Welcome home (again): Utah Royals add former Alta High, BYU star Michele Vasconcelos
The 29-year-old midfielder with six years of NWSL experience is the first free-agent signing for the relaunched Utah club that will begin play in the spring of 2024.
Michele Vasconcelos is coming home (again).
Less than a full day after the former local soccer star known as “Murph” revealed she had declined a mutual contract option with the Portland Thorns, Utah Royals FC announced it had agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Sandy, Utah native Tuesday morning, becoming the relaunched club’s first free-agent signing ahead of its debut in spring 2024.
“The decision to leave Portland was not an easy one for me,” Vasconcelos wrote on Instagram. “I spent a season and a half as a Thorn and it’s a special thing to be able to play at Providence Park in front of such an amazing crowd. It was a special thing to be able to share the locker room with such amazing players and even better people.
“Ultimately, I decided to decline my mutual option to follow a dream that I have had for a long time.”
Vasconcelos joins a roster that includes fellow BYU alumna Mikayla (Colohan) Cluff, former San Diego defender Kaleigh Riehl and the former North Carolina midfield duo of Emily Gray and Frankie Tagliaferri.
“As I come back to Utah, for sure excitement is my main feeling, but I’m also feeling a ton of relief — I was devastated when the team left three years ago, as I’d only been back here a month,” said Vasconcelos, while relocating her family from Portland to Utah ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. “I grew up in Sandy, in the shadow of the Royals / RSL stadium. Now coming back for the second time around, it really feels too good to be true; now I really have the chance to live out my dream.”

The former Alta High star will play for her sixth team since graduating from BYU in 2017, where she scored 30 goals with 27 assists in 86 appearances and was named West Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2016.
That includes the past season with Portland, where Vasconcelos (née Murphy) started three of 14 games and played 341 minutes with one goal. The right-footed midfielder won 77.8% of her tackles, 41.8% of her duels and 30% of her aerial duels with one interception in the air while completing 72.1% of her passes overall and averaging 34 passes per 90 minutes.
Vasconcelos was the No. 11 overall pick in the 2017 NWSL college draft by the Chicago Red Stars, who allowed her to step away from the game for a year while she was pregnant with her first child, a girl named Scarlett with her husband and former BYU men’s soccer standout Pedro.
She returned in 2018, debuting March 25 in a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dash and went on to score three goals in 31 matches in three years for Chicago, missing all but 11 games in 2019 with a torn ACL.
On Sept. 10, 2020, the first iteration of the Royals brought Vasconcelos home, where she was acquired for $55,000 in allocation money. But she made just one appearance before the team ownership was transferred to Kansas City.
Vasconcelos made 10 appearances with the now-Kansas City Current in 2021, scoring the expansion club’s first home goal at Children’s Mercy Park in the 77th minute of a 3-1 loss to the Dash in the 2021 Challenge Cup.
During her time in Kansas City, she was one of two players with husbands and a small family on the roster. The other? Her new head coach, Amy Rodriguez.
“I know A-Rod very well from our time in Kansas City, and talking to her now I can tell she means business,” Vasconcelos said. “Her vision for this club is exciting; she’s the perfect one for the job, with a super-aggressive, no-nonsense approach to team building, as you might expect.”
Later that year, Vasconcelos went on loan to Sevilla FC in the Spanish Primera Division Femenina, where she scored two goals in 22 appearances. Up returning, Kansas City waived her NWSL rights and Portland signed her as a national team replacement player just two weeks later.
“Bringing Michele home marks yet another critical development as we build out the 2024 roster,” Utah sporting director Kelly Cousins said. “Michele has experienced quite the circuitous route in this league since her BYU success, and her time in Spain. We are elated to truly welcome her home — FINALLY! — and we know our fans cannot wait to fill America First Field and cheer on Utah’s own, as we look forward to several more player announcements in the coming days and weeks.”
A former U.S. U-23 national team call-up who played youth soccer for Olympique Montreaux and made a handful of appearances with the now-defunct Real Salt Lake Women in United Women’s Soccer in 2016, Vasconcelos — who was named Utah’s Ms. Soccer and Gatorade Utah girls soccer player of the year in 2011 — led the Cougars in scoring twice during her collegiate career.
Vasconcelos never played with Cluff at BYU, but got to know her during recruiting visits to campus and alumni events. She also played with Riehl during a U.S. U-23 camp just four months after her pregnancy.
With two nephews enrolled in the RSL Academy in Herriman, Vasconcelos plans to spend a lot of time at the training facility — including the new multimillion-dollar expansion built specifically for the Royals and a new level of investment in the women’s game made by co-owners Ryan Smith and David Blitzer.
“Simply put, I love Utah,” she said. “The organization is moving full-steam ahead, the new foundation for this version of the Royals is so so amazing for all of women’s soccer. Now the focus is on building up that core even better, as we keep going Utah will surely be a place people across the industry and the world will want to be.
“I am so passionate about Utah, so excited to elevate this Royals FC project together, I can’t wait to see all the fans and partnering every day with the Club and the community to grow and connect.
“Insanely happy to be home.”