Gotham FC re-signs forward Midge Purce through the 2026 season | OneFootball

On Friday, NJ/NY Gotham FC announced that forward Midge Purce had signed a new one-year contract, keeping the two-time NWSL champion at the club for the 2026 season. Purce was one of two free agents for the Bats this offseason, with the club already announcing that the other free agent, Ella Stevens, will not return in 2026.

The winger is Gotham FC's second-longest tenured player behind Mandy Freeman, having been acquired via trade from Portland Thorns FC in January 2020. She has been one of not just the Bats' most popular players, but one of the most popular players in the entire league. This is not just down to her performances on the field, but her exploits off of it, too.

While Purce did not have the greatest goal output in 2025, scoring just two goals and one assist in 29 games, the overall goal of this season was for her to get back to feeling like herself again following more than a year on the sideline following her ACL tear in March 2024. And it was pretty evident to see her progression in both her confidence and fitness throughout 2025.

With many fans likely feeling the stress of another year of guessing 'will she or won't she', it seemed like Purce was going through the same. In an exclusive with Women's Health Magazine, she said she took a "really long time" deciding where to play in 2026. She finally reached her decision when all of the other offers "didn't feel right." "When I would picture what my year would look like on the field, I kept going back to, ‘I want to play another year with Gotham and I want to play another year with this team," she said.

Gotham can focus on free agency now that Purce has re-signed

In a stark contrast to last season, Gotham has seemingly now finished all of their internal business with free agency. Barring any unforeseen trade requests from players, the full focus is now on supplementing last season's championship-winning roster.

The NJ/NY side currently has 20 players on the active roster for 2026 following the re-signing of Purce and the acquisition of Talia Sommer, the team's first signing of free agency, earlier this week. With Tierna Davidson expected to be added to the active roster at some point early in the year, that leaves five, potentially four open roster spots for Gotham to work with, depending on if and when Taryn Torres returns from her ACL tear.

Sommer has played both attacking midfield and on the wing in both her college and international career, and could potentially provide cover for Esther González as a backup striker. And depth is what Gotham will most likely be targeting this offseason. With Purce re-signed, that means that all 12 players who saw the field in the championship game are under contract with the club for 2026.

Of course, the big story looming over this free agency period is the saga between Trinity Rodman, the Washington Spirit, and the NWSL. It does seem like a new roster-building mechanism that could allow Rodman to remain with the Spirit is imminent, but that will affect free agency around the entirety of the league. With the USWNT player seemingly being the cork in the bottle when it comes to what happens with other high-profile free agents like Sophia Wilson, a resolution on that front could see activity around the league start to pick up.

While this new mechanism may not be something Gotham taps into this year, they do have several high-profile free agents who could fit the criteria that is required for teams to be able to use said mechanism. These players include Ann-Katrin Berger, Jess Carter, Rose Lavelle, and Emily Sonnett. That, however, is more than likely something Gotham will not be worrying too much about at this point in time, but it will certainly be something they will keep an eye on as it progresses.

After large-scale roster overhauls in just about every offseason in recent memory, it seems the name of the game this time is stability. After an especially turbulent free agency period last year, it seems General Manager Yael Averbuch West and Head Coach Juan Carlos Amorós have a group of players that not only align with the values and standards of Gotham FC but are also capable of repeating as champions next season.