After a decade with the Stars, goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is staying home in Chicago.
The World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist re-signed with the Stars on a one-year deal this week. The longest-tenured player in club history, Naeher has logged 165 regular-season games and 46 clean sheets over the last 10 years with the Stars.
“I’m excited to be returning for my 11th season with Chicago,” Naeher said in a release on Wednesday. “I feel like I still have more to give and want to be out there competing with my teammates and continue to push this organization forward. We made a lot of positive strides to close out last season and I want to build on that.”
This year marked a turning point in Naeher’s career. The keeper retired from international duty with the U.S. women’s national team last November. Naeher had never played a full NWSL season without balancing national team duty, which required a grueling split schedule of monthly camps and high-stakes tournaments.
International retirement didn’t signal the end of Naeher’s career, but it did reflect a realistic road map for her final years as a player. At 37, Naeher is one of only three active NWSL players who participated in the league’s inaugural season in 2013. The keeper still posted the fourth-most saves in the league (73) last season, but she entered free agency with more reflection before committing to an 11th season in Chicago.
“The two weeks post season, it always ends up being that evaluation period,” Naeher told host Ali Riley on the BFFR podcast earlier this month. “You send the car into the body shop and you’re like, ‘OK, we’ll get it all out and see where we’re at.’ You’re getting the maintenance report back. … If you feel like you can still give 100% to what you’re trying to do, then keep going. If you don’t think that you can, then it’s not fair to yourself or the team to do that.”
Despite her age, the former Penn State All-American still poses a formidable threat in goal. But more importantly, Naeher will provide crucial stability to a Stars team in flux after a year that she described as “uncharted territory” for both herself and the franchise.
The Stars cycled through four different coaches in 2025. Former head coach Lorne Donaldson was fired in April, at which point he was replaced by former assistant Masaki Hemmi. The team swapped interim coaches again on July 3, replacing Hemmi with long-time assistant Ella Masar. When the Stars hired new head coach Martin Sjögren in August, they once again made an interim replacement to install Anders Jacobson — who will serve as a lead assistant under Sjögren — as acting coach for the remainder of the season.
Sjögren will be the eighth coach to helm the Stars since 2021. The Stars have not advanced past the first round of the NWSL playoffs in that four-season span. They did not qualify for the playoffs in 2025 after winning only three games.
Chicago hopes to begin turning the tide in 2026, when the team will move to a new temporary home at Northwestern’s Martin Stadium in Evanston. And the Stars will benefit from the presence of their steadiest leader during another year of transition.