards.
Catarina Macario's legendary collegiate career is over, though it remains to be seen where she will commence her next chapter.
The U.S. women's national team prospect and Stanford standout announced she is forgoing her senior year with the Cardinal to turn pro, news that is of added interest now because the NWSL draft is on Wednesday. In her announcement, Macario did not mention NWSL, nor did she specify plans to go abroad.
Macario won the Hermann Trophy as the nation's best player in 2018 and 2019 and tallied 63 goals and 47 assists in 68 NCAA matches. She teamed with current U.S. forward and Portland Timbers rising talent Sophia Smith to lead the Cardinal to the 2017 and 2019 national championships.
The Brazil-born 21-year-old recently became a U.S. citizen, clearing a path for her to become eligible to represent the USWNT. While that process is not yet complete, U.S. Soccer said it is in its final stages upon including her in a second senior national team camp in four months.
With the Pac-12 among those moving its women's soccer season to the spring, Macario could have played on at Stanford but has elected to pursue a first pro club instead.
"This was not an easy decision by any means because, even after having fulfilled my graduation requirements, I wanted to compete for another championship with my teammates and represent Stanford as a senior. This program means the world to me; I would not be the person nor player I am today without it and I will be forever grateful for the coaches, teammates, fans, medical, equipment & media staff for making my time on The Farm so unforgettable," Macario wrote in a statement.
Regardless of whether she stayed, her NWSL rights would have been eligible to be selected next week. Amid reports of slow registration among college seniors, the league waived its registration requirements, effectively making every senior draft-eligible, whether they've declared or not. That, by the league's definition, extends to "all Division I players who exhausted three years of intercollegiate soccer eligibility prior to the 2020–2021 academic year."
As a result, Macario may still be chosen on Wednesday night, even if she has no intent of immediately signing with an NWSL club. As the league writes, "clubs will hold the rights to each athlete selected in the draft for a period of time as set by the league." That time period is until the start of the 2022 NWSL preseason, with rights remaining on a team's "College Protected List."
“By modifying our draft eligibility requirements, and removing barriers during these unprecedented times, we’ll ensure our clubs have a more expansive opportunity to identify the best collegiate athletes for their teams and enable those athletes to join the NWSL when it makes sense for them,” NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird said in a statement.
Expansion club Racing Louisville FC has the first pick and can either roll the dice on Macario not knowing whether she'll sign—the club already used two expansion draft picks on Tobin Heath and Christen Press, who will remain with Manchester United for the foreseeable future—or opt for a more sure route.