Crystal Dunn signs multiyear deal with NWSL champion Gotham FC

Crystal Dunn has medaled at the Olympics. She’s won a World Cup. She’s been a No. 1 overall draft choice and won the National Women’s Soccer League MVP.

The one thing that the Rockville Centre native hasn’t been able to do is play on a regular basis in front of her friends and family. Until now.

That’s right. Crystal Dunn is coming home. Newsday has learned that Dunn has signed a multiyear contract to play with Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champions who play their home games at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.

“Being in a familiar place and returning home was just too much of a good opportunity to pass up,” Dunn told Newsday. “I spent a lot of time since my high school days away from New York and I think I’ve missed it in ways I never even thought about. Having the opportunity to come back and play in front of friends and family really means a lot.”

Dunn will join her new teammates Sunday night in Times Square when they lead the 60-second countdown to drop the ball to ring in the New Year. By all accounts, it should be a pretty good 2024 for Gotham.

Dunn, a midfielder who most recently played for Portland, is a three-time NWSL champion and was widely considered to be this year’s top free agent. Her addition to a team that already sports three national team players in Lynn Williams, Kelley O’Hara and Kristie Mewis creates the kind of superteam that has the potential to win multiple titles. What’s more, her signing could attract additional free agents as there have been multiple reports that the team is talking to national team members Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett.

“To bring a World Cup winner who is from this area back home to represent Gotham FC is monumental for our club,” said Gotham FC general manager and head of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West. “Crystal represents the energy, winning mentality, skill and intelligence for everything we want to build this team around.”

Dunn said she is excited to join a team like Gotham that with a revamped coaching staff went from last place in 2022 to a championship in 2023. She believes she can help the team get even better this season. She doesn’t just want Gotham to win a championship; she wants it to be one of the best teams in league history.

“It starts with winning everything,” Dunn said. “Winning the Shield [award given to team with best record], winning the championship, winning the Challenge Cup next year — these are all things to me that breed competitiveness and absolute dominance.

“It’s incredibly hard to win everything,” Dunn added. “I think there’s a reason there’s only been two teams who have won the Shield and the championship in the same year. My hope is to really help this team win absolutely everything. That’s always been my goal. It’s my goal when I’m 31 and it was my goal when I was 20. That hasn’t changed.”

What has changed for Dunn over the years is the Rockville Centre native who starred at South Side has some additional priorities given that she is now married and the mother of a 1-year-old son, Marcel Jean.

“My son can grow up having cousins and family nearby,” said Dunn, whose parents still live in Rockville Centre. “It’s been great. I’ve seen my family more in the last three weeks than I’ve seen them in the last four years.”

In addition, as a board member of the Black Women’s Player’s Collective, Dunn was attracted to playing on the league’s most racially diverse team in one of the country’s most racially diverse areas. She is hoping her journey and success will help inspire other young athletes of color to take up the game she loves.

“I love that there’s so many different cultures and walks of life all within vicinity of each other,” she said. “As a New Yorker, I’ve always loved that. And being away so much, I’ve realized that there is no place like that. I’m excited to be back in the cultural mixing pot.”

Dunn is also joining Gotham at what seems like a pivotal time for women’s sports. Superteams spur interest in a sport. But Dunn notes that New York, unlike some areas like Portland where she played the last three seasons, can be a tough market simply because there is so much competition for fans’ attention.

“There are so many things happening here that women’s soccer gets pushed to the side,” she said. “I think these last couple of seasons and Gotham winning last year has helped put it on the map. One of my big goals is to help fans make their way to the stadium and really show up and support us. There’s no way this game should not be plastered [on television] in city bars and easily accessible for people to watch and cheer us on ... This is just another step in my journey.”

A journey that has brought her full circle back home.

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.