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A recent World Cup winner joins a historically downtrodden club, immediately leads them to their first championship, praises the level of play in the league, speaks fondly of living in the club’s market, extends her contract with the club, leads the club to another championship, is named a league MVP finalist, and breaks the club’s all-time scoring record. That’s the fairytale of Esther González and Gotham FC – a story that ended abruptly, just nine days after that scoring record was set. On 27 July, Gotham announced that they had mutually parted ways with the striker as she “temporarily steps away from soccer to attend to personal matters in Spain”. The announcement of her departure was full of gushing words going both directions, and was met with understanding and support from the women’s soccer world.

But less than a month after González left Gotham, Al Qadsiah, a club in the Saudi Women’s Premier League, announced her as their newest signing, on a one-season contract with an option to extend for a second. NWSL journalist Jenna Tonelli soon reported, “League sources tell me that Gotham did not expect Esther to sign with another club this soon.” Questions swirled: did she actually intend to take a break from soccer when she left Gotham? And why would a player who just had a child with her female partner choose to play in Saudi Arabia, a country where same-sex relations are criminalized?

There’s a lot the public doesn’t know about the transfer saga, but the questions it raises, and the uncomfortable feelings that surround them, say a lot about the state of women’s soccer anyway.

For one, it raises questions about the base professionalism between players and clubs. If Gotham really didn’t expect González to sign with another club so soon, was that put into writing? Is it possible González misled Gotham to get out of a contract that ran through 2027? In either case, one result is that Gotham missed out on the chance to recoup a transfer fee that may well have been sizable – the Orlando Pride got $500,000 for transferring Adriana to Al Qadsiah in January 2025.

The machinations around pay for NWSL players could also be a factor. Shortly before González departed Gotham, they signed Sam Kerr – another veteran elite striker with a history of success at the club. Outwardly, Gotham made no mention that one would replace the other. Yael Averbuch West, the club’s president of soccer operations, told reporters there were conversations with González about how the club would maximize her and Kerr’s talents, together. Still, perhaps González looked at Kerr and the club’s influx of summer signings and saw the writing on the wall: she wouldn’t be getting a raise anytime soon. Averbuch West is known for making the most of the NWSL’s roster rules, but she is limited by the league’s salary cap all the same. Athletes only have so many years to make the bulk of their income; González, being 33 years old, surely knows she’s closer to the end of her career than the beginning. Other players, from Portugal’s Jéssica Silva (as a free agent) to Nigerian star Asisat Oshoala (on a transfer fee) have moved from the US to Saudi Arabia in recent years. The SWPL is backed by the Saudi state and associated entities that have invested heavily in the country’s soccer leagues, national teams and infrastructure. It’s unclear how much money González will make at Al Qadsiah, but it’s likely to be more than she was making in the NWSL.

If that is the case, then this is also a story about the financial precarity of female footballers, even in leagues that tout investment. The NWSL is certainly one of the most well-paying destinations for a female athlete, but its salary cap prevents nearly every player from being paid what they deserve, let alone an amount that leaves them set for life. In other top leagues, different conditions lead to a similar reality: some players get paid well, but most don’t, and all should be paid more. Female soccer players are subjected to the same short and unpredictable careers as male players, but they do not have the same cushion of salaries that ensure comfort for well after their careers end. If González sees Al Qadsiah as a quick payday that could help secure her family’s future, that says as much about the NWSL as it does about its Saudi counterpart.

There’s an element of González’s choice to sign in Saudi Arabia that raises questions unrelated to that country in particular. If she signed for a team in, say, Japan or Australia or Mexico, there would still be questions around the fact that she did not remain in or close to her home country of Spain, where she supposedly had to relocate to in order to attend to her personal life.

But there is, unavoidably, the Saudi Arabia of it all. The SWPL, which launched in 2022, is a key piece of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the crown’s strategic plan to strengthen the country’s economy. The hope is that an elite women’s soccer league can become a sign to the outer world that the country is modernizing, and will inspire women in the country to get involved in sports and therefore be more active in society. The relative good the league may be doing for Saudi women aside, the league is undeniably part of the state’s sportswashing efforts; the country’s human rights record is marred with abuses – against women, the LGBTQ+ community, migrants, journalists and more.

González missed Gotham’s bout in the Fifa Women’s Champions Cup in January while her partner, Estefanía Cruz, gave birth to their first child. Why would she turn around and sign with a team in a country that criminalizes same-sex relations? We don’t know what her personal life looks like now, or what it will look like in Khobar, and we don’t have the right to. However, given what she has shared about her family in the past, her signing is inevitably a jolt. A report by El Mundo this week claimed she has deleted several Instagram posts featuring Cruz and their child. González’s personal life aside, any international player joining the SWPL is seen as an affront by LGBTQ+ soccer fans, who are fundamental to the sport around the world.

Women’s soccer players have spoken out against the sport’s ties to the Saudi state. In 2024, 135 players signed a petition calling on Fifa to end its sponsorship deal with Aramco, a state-owned oil company, citing the country’s human rights abuses, particularly against women and LGBTQ+ people, as well as the company’s role in the climate crisis. Signatories include Maitane López and Sinead Farrelly, two of González’s former teammates at Gotham.

The NWSL and other top leagues are far from perfect, with plenty of bad actors sponsoring clubs and working for them. But fans’ aversion to the Saudi league is understandable, since the country’s human rights abuses are especially abhorrent and antithetical to women’s soccer’s inclusive culture. González, whether she wants to or not, gives the league a huge dose of legitimacy – she is the first World Cup winner to join.

González’s case is intriguing for all we don’t know. But what we do know is more than enough to say, without question: women’s soccer leagues across the globe must work toward an ecosystem where all players can have both security and their values.