Why the time was right for Deyna Castellanos to join Bay FC, NWSL – Equalizer Soccer

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“Possibly in the future,” Deyna Castellanos wrote over 4 years in the past as the cliffhanger in her tweet about deciding towards enjoying within the National Women’s Soccer League.

On the time, Castellanos was wrapping up a standout faculty profession at Florida State. She determined towards coming into her title into the NWSL Draft and left her vacation spot to probability, ultimately signing with Atletico Madrid in Spain.

Nonetheless, this Friday, the 24-year-old Venezuelan worldwide lastly arrived within the NWSL as the most recent member of Bay FC, a 2024 NWSL enlargement workforce. She arrives by way of switch from Manchester Metropolis and signed a contract that sources say can be value round $1.8 million over 4 years as a complete bundle if the fourth-year mutual choice is exercised. That’s believed to make her the highest-paid worldwide within the league as of now.

As she reiterated two years in the past in another tweet, her arrival within the NWSL was all the time going to coincide with elevated participant autonomy, one thing the league has slowly added by means of free company lately. Groups’ wage caps additionally elevated by about 40% in 2024. Bay FC — and the NWSL — was mutually her selection.

“At that second, for me, the draft wasn’t choice,” Castellanos instructed The Equalizer in an unique interview. “It was one thing that I didn’t actually like, the golf equipment selecting me and never me selecting them. It was one thing that I actually struggled with and that’s why I didn’t need to keep and go within the draft. Now, I’ve the chance to come back again. It’s a membership that I actually need to play for, they usually actually need me, too. It was that midpoint the place you say, ‘OK it’s the best choice and I actually need this. Let’s go for it.’”