The Orlando Pride’s former VP of soccer operations, Haley Carter, is joining the Washington Spirit in a rare blockbuster move for the world of NWSL technical staff.
Two weeks after departing the team she helped turn into NWSL champions, Carter will now serve as the Spirit’s president of soccer operations.
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The new role will allow her to pursue wider ambitions of not just guiding the Spirit, but shaping the global game via owner Michele Kang’s multiclub structure. However, she also has pressing tasks ahead of her, including Trinity Rodman’s free agency and the Washington Spirit’s pursuit of a second championship.
Carter has built a reputation as one of the best general managers in the league in her three years with the Pride, after leading them to an NWSL shield and championship in 2024. She’s also leaving one title contender for another.
Midway through that historic Orlando season in 2024, the Pride announced the club and Carter had agreed to a contract extension through the 2026 season, with an option for 2027. The Pride made it to the semifinals this season, even after losing star forward Barbra Banda to injury halfway through the year, and were eliminated by a late goal from eventual champions Gotham FC.
“I’m proud of what we accomplished as a group in Orlando, and really thankful to everyone there, ownership and staff and the athletes,” Carter told The Athletic in an interview earlier this week. “It’s always going to hold a special place in my heart.”
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Carter knows moving north will get the women’s soccer community talking. So, why leave?
“I think that’s going to be the big question,” Carter said, with the hint of a smile.
“The reality is, accepting a position with Michele, especially the president of soccer ops with the Spirit, it’s such an expanded leadership role that allows me to operate at a broader strategic level. Not just building one championship club, but helping shape the future of women’s soccer across multiple clubs, multiple continents, multiple contexts, is really important.”
For Kang and the Spirit, the search for the right person to lead the sporting department took nearly eight months, with a lengthy list of candidates across America and Europe.
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“No one came close to Haley,” Kang told The Athletic on Tuesday.
She cited Carter’s military background, her time as an NWSL player, her work with the Afghanistan women’s national team, her stint with the Pride, and her attention to player care.
“When I thought about what we need at the Spirit and what our players need, and to take our club to the next level, I couldn’t think of any better person after an exhaustive search,” Kang said.
Carter will serve as the Spirit’s top executive on the soccer side as the Spirit have removed the interim tag from Nathan Minion’s general manager title. Minion has been in that role since the departure of Mark Krikorian in March, and serves alongside sporting director James Hocken. According to the Spirit, Carter will oversee “technical, performance and player development functions,” focusing more on long-term vision than the day-to-day roster building and running of the club, which will fall under Minion’s purview.
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Asked about her discussions with Kang about the potential role, Carter joked it wasn’t a tough sell, as much as it wasn’t an easy decision for her to make the move. (There’s a physical move involved as well; Carter said she was intentional in finding a new home in the D.C. itself, rather than opting for Northern Virginia or Maryland.)
“I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve watched the growth of Washington in particular over time. I was very opinionated about some of the things happening in the early days with Washington because I knew how great it could be, and I knew how committed the fan base was, and I could see the potential,” she said.
Carter recalled playing Kan-Jam with the Spirit Squadron at the tailgates after her retirement as a player while the team still played at the Maryland SoccerPlex, years before she re-entered the NWSL as a general manager. Kang’s takeover of the team changed that potential: the team moved to Audi Field, she made investments across the board at the Spirit while still turning her attention to the global game.
“The Spirit have become this cultural icon in D.C., and that’s really exciting,” Carter said. “It’s got a rich history in the league, and now have the resources and ambition, backed by Michele, to really compete at the highest level domestically and internationally.”
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The reach of Carter’s new role is a significant step in terms of realizing her own ambitions, not just to “create something that’s special and sustainable and transformative,” but to have influence on a global scale.
As for Kang, she wants Carter to start with the Spirit as she feels the club needs her expertise to help develop a model for running the best possible sporting organization. “Let’s build that at the Spirit level, and let’s perfect that,” Kang said, then spread it to other clubs.
There is still the present matter of helping the Spirit get over the hump of adding a second star to their crest.
Carter’s tenure begins shortly after the Spirit’s second consecutive appearance in the NWSL final and second consecutive 1-0 loss. Washington’s only NWSL Championship win occurred in 2021. Carter has lived back-to-back postseason appearances, and knows how hard it is not just to win a championship, but to follow up that performance the following year. It’s knowledge the Spirit will need after the emotions losing to Gotham in San Jose earlier this year.
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“Winning a championship requires a little bit of luck — that’s the reality — and a really, really good understanding of controlling what you can control, and fine-tuning the details,” Carter said. She’s ready to observe the first few months of the offseason, and she said the Spirit aren’t a club in need of an overhaul. Her job is to find those things that need fine-tuning.
“Figure out what the gaps are. Figure out where we need investment. What are the tweaks we want to make to culture? What does success really look like?” Carter said. “We have to define that as a club … not just this season, but three, five years from now. What I’m excited about is being able to answer those questions with the people who are already there, doing the work, not answering it for them.”
Kang was also quick to credit the staff already in place, pointing to their three finals appearances in the last five seasons. “We just need that last mile,” she said. “Certainly someone like Haley can push all of us to that last mile.”
One of the biggest questions of the Spirit’s offseason is the ongoing matter of re-signing forward Rodman, which Carter is entering in the middle, even as negotiations have reached NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman.
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“We all know retaining Trinity is a top priority, not just for me, not just for Michele, but for the entire league. She’s a generational talent. When you think about the last couple of transfer windows and the talent that has gone overseas, it is a legitimate concern,” Carter said. There’s also Rodman’s impact off the field, from sponsors to ticket sales to broadcasts to consider.
“We’ll do everything that we can to work with the league on solutions that will allow us to retain players like Trinity,” Carter said.
She thinks the NWSL salary cap, as it stands, was built “for a different era of women’s soccer” and not for one where NWSL clubs are competing with a handful of top international teams willing to spend big on player salaries and transfer fees.
“As these international clubs start to increase their investment, the reality is we’re going to need mechanisms that will allow NWSL clubs to compete for our own players. Michele understands that, we understand that, all of us understand that, and I think there’s real momentum toward solutions.”
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Carter does not yet know what those solutions may look like.
“When it really gets down to it, Trinity should be a cornerstone of what we’re building in Washington,” she said. “We’re committed, from a talent retention standpoint, from a league standpoint, to making that happen. It’s just a matter of working with the league to see what the potential solutions are.”
While salary-cap limitations are still a work in progress, other factors could help sway Rodman to stay where she is. Kang hiring Carter is one of those things.
“That was also a calculation,” Kang said. “Somebody like Trin, and for that matter, all other players, I think there could be a different model. Yes, money is important and it could potentially be the decision criteria, but right now, players think about a lot of different components: competitiveness of the league, the training center, coaches, player care, all that.
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“Having somebody like Haley, who not only played herself, coached, and has the player focus and player-first mentality, is a huge thing and can make sure that we retain the best talent at the Spirit.”
Whatever happens with Rodman and the league’s future when it comes to the salary cap and possible workarounds for star players, it won’t stop the continuing momentum in the stands at Audi Field. Carter is “in awe” of the Spirit’s cultural impact across the city and the growth from the lack of a tailgate lot at the Plex to the game-day environment of 2025. Rodman and other players have climbed into the capo stand after games this year as the relationship grows between the players and supporters. Attendance has grown steadily since the move to Audi Field too, first surpassing an average of over 10,000 a year in 2023, nearly 14,000 last season, and over 15,000 in 2025.
“The product on the field, the experience of the supporters, the fans, and the experience of the athletes — these are not mutually exclusive things,” Carter said.
“That growth is not just, ‘Oh, there are more fans that are coming.’ The connection has become so much tighter. It’s weaving a narrative together that I think is really exciting.”
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Starting this week, she has her own role in writing that story for 2026 and beyond.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
US Women’s national team, Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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