Teen sensation is the No. 1 pick in women's soccer league draft

Highschooler Alyssa Thompson was the No. 1 pick in the draft for the National Women's Soccer League.

Remember the name Alyssa Thompson. The Filipina American is a future star for women's soccer. 

At the age of 18, Alyssa made history during the 2023 National Women's Soccer League Draft as the first high schooler to get drafted at No. 1 and the youngest player ever to get drafted by a professional team, the Angel City FC. Additionally, the California native  became the first Filipino American to get picked No. 1 in the draft held in January.

“Alyssa Thompson, for us, is a phenom and generational player,” says LCFC General Manager Angela Hucles Mangano. “She’s a player who can make an immediate impact, but she’s also young and can develop and look to be a player that we're building a future off of, too.”

Alyssa, who is a senior at Harvard-Westlake High School, is an L.A. native who has long been touted as a top youth prospect. She declared for the draft at the last possible moment, opting to forgo a scholarship at Stanford to go straight to the pro level. 

“This was the hardest decision that I've ever had to make in my life,” says Alyssa of choosing to enter the draft. “There were so many back and forths about it, but in the end, I decided that it was the best for me.”

Alyssa, who is of Filipino and Peruvian descent, has been on Angel City’s radar for a while, having trained with the team last year during preseason. “Training with the full team and being in that environment, I thought, 'Wow, I can do this,’” she says.

Many fans will be familiar with Alyssa from the stint the then-17-year-old had with the senior US Women’s National Team this past fall, when she played some late-game minutes against England and Spain—including in a sold-out game at Wembley, her international debut when she was called on to sub for soccer standout Megan Rapinoe. 

It was a brief but potentially momentous look at a player who could one day make a big impact on the international stage.

Teenager Alyssa Thompson, left, made her international debut subbing for Megan Rapinoe.

Over the course of her club career, Alyssa has played across the front line, as well as in the midfield. “As a forward, you obviously like to get the ball,” she says. “When the defenders are forcing you out, I love to play wing to get in those positions and cross, but I also like to play striker and make runs in behind the line.”

Alyssa’s youth career has been unconventional. At age 13, she and her younger sister Gisele joined Santa Clarita Blue Heat, a semipro team whose roster is largely made up of college players looking to stay sharp in the offseason. In 2020, after a few years with Real So Cal, Alyssa and her sister Gisele moved to Total Futbol Academy, a boys’ club in MLS Next, Major League Soccer’s academy system. While it’s not unusual for top players in girls’ club soccer to train with boys’ clubs, the Thompson sisters are full members of the team and play competitive matches with them.

“It’s definitely helped me get to the point where I am,” Alyssa says. “The boys’ game, it's super fast, and they're super physical as well. You have to be able to play the ball quickly off one touch and pass accurately, because if you take one bad touch, they’re on you and you’ve already lost the ball.”

That’s not to say Alyssa isn’t also fast—she ran track the first three years of high school, earning times in the top 10 in California in the 100 meters all three seasons, including the sixth-fastest time in the state in 2022.

Getting drafted by the L.A. team is a dream come true for Alyssa. “Being able to play in front of my family and friends is something that's really important to me,” she says. “L.A. is just such an amazing place, with different cultures and different people.”

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