How NJ/NY Gotham FC sold USWNT stars on people-first ethos to pull off ambitious NWSL free agency sweep

Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett join Crystal Dunn and Tierna Davidson as new additions to the club

Months before NJ/NY Gotham FC secured their first playoff berth in two years and went on to win their first NWSL Championship, a few branches of the club's staff began plotting an ambitious recruitment strategy in entirely routine circumstances.

"We have an ongoing scouting database and an ongoing list of players who our coaches think would be particularly good fits for our team," Gotham general manager Yael Averbuch West told CBS Sports. (Disclosure: Averbuch West is the wife of CBS Sports Golazo Network host Aaron West.) The group involved with compiling this list take part in a weekly call to discuss the roster, constantly evaluating areas of improvement with the club's tactical vision in mind.

The habitual process delivered extraordinary results, all with a few weeks to spare before preseason. Gotham spent the first days of the new year welcoming not one or two, but four of the most-sought after players in the NWSL's second free agency class -- Women's World cup winners Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson, Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett. It is a remarkable haul for any club, let alone a club that has historically been in the bottom half of the league's table before winning the 2023 championship. It is especially impressive considering the NWSL's somewhat restraining roster rules, but Averbuch West is adamant that Gotham did not need to take an extraordinary strategy to navigate the salary cap -- or that the incomings are a sign of a new approach to recruitment. Instead, it required a holistic approach to sell prospective players on the overall value of joining a team on the rise.