Brooklyn FC made some transfer history this week as the USL Super League club announced the sale of goalkeeper Neeku Purcell.
Purcell is joining Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League for an undisclosed transfer fee, and technically as a short-term replacement player, becoming the first player ever to be sold from the USL Super League to the NWSL.
The 21-year-old goalkeeper is originally from Seattle, Washington, and came up through the Reign academy, so the transfer is a homecoming after Purcell spent the 2024-2025 season across the country in Brooklyn.
She'd come to Brooklyn by way of UCLA, where the goalkeeper was on the 2022 team that won a soccer national championship. It was an up-and-down first professional season for Purcell with Brooklyn in 2024-2025.
She initially split the minutes in Brooklyn's goal with Sidney Martinez, a more veteran goalkeeper with experience playing for the Puerto Rico national team. Purcell started in only five of Brooklyn's 14 matches played during the Fall half of the inaugural season, though those games included three clean sheets and only three goals conceded, with Brooklyn holding a record of 3W-0D-2L with her in goal.
After the league's winter break and while Martinez was slowed by an injury, Purcell became Brooklyn's clear-cut starter in goal. She made 11 starts and 12 appearances in the team's final 14 games, though kept just one clean sheet while conceding 23 goals and while the team posted a rough record of 1W-6D-5L in her Spring season appearances.
The collective Brooklyn squad suffered during the second half of the first USL Super League season, missing the four-team playoff field despite holding a six-point lead at the top of the table at the season's halfway point.
Now they'll have to regroup for the 2025-2026 season without a promising young goalkeeper who earned a call-up from the United States women's national team for a Futures Camp held by USWNT coach Emma Hayes this past January. Purcell is a national team prospect after years of playing with the United States at youth levels, from the U-15s up through the U-23s, so making the move from Brooklyn to the NWSL might boost her case for future looks from her national team.
Purcell gets a spot on the Reign's First Team roster through another slight connection to the local New York-area soccer scene, as she joins Seattle as an injury replacement for former Gotham FC goalkeeper Cassie Miller, who suffered a leg injury during training and needed to be placed on the 45-day injury list.
Selling Purcell to the NWSL isn't Brooklyn's first time being a transactional trailblazer for the USL Super League. By acquiring striker Luana Grabias from Fort Lauderdale United FC last August, Brooklyn was the first USL Super League team to strike a transfer deal with a fellow USL Super League team.
So a first in-league trade and now a first USL Super League-to-NWSL deal: Brooklyn FC wasn't first in the standings this season, but they were first to make moves on the domestic transfer market.
