Sky Blue FC allocated four U.S., Canada Federation Players

The National Women’s Soccer League announced on Thursday the official list of 2018 allocated players. Sky Blue FC has four players that were allocated as Federation Players for the upcoming NWSL season. Carli Lloyd was allocated by U.S. Soccer, while Janine Beckie, Adriana Leon and Kailen Sheridan were allocated by Canada Soccer.

Federation Players are those who have recently spent a significant amount of time in camp with and competing for either the United States or Canadian women’s national teams and are likely to continue doing so. As a result, most (but not all) allocated players have contracts with their national teams, and their federations therefore pay their national team and club salaries.

“Players who bring international experience are very valuable to the team as a whole,” said Denise Reddy, Sky Blue FC head coach, in the team’s official statement. “We will look for these players to give significant contributions to our training environment on a daily basis, and they will play an important role in the development of our team over the course of the upcoming season.”

Besides the international experience that these players bring back to Sky Blue FC, they also help free up money within the league’s salary cap for the team. Since Federated Players’ contracts are paid by their respective federations, teams that are allocated these players have more money available to pay non-allocated players on their roster, thereby increasing the quality of player that they can recruit and sign.

Last season Sky Blue only had two Federation Players, Sheridan and USWNT defender Kelley O’Hara, who was traded to Utah Royals FC during the offseason. This year Sky Blue FC has four Federation Players, tying them for third-most allocated players. Their three Canadian allocations is the most for any one team in the league.

Although Sheridan, Beckie and Lloyd were all allocated last season, Leon was not. Even though she is a newly-allocated Canadian Federation Player, it’s worth noting that she would not have counted against Sky Blue’s salary cap this season since she was taken by the club in the recent dispersal draft of former Boston Breakers players. As per the league’s rules for the dispersal draft, players contracted by the Breakers that were selected by other clubs do not count against their new team’s roster size or salary cap limits.

The full list of 2018 NWSL allocations is below by club.

Chicago Red Stars
Julie Ertz (USA)
Alyssa Naeher (USA)
Casey Short (USA)

Houston Dash
Jane Campbell (USA)*
Christen Press (USA)
Nichelle Prince (CAN)

North Carolina Courage
Allysha Chapman (CAN)
Sabrina D’Angelo (CAN)
Abby Dahlkemper (USA)*
Crystal Dunn (USA)*
Samantha Mewis (USA)
Lynn Williams (USA)

Orlando Pride

Ashlyn Harris (USA)
Alex Morgan (USA)
Shelina Zadorksy (CAN)

Portland Thorns FC
Tobin Heath (USA)
Lindsey Horan (USA)
Christine Sinclair (CAN)
Emily Sonnett (USA)

Seattle Reign FC
Allie Long (USA)
Megan Rapinoe (USA)

Sky Blue FC
Janine Beckie (CAN)
Adriana Leon (CAN)*
Carli Lloyd (USA)
Kailen Sheridan (CAN)

Utah Royals FC
Diana Matheson (CAN)
Kelley O’Hara (USA)
Amy Rodriguez (USA
Becky Sauerbrunn (USA)
Desiree Scott (CAN)

Washington Spirit
Rose Lavelle (USA)
Mallory Pugh (USA)
Rebecca Quinn (CAN)*
Taylor Smith (USA)*

* = New Federation Player in 2018