![\"Catarina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-macario-0327-01.jpg\")
Catarina Macario moved to San Diego County at age 12 and starred at Torrey Pines High School before attending college at Stanford. (San Diego Wave)<\/p>\nDuring their short existence, the San Diego Wave have boasted more star power than any other team in the National Women\u2019s Soccer League.<\/p>\n
Alex Morgan. Abby Dahkemper. Naomi Girma. Jaedyn Shaw.<\/p>\n
Now comes Catarina Macario.<\/p>\n
The Wave announced Friday morning that they\u2019ve acquired Macario on a transfer from Chelsea and signed the former Torrey Pines High School star to a five-year contract. ESPN reported the pact is worth roughly $8 million, making it the largest total contract in NWSL. Reports of a deal emerged shortly after the league\u2019s transfer window closed on March 16, but the Wave held off on making it official until Macario returned stateside.<\/p>\n
Macario will be introduced Friday morning in a news conference at Snapdragon Stadium. The plan is for the forward to be back at Snapdragon on Saturday for the club\u2019s home game against the Chicago Stars. Macario is rehabbing an injury and will not make her Wave debut for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to join San Diego Wave FC and begin this next chapter of my career at home in San Diego,\u201d said Macario, who will wear No. 20. \u201cThis city has played such an important role in my journey, and the opportunity to come back and represent it means a lot to me. From my first conversations with the club, I felt the ambition and the vision for what we can accomplish together, including bringing trophies to this city. I\u2019m grateful for the belief they\u2019ve shown in me, and I can\u2019t wait to get started and give everything for this team and my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catarina Macario moved to San Diego County at age 12 and starred at Torrey Pines High School before attending college at Stanford. (San Diego Wave)<\/p>\n
Macario, 26, was born in Brazil before moving to San Diego at age 12 to pursue her dream of playing professional soccer. She starred for the San Diego Surf club team and later at Torrey Pines. From there, she matriculated to Stanford, where she won two national championships (2017 and 2019) and two MAC Hermann Awards, given to the nation\u2019s top college player.<\/p>\n
Macario turned pro after three college seasons, playing with Lyon before her 2023 transfer to Chelsea. While in England, Macario was part of a Chelsea club that won back-to-back Women\u2019s Super League titles, a Women\u2019s League Cup title and an FA Women\u2019s Cup crown.<\/p>\n
![\"Catarina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUT-L-macario-0327-03.jpg\")
Catarina Macario has appeared in 29 matches for the United States Women\u2019s National Team. (San Diego Wave)<\/p>\n
Macario has also appeared in 29 matches for the United States Women\u2019s National Team, scoring 16 goals.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll join a Wave team that, like Macario, has ties to both Brazil and San Diego. The club acquired Brazilian-born forwards Ludmila and Gabi Portilho this offseason and paired them alongside Dudinha, last year\u2019s breakout scoring star and a fellow Brazilian native. Another forward, Melanie Barcenas, is a San Diego native who is viewed as a potential future star.<\/p>\n
Both Dudinha and Barcenas scored in Wednesday\u2019s 3-1 win over the Portland Thorns at Snapdragon Stadium. The Wave are 2-1-0 heading into Saturday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
Camille Ashton, the Wave\u2019s sporting director and general manager, called Macario \u201ca world-class player who has consistently performed at the highest levels of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis signing reflects the ambition of our club, and having a player of her caliber return to her hometown and represent San Diego makes this signing even more meaningful for our organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During their short existence, the San Diego Wave have boasted more star power than any other team in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[107718,74,76,75,12901],"class_list":["post-240654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-catarina-macario","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-wave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}