USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps set to join the expansion Denver Summit

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USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps set to join the expansion Denver Summit

2026-01-12 23:13 Last Updated At：23:20

Lindsey Heaps is coming home.

The Women's World Cup winner is joining the National Women's Soccer League's expansion Denver Summit this summer when her contract with French club Lyon is done.

Heaps is a native of Golden, Colorado, and made no secret of her interest in playing in her home state after the Summit was announced as the league's 16th team back in January 2025. The club embarks on its first season this year.

“When I first heard about the team, I didn’t really feel like it was real. I couldn’t believe that we were getting a professional women’s soccer team and in Denver," Heaps said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I didn’t want to get too excited from the get go because I didn’t know if it was a real possibility for me. And then, as conversations went on, the first thing I said, I wanted to make sure that it was the right opportunity for me.”

Not only does Heaps have family in Colorado, but her husband, Tyler Heaps, is general manager and sporting director of Major League Soccer's San Diego FC, and the two have been juggling the demands of a transatlantic relationship.

Heaps also indicated that she was lured to the Summit by majority owner Rob Cohen and coach Nick Cushing, who previously coached the Manchester City women and Major League Soccer's NYCFC.

"I think they align with all of my beliefs in how they see the team, how they see it becoming successful, and the investment that they’re putting in," she said. "And then hearing Nick and how he sees football, I think that was a huge deciding factor for me as well as I wanted to be with a good coach. So that was exciting.”

Denver has been assembling a roster in anticipation of its first season, bringing in Ally Watt and Carson Pickett, both formerly of the Orlando Pride, and Kaleigh Kurtz from the North Carolina Courage, among others. More recently, the team signed defender Ayo Oke from the Mexican club Pachuca.

The 31-year-old Heaps is known as an aggressive facilitator on the field, and her height — she’s 5-foot-9 — gives her an advantage in aerial duels. She'll no doubt take on a leadership role in Denver like she has as captain with the national team.

She said she hopes to foster the “chemistry, values and standards that I want this club to have for years and years, and make it a successful place and a place that everyone wants to play, that’s entertaining to fans and plays good football as well."

Following high school, Heaps turned down a scholarship to North Carolina and instead went overseas and play for Paris Saint-Germain for four seasons.

In 2016 and vying for a spot on the Olympic team, she returned to the United States to play for the Portland Thorns, where she won an NWSL title in 2017 and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2018.

The Thorns loaned her to Lyon in 2022, and later allowed her permanent transfer to the team in France’s top division. In 95 appearances with Lyon, Heaps has scored 22 goals.

A fixture on the U.S. national team since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Heaps has served as captain since 2023.

At the 2019 Women's World Cup in France, she served Alex Morgan the go-ahead goal in the semifinal match against England. In addition to the World Cup trophy, Heaps also has a gold medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Heaps is returning home while some other national team stars have gone to Europe in the past year, including defender Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson.

Heaps believes her time overseas made her a more complete player.

“The reason I left, at the time I left, was that I wanted to go experience something different. I wanted to challenge myself in a different way," she said. "Not negating what Portland gave me or what the NWSL gave me, but I was just like, I’d been there for six years and I wanted another challenge and I’d be remiss if I didn’t go and try to challenge myself in a different way in France again."

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Stocks of credit-card companies slump as Wall Street overall drifts in mixed trading

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks of credit-card companies are tumbling on Monday after President Donald Trump threatened moves that could eat into their profits. The rest of Wall Street, meanwhile, was showing only modest signals of concern after tensions ramped to a much higher degree between the White House and the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high as U.S. stocks drifted through mixed morning trading, while prices for gold and other investments that tend to do well when investors are nervous rose. The value of the U.S. dollar also dipped against the euro and other currencies amid concerns that the Fed may have less independence in setting interest rates to keep inflation under control.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 179 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was nearly unchanged.

Some of the market's sharpest drops came from credit-card companies, as Synchrony Financial, Capital One Financial and American Express all fell between 4% and 7%. They sank after Trump said he wanted to put a 10% cap on credit-card interest rates for a year. Such a move could eat into profits for credit card companies.

But it was a separate move by Trump that was grabbing more attention on Wall Street. Over the weekend, the Federal Reserve's chair, Jerome Powell, said the U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed the Fed and threatened a criminal indictment over his testimony about renovations underway at its headquarters.

With an unusual video statement released on Sunday, Powell said his testimony and the renovations are “pretexts” for the threat of criminal charges, which is really “a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”

The Fed has been locked in a feud with the White House about interest rates. Trump has been loudly calling for lower interest rates, which would make borrowing cheaper for U.S. households and companies and could give the economy a kickstart.

The Fed did cut its main interest rate three times last year and has indicated more cuts may be arriving this year. But it’s been moving slowly enough that Trump has nicknamed Powell “Too Late.”

In a brief interview with NBC News Sunday, President Donald Trump insisted he didn’t know about the investigation into Powell. When asked if the investigation is intended to pressure Powell on rates, Trump said, “No. I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way.”

Powell’s term as chair ends in May, and Trump administration officials have signaled that he could name a potential replacement this month. Trump has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook.

The Fed has traditionally operated separately from the rest of Washington, making its decisions on interest rates without having to bend to political whims. Such independence, the thinking goes, gives it freedom to make unpopular moves that are necessary for the economy’s long-term health.

Keeping interest rates high, for example, could slow the economy and frustrate politicians looking to please voters. But it could also be the medicine needed to get high inflation under control.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked up to 4.19% from 4.18% late Friday. A less independent Fed and higher inflation in the long term could also erode the value of the U.S. dollar, and it slipped 0.3% against the euro and 0.4% against the Swiss franc.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Stocks jumped 1.4% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai for two of the world’s bigger gains following reports that Chinese leaders were preparing more help for the economy.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.