For many years, inquiring about women’s soccer in a card shop felt almost like an apology. Owners would shrug. Perhaps somewhere in the back, hidden beneath boxes of basketball prizes and football rookies, was a Parkside set. Perhaps not. Women’s sports seldom made the cut, and the shelves told a tale about what the hobby considered important.
That narrative is beginning to shift. The National Women’s Soccer League and its Players Association announced a multi-year partnership with Panini America on March 11, making the collectibles giant the league’s and its Players Association’s exclusive trading card partner. The agreement was reached two days prior to the Washington Spirit’s 2026 season opener against the Portland Thorns. The timing had a purposeful, almost choreographed feel to it, which is typical when a league has momentum and doesn’t want to waste it.
When Panini wants to, it moves quickly. The first Panini Instant set, a 33-card checklist with sporadic parallels and autographs slotted in for collectors eager to pursue them, went live within hours of the announcement. By Panini’s standards, it’s a soft launch, but it’s a genuine one. The company seems to have been waiting for the right time, and someone in the room ultimately decided that this was it.
Since its inaugural season in 2013, when eight teams played in front of small audiences and players occasionally took second jobs to make ends meet, the NWSL has undergone significant change. There are currently sixteen teams; in 2028, Atlanta will become the seventeenth. The defending champion, Gotham FC, entered the playoffs in eighth place last fall and, like cup teams, heated up at the perfect time. The underdog run is the type of story that typically sells cards. It’s another matter entirely whether it does here.
Women’s sports collectibles have always had challenging economics. It’s obvious that there is demand, but it’s dispersed widely and the infrastructure for supplying it has been inconsistent at best. Although many collectors felt the product never quite reached the polish of Panini’s NBA or Premier League offerings, Parkside has held the license in recent years and produced respectable sets. With its well-known Prizm, Select, and Mosaic brands, Panini’s entry signifies a change. These are the lines that are traded on the secondary market. On camera, hobby YouTubers crack these lines.
It is worthwhile to consider the deal’s actual structure. Physical trading cards, a sticker collection, and digital collectibles on Panini’s blockchain platform are all covered by the agreement. Questions are raised by that third piece. Since its peak in 2021, the market for cryptocurrency collectibles has significantly cooled, and digital sports cards have found it difficult to maintain interest or value. Perhaps Panini envisions a longer runway. Perhaps it’s just hedging. From here, it’s difficult to tell.
Which players will carry the early product is another issue. Few American soccer players have ever been as marketable as Trinity Rodman, who continues to be the obvious focal point. However, the depth of the league has increased to the point where a Panini set could realistically feature twenty or thirty names without adding unnecessary names to the list. Jaedyn Shaw, Sophia Wilson, Esther González, Barbra Banda, and Croix Bethune. Even three years ago, this wasn’t the case, but the list continues.
It’s difficult to ignore how subtly this announcement was covered by mainstream sports media. Days of coverage would have resulted from the release of WNBA cards. Perhaps two news cycles were generated by the NWSL deal. Panini is now wagering that it can bridge that gap between perceived and actual cultural relevance.
