Women’s College Soccer Star Picks Upstart USL Super League Over NWSL

The USL Super League team Dallas Trinity FC announced Wednesday it has signed University of Texas midfielder Lexi Missimo, one of the league’s biggest player acquisitions to date.

Missimo is a rising star in the U.S. Soccer system and was listed in December by the NWSL as one of 10 top college players to watch this offseason. She is Texas’s all-time leader in goals and assists, and is tied for 10th all-time in career assists in NCAA Division I history. She was named to the all-SEC first team in 2024.

The USL Super League started its first season in August after receiving a Division I sanction from the U.S. Soccer Federation in February, placing it on equal footing with the NWSL. Following in the footsteps of international soccer, the league has no draft or salary cap, and runs from fall to summer. (Most U.S. soccer seasons, including that of the NWSL, play in the summer and fall to avoid harsh winters. The USL Super League schedule includes a lengthy winter break from December to February.)

The eight-team league has avoided calling itself an NWSL challenger, but luring talent away from the more established league will obviously help it gain traction. Missimo said she simply wanted to stay home. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

“ I didn’t compare the two leagues, the NWSL and USL,” Missimo told Front Office Sports. “I just considered what would be best for my development as a player on and off the field. And I think just living in Dallas, which is 30 minutes away from my hometown, it’s just a perfect fit for me and my family. And everything about it just was better in my opinion.” (The closest NWSL team to Dallas is the Houston Dash.)

Missimo is from nearby Southlake, Texas, and says she has known the team’s GM, Chris Petrucelli, since she was about 10 years old. She also says she played with several of the current Dallas Trinity players growing up in the area and at Texas.

Missimo’s contract will last two and a half years and was signed Jan. 7, before she attended the U.S. Women’s National Team Futures Camp. At the time of the camp’s Jan. 8 roster announcement, 13 of the 24 players were in the NWSL, but only one (Neeku Purcell) played in the USL Super League.

Dallas Trinity is currently second in the USL Super League standings with a 6-3-5 record.

“The USL, obviously, a new league coming in, it’s going to continue to grow and be a positive thing, and I’m glad that I can have a mark in that, but definitely for me personally, I would just say Dallas was just the perfect fit. And it didn’t matter what league it was.”

The size of Missimo’s deal has not been disclosed. The USL Super League doesn’t have a salary cap. (The minimum base salary in the NWSL in 2025 is $48,500 under its new CBA.)

In November, the San Diego Wave announced it had signed Missimo’s Texas teammate Trinity Byars in the NWSL’s first signing straight out of college since abolishing all drafts through a new collective bargaining agreement in August. Again, while the USL is careful to say the NWSL is not a rival, it seems clear that the USL’s lack of cap or draft put pressure on the NWSL.

Missimo said Byars is “thrilled” about her decision to sign with Dallas.

Missimo says she already completed her first training with the team Sunday, and said the facilities have “everything that you need as a professional player.” Dallas Trinity practices on fields at the all-girls Hockaday School, lifts at a commercial gym, and plays matches at the Cotton Bowl.