USWNT teen prodigy Mallory Pugh turns pro after three months and zero games at UCLA
Just last month, the United States women’s national team’s 18-year-old prodigy forward Mallory Pugh told Yahoo Sports that she had opted to go to college because she did not want to miss out on this rite of passage.
The Colorado native had deferred her start at UCLA until January and didn’t sound convinced that she would stay all four years. But she nevertheless seemed committed.
“I think it’s because of where I was, not just as a soccer player but off the field too – just maturity-wise,” Pugh said in early March. “I love learning things. I wasn’t really in high school a lot, and I just want to be in a school. It’s just an experience I want to have.”
[ Follow FC Yahoo on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr ]
On Monday night, UCLA released a statement declaring that Pugh had withdrawn from college and was turning professional. Pugh, who will turn 19 on April 29, made her national team debut as a 17-year-old and has already appeared in 22 games, scored four goals and featured in the Olympics.
She had not yet played in an official college game, although she did participate in three spring exhibition games.
Had Pugh stayed in college all four years – as you’re technically supposed to do before you’re eligible to play in the National Women’s Soccer League, although exceptions tend to be made for talent of Pugh’s caliber – it could have cost her well over a million dollars in national team salary and bonuses alone, to say nothing of endorsement deals.
While in college, Pugh was ineligible for her U.S. Soccer pay, and she even had to take a lower per diem because of NCAA rules.
The national team’s new collective bargaining agreement with the federation further raised national team salaries – to the $200,000-$300,000 range for some key players – and increased the incentive for Pugh to leave college.
“UCLA freshman soccer player and U.S. women’s national team starter Mal Pugh has left school to pursue professional soccer opportunities,” UCLA said in a statement. “Pugh, who enrolled at UCLA in the 2017 Winter quarter, played in three spring games for the Bruins this year and was due to begin her freshman season this fall after spurning the professional route earlier last year.”
“This decision was certainly not easy for me to make,” Pugh said in the statement. “UCLA is such a special place, and being a Bruin was an incredible thing. UCLA Soccer brought amazing things to my life, and chasing after a national championship with my friends and teammates would’ve been special, but I could not turn down this opportunity.”
It’s unclear whether Pugh will sign with the NWSL or perhaps opt to play abroad, as national teammates Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Crystal Dunn have. The Washington Spirit has maneuvered to the top of the league’s allocation list with a series of moves, presumably designed to land Pugh. But SI.com reports that Pugh is uninterested in Washington and would rather play in Portland. She is also seriously considering France.
Wherever she lands, Pugh will likely benefit from turning professional now, rather than squandering a few years in college, where she plainly has nothing to learn as a player. And she’ll be able to collect the checks she’s entitled to, rather than to be kept in artificial and pointless amateurism by the NCAA.
Get paid, young woman.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
More from Yahoo Sports:
• Tom Brady skipping Patriots White House visit with President Trump
• Barkley fires back at ‘idiots’ over Isaiah Thomas backlash
• Shaq’s son forges own path, picks Arizona over LSU
• Ex-Cardinals star beat Randy Johnson with ‘fastballs, curveballs and vodka’
