One of the top free agents in the NWSL has a destination: Debinha is headed to Kansas City.

The NWSL MVP finalist spent her first six seasons in the league with the North Carolina Courage, and she entered the offseason as one of the most sought-after free agents. The Current have signed her to a multi-year deal through the 2024 season, with an option for a third year.

More world-class talent in Kansas City 🇧🇷

Welcome, @Debinha7 🫡 pic.twitter.com/ijrk3rI0q5

— KC Current (@thekccurrent) January 9, 2023

“As a professional athlete, I always want to get better and to be on a competitive team that fights for titles, with excellent professionals,” Debinha said in a statement. “I’m sure it will help me in that goal and Kansas City showed that last season.”

The Brazilian national team member also noted that Kansas City’s plans, which include a new stadium and training facilities, “left me really motivated.”

“All of this made me want to be part of it and made me think about being here today,” she continued. “I’m happy for this new journey that is just beginning.”

Debinha joined the NWSL in 2017 as a member of the Courage. She helped the team to three straight NWSL championship appearances, as well as two titles and three consecutive NWSL Shields.

In 2019, she was named NWSL Championship MVP after scoring the game’s opening goal.

The 31-year-old midfielder has been named Challenge Cup MVP twice, including in 2022, and owns the record for most goals all-time in the tournament with nine.

She finished the regular season last year with a career-high 12 goals through 18 matches. That total ranked third in the league behind Golden Boot winner Alex Morgan (15 goals) and NWSL MVP Sophia Smith (14 goals). Debinha also had four assists, which also put her among the best in the league.

“We are thrilled to welcome Debinha to Kansas City,” Current co-owners Angie and Chris Long said. “Debinha is one of the most talented, accomplished, and well-known players in the world. Her name is synonymous with excellence. We can’t wait for Kansas City to have the special opportunity to watch Debinha play and cheer her on.”

One of the biggest free agents of the offseason, Kansas City knows what it’s getting in Debinha.

“Obviously, she was sought after by I think just about everyone,” Current general manager Camille Levin Ashton told The Athletic. “There was a lot of competition for her. What makes this really special for us, and a big statement for us, is that she had all those options and chose to come here to Kansas City and be a part of what we’re building.

“We continue to build on the success that we had last year, obviously falling short, and she’s a winner. She wants to bring championships to Kansas City.”

But the signing is also huge for the league as a whole, as reports also had linked Debinha to Arsenal, as well as Barcelona, PSG and Manchester United, according to Rob Pratley and ATA Football.

As other players have made moves to clubs offering more money, it’s becoming increasingly clear that NWSL clubs will have to start forking over more cash in order to keep players.

“Our value of her, and what we honestly believe the global soccer community values her, as she is one of the best players in this league and in the world — we think that the salary we provided her reflects that,” Levin Ashton said.

One other NWSL club made a serious offer to Debinha, The Athletic’s Steph Yang reported: the Orlando Pride. The offer “would have made Debinha one of, if not the highest-paid player in the league,” Yang reported last week.

The same source that gave details of the Pride’s offer indicated that Debinha was more interested in Europe, including the boost that the Champions League could provide to her player profile. But, according to Levin Ashton, that potential move never came up in talks with Kansas City.

“I think everyone understands the value (of Champions League) and that players do want to play in Champions League,” Levin Ashton said. “At the end of the day, when we look at the NWSL as a whole, this league is the most competitive league in the world. It has been, and that hasn’t changed. Players that want to be the best and want to continue to get better and prove themselves, being in the NWSL, you have to prove yourself week after week, game after game.”

Debinha’s agent, Benito Pedace of SOW Sports, told The Athletic that the decision to remain in the NWSL came alongside what the midfielder views as new challenges alongside “great structure.”

“Not everyone entered the final stretch of decision-making,” Padace told The Athletic, “and she ended up choosing to stay in the league, knowing that she will have new challenges, will have a great structure for her to continue evolving and doing what she loves most, which is playing football at a high level in a league she knows and knows that every season the teams get more and more competitive.”

The Current will aim to make another run to the championship game in the 2023 season, though they’ve lost the element of surprise. A number of blockbuster signings have bolstered the team’s lineup, including Morgan Gautrat and Vanessa DiBernardo via free agency. They’ve also re-signed defenders Alex Loera, Hailie Mace and Kate Del Fava.

The USA women's hockey team came out on top over the weekend, kicking off the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada by dominating their northern neighbors, outscoring them by an impressive 10-2 margin across the pair's first two games.

US forward Abbey Murphy emerged as a series star, scoring a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Thursday — the first three-goal turn by a USA player against Canada since team captain Hilary Knight did so at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

"I told [Murphy], 'You set the bar pretty high,'" said Knight, who added her own hat trick to the mix in Saturday's 6-1 victory in Buffalo.

"I love how we showed up," the 36-year-old continued. "We've been working like dogs since August and to get rewarded for our work, and see situations that we need to work on."

Notably, while the USA brought their entire 2025 world championship-winning roster to the first two Rivalry Series games, Canada chose to evaluate some fresh faces while resting a number of standout veterans, including their No. 1 goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens — a fact that should temper the sting of adding two big losses to their now four-game skid against the US.

With women's hockey taking over Milan at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, the last two 2025 Rivalry Series matchups will more likely see both sides testing their final rosters for Italy.

How to watch the final games in the 2025 Rivalry Series

Canada will welcome the USA for the last two matchups in the 2025 Rivalry Series, with the puck dropping in Edmonton, Alberta, at 9 PM ET for both the December 10th and 13th clashes.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

The LPGA is bringing star power to Florida this week, as a wealth of women's golf talent — and one basketball superstar — tee off at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA.

Kicking off the event on Wednesday was the annual Pro-Am, with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark headlining the field for the second straight year.

World No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda once again joined Clark through her first nine holes, as Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull served as guest caddies.

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The four-day professional tournament will then tee off on Thursday, though current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will not be in attendance for the second year in a row.

Korda, however, will lead the charge to both defend her 2024 title and secure her first win of the 2025 LPGA season — as well as add to her full trio of trophies collected at The ANNIKA.

Four other Top-10 players will look to upend Korda's back-to-back bid, including No. 3 Miyu Yamashita, No. 6 Charley Hull, No. 9 Mao Saigo, and No. 10 Lottie Woad.

With the 2025 CMA Group Tour Championship capping the LPGA season later this month, The ANNIKA will also see golfers on the bubble — like US stars Rose Zhang and 2023 champion Lilia Vu — try to snag enough points to make the end-of-year tournament's final 60-player cut.

How to watch The ANNIKA 2025 LPGA tournament

Coverage of the fifth edition of The ANNIKA continues through Sunday, airing live on the Golf Channel.

The No. 3 UCLA Bruins rose to the occasion on Monday, looking like 2025/26 NCAA basketball championship contenders as they took down the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners 73-59 in Sacramento.

Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens made the difference for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 20 points while opposing defenses limited both UCLA center Lauren Betts and Oklahoma big Raegan Beers to single digits.

Bruins forward Angela Dugalić also put up a standout performance, coming off the bench to score 16 points and snag 15 rebounds on Monday.

"There are so many weapons that I feel like it's hard for the defense to choose what to take away," Kneepkens said ahead of Monday's matchup. "What makes this team special is that any night could be someone's night."

Monday's clash with UCLA also served as the national broadcast debut of Oklahoma freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, with the No. 1 high school basketball recruit seeing her first Top 10 NCAA matchup as a Sooner.

Chavez had a slow start against the experienced Bruins, registering 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds across her 32 minutes on the court.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

The heat continues for No. 3 UCLA on Thursday, when the Bruins will host the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels at 9 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.

Newly formed offseason league Project B is stocking up, with Phoenix Mercury star forward Alyssa Thomas becoming the second big-name WNBA player to sign with the overseas venture ahead of its anticipated November 2026 debut.

Thomas follows Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike in joining Project B, a traveling tournament-style competition reportedly offering players significant pay raises into the seven- and even eight-figure echelon — as well as equity stakes in the league.

Thomas will still feature in the 2026 season of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball this January, with the launch of Project B expected to conflict with Unrivaled's third season in 2027.

With salaries reportedly topping both Unrivaled and the WNBA, Project B's funding sources came into question after Ogwumike's announcement last week.

In February, The Financial Times named Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as a league investor, though Project B co-founder Grady Burnett denied those claims to Front Office Sports last week.

However, the league is working with event partner Sela, a known subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, though Burnett was quick to qualify that "Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them."

With the first season of Project B set to field 66 players, expect more high-profile signings to continue as the new venture adds to the increasingly crowded WNBA offseason space.