Utah Royals continue to build through free agency, adding former NWSL Rookie of the Year Imani Dorsey
The former Gotham FC and Duke star will join Amy Rodriguez's side on a two-year deal through the 2025 season.
The Utah Royals continue to build through free agency.
The NWSL’s 2024 expansion side has signed former NWSL Rookie of the Year Imani Dorsey to a two-year deal through for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the team announced Wednesday morning.
Dorsey was the No. 5 overall selection in the 2018 NWSL collegiate draft by then-Sky Blue FC, where she played in 72 games over the past five seasons. She scored four of her six goals for Gotham during her inaugural campaign in 2018 to win the league’s top rookie honors.
Utah will be something of a return for Dorsey, who was part of the New York/New Jersey side’s trip to the Beehive State for the inaugural NWSL Challenge Cup as part of the 2020 “bubble” season, in addition to several other trips to play the former iteration of her new team.
“When I heard about URFC’s return, I was intrigued about the possibility of playing here,” said Dorsey, acknowledging the level of investment and thought and care across all aspects of the new era for Utah Royals FC, according to a team release. “I came into the league in 2018, so during those first few seasons, traveling to Salt Lake City, this was a place I was very excited to experience. From the outside looking in, the amenities this club built up for women’s soccer was to be admired – setting the league standard even then.
“The vision for this club is so inspiring, the attention to detail shown by (head coach) Amy Rodriguez and (sporting director) Kelly Cousins makes me so excited for the second Royals iteration to create one of the premier destinations for soccer in the entire world, and I’m grateful to be asked to be a part of this expansion side. I am very excited to help grow Utah’s soccer culture. That’s one of the joys of being a professional, to being a part of the energy and the emotion of the crowd, the community, inspiring the next generation. I cannot wait to dive head-first into the Utah experience.”
Dorsey watched Gotham FC’s 2023 NWSL championship run away from the team, after becoming the first player to utilize a new addendum to the league’s 2022 collective bargaining agreement for mental health leave. The 27-year-old forward detailed her time away in a lengthy Instagram post, saying the leave helped her to fall in love with the game again.
“While I didn’t know where this journey would take me, the time I got to spend with friends and family, exploring aspects of myself I typically had little time or capacity to enjoy, helped me better understand who I am, what I love and what makes me, me — without soccer,” she wrote, in part. “When I took a step back in April I didn’t know if I would return, but I am grateful to say my time away helped me rediscover what I love about this sport — competing, being active, and being a part of a team — and am now so excited to continue playing. As grateful as I have always been to play as a pro, it often felt like a burden rather than the privilege and opportunity it most definitely is.”
Dorsey joins fellow free-agent signing Michele Vasconcelos, the former BYU and Alta High star who most recently played for Portland, as well as trade designations Mikayla Cluff from Orlando, Kaleigh Riehl from San Diego, and Emily Gray and Francesca Tagliaferri from North Carolina.
The Olney, Maryland native scored 29 goals in 87 appearances at Duke University, earning ACC Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2017 prior to being drafted in the first round. She also recently debuted for the U.S. women’s national team, playing 14 minutes off the bench in a friendly against Australia in late 2021.
The NWSL’s four-day transaction moratorium begins Tuesday, Dec. 12, when the Royals and fellow expansion side Bay FC must received a list of protected and unprotected players for the Dec. 15 expansion draft.
The NWSL draft is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 12 in Anaheim, California and will be broadcast on ION TV.