KC Current Add 17-Year-Old and Re-sign Rodriguez

The past week was an up and down one for the Kansas City Current. They were forced into a tough trade for expansion draft protection with the Utah Royals. Thankfully, the week wasn’t just full of bad news. Two big, positive, announcements came out as well!

KC Adds 17-Year-Old Hutton

On the heels of signing a 15-year-old earlier in the offseason, the KC Current announced a comparative ‘veteran’ signing going with a nearly 18-year-old. The team reached a contract agreement with New Yorker, Claire Hutton, who shunned the University of North Carolina to go pro.

Hutton joins the team on a three-year contract through the new NWSL U-18 mechanism. She’s guaranteed through 2026.

Claire joins from ECNL club World Class FC in Bethlehem, New York. That’s the same league that fellow U-18 signing Alex Pfeiffer comes out of.

Hutton joins with international experience, just like Pfeiffer. She made her USWNT debut with the U-17 girls at the 2022 CONCACAF Championships that the United States won. She scored three goals in that tournament. She also was the captain of the U-19 women in the 2023 PanAm Games where the US earned a bronze medal while competing against many other senior national teams.

There is much more to be learned about the midfielder in the years to come in Kansas City.

Rodriguez Returns on Two-Year Deal

The other good piece of news was the KC Current announcing the re-signing of second year left back Izzy Rodriguez. After a promising rookie campaign, she really broke out in 2023, eventually making the starting left back job hers.

In 2023, Rodriguez appeared in all 22 league matches for 1,256 minutes, adding three goals and two assists from her defensive position. Over the season she started 11 of those matches. Quality left backs don’t grow on trees and Rodriguez looks like a star and a potential United States Women’s National Team player.

“Izzy has the mindset and technical and physical abilities to excel in this league,” said head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “Her development from her rookie season to last year was tremendous and I’m excited for her to continue to grow into one of the NWSL’s top defenders.”

There was some confusion around the Rodriguez contract situation when her original deal was said to have an option for 2024. Potentially the Current declined it with a handshake agreement to re-sign her after the expansion draft nonsense was over.

Her contract is a two-year guaranteed deal through 2025.

The KC Soccer Journal will have much more on the Kansas City Current in the coming days, weeks and months.