{"id":24347,"date":"2023-04-03T17:01:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T17:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/03\/canadian-forward-amanda-allen-on-turning-pro-and-signing-with-orlando-pride-at-age-18-equalizer-soccer\/"},"modified":"2023-04-03T17:01:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T17:01:49","slug":"canadian-forward-amanda-allen-on-turning-pro-and-signing-with-orlando-pride-at-age-18-equalizer-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/03\/canadian-forward-amanda-allen-on-turning-pro-and-signing-with-orlando-pride-at-age-18-equalizer-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian forward Amanda Allen on turning pro and signing with Orlando Pride at age 18 \u2013 Equalizer Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmanda Allen (Photo: Mark Thor\/Orlando Pride)<\/span><\/p>\n

Amanda Allen planned to attend Syracuse University and play for the school\u2019s women\u2019s soccer team. Then she joined the National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> Orlando Pride for training in March during her high school spring break, and it became clear to her that the professional game was where she needed to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to join the Orlando Pride because they were very clear with their intentions to help me develop into the best person and player I can be,\u201d Allen told The Equalizer<\/em>. \u201cIt really wasn\u2019t a question for me when the opportunity presented itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pride announced on Monday that they signed the 18-year-old forward to a three-year contract through the 2025 season, another addition to the growing trend of NWSL teams signing players directly out of high school.<\/a><\/strong> Alyssa Thompson turned professional and was selected by Angel City FC with the first pick in this year\u2019s draft. Twice in the past month, NWSL teams have signed 15-year-olds. All of this is possible thanks to new league rules that allow teams to sign underage players and acquire them through methods other than the draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orlando is a young team rebuilding its roster after another challenging season in 2022. New general manager Haley Carter sees Allens arrival as another way for the Pride to build a strong foundation on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to have a player with the ceiling as high as Amanda\u2019s, it\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Carter told The Equalizer<\/em>. \u201cEspecially for a club like us. We\u2019re very serious about player development; that\u2019s a priority for us. Yeah, we have a young roster, we are concerned about results, but long-term investment, building a culture and a club that can be sustainable over time, takes time. Making decisions like this really aligns with our long-term strategic vision for the club. That we [are] a club that invests in players and helps them develop over time on and off the field and really embraces the notion that while they\u2019re with us they will improve. Amanda\u2019s ability to improve is exponential in this training environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Allen (Photo: Mark Thor\/Orlando Pride) Amanda Allen planned to attend Syracuse University and play for the school\u2019s women\u2019s soccer team. Then she joined the National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u2019s Orlando Pride for training in March during her high school spring break, and it became clear to her that the professional game was where she needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}