United States Women's National Team left back Jenna Nighswonger just became the latest American to move overseas, as she joined Arsenal for a six-figure fee.
She follows Naomi Girma, Crystal Dunn, and Katie Stengel as the high-profile Americans who swapped NWSL for overseas clubs this winter.
Here, we have all you need to know about Arsenal's newest defender.
Jenna Nighswonger was born in Huntington Beach, California, USA on November 28th, 2000, making her 24 years old.
Jenna Nighswonger is 5-foot-3.
Jenna Nighswonger is left footed.
Jenna Nighswonger is a versatile, playmaking left back who can also play further up the pitch, either on the wing or in midfield.
Nighswonger worked her way into the USWNT as a left back, with her left-footedness making her a more natural fit there than Crystal Dunn, who held down that position for years despite being a natural midfielder.
The California native was known for her Olimpico goals (scoring directly from a corner kick) at Florida State, where she won a National Championship. Those have not been as common at the professional level, but she was the resident free-kick specialist in her time at Gotham FC.
Nighswonger ranked highly in most playmaking stats compared to fullbacks in leagues of similar quality to NWSL. The incumbent left back at Arsenal, Katie McCabe, is similar both in style and stats, which will likely see some questions arise as to the future of the Ireland international.
The main thing the 24-year-old American international needs to work on is her defending. She won her one-on-one tackles just 51 percent of the time, which ranked in the 17th percentile among fullbacks in similar leagues.
Metric | Total per 90 mins | Rank |
Completed Through Balls | 0.19 | Top 1% |
Crosses into Penalty Area | 0.80 | Top 1% |
Fouls Drawn | 2.02 | Top 3% |
Dead-Ball Passes | 14.35 | Top 5% |
Passes into Penalty Area | 1.55 | Top 5% |
Shots | 1.08 | Top 5% |
Expected Goals | 0.08 | Top 8% |
Shots on Target | 0.28 | Top 8% |
Expected Assists | 0.16 | Top 10% |
Assists | 0.14 | Top 14% |
(Source: FBref.com based on comparison to positional pears in 2024 NWSL season.)
Nighswonger played college soccer at Florida State, where she won a National Championship in 2021 after losing in a penalty shootout in the previous season's final. She mostly played as a midfielder or an attacker in college.
She scored three goals straight from corner kicks in 2022, including the game-tying goal in the ACC Championship.
After the 2022 season, she was selected fourth-overall by NJ/NY Gotham FC in the 2023 NWSL Draft, and Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amoros moved her to left back, where she thrived en route to winning the Rookie of the Year Award and helping the team to win the NWSL Championship.
Nighswonger began to earn international recognition after her first NWSL season. She played almost 2,000 NWSL regular season minutes in 2024 as her team finished third, but Gotham was eliminated by the Washington Spirit on penalties in the semifinals of the playoffs.
Nighswonger got called into her first USWNT camp in November 2023, making her debut on December 5th of that year against China.
She went from two USWNT appearances in 2023 to 16 in 2024. The left back has two USWNT goals to her name - both in the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup - having scored the fourth goal in a 5-0 win over the Dominican Republic and the second goal in a 3-0 win over Colombia.
Nighswonger also got a call-up to the Olympic team, where she appeared in five matches but did not start in any.
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