The captain is coming back to her roots.
And when she gets here, the global soccer superstar from Golden will be the crowd-drawing headliner for Colorado’s inaugural professional women’s soccer team.
Lindsey Heaps — U.S. women’s national team captain, Olympic and World Cup champion, NWSL champion and MVP, and one of the best players in the world — signed with Denver Summit FC through the 2029 season, the club announced Monday.
The seismic signing, the possibility of which had been floated since the moment Denver was officially awarded a team by the NWSL on Jan. 30 of last year, came to fruition after a months-long process between the midfielder and Summit FC.
“Going back to when Denver won the expansion bid, and before I even was GM, I remember thinking, ‘The perfect player for this team, if you’re going to pick one in the whole world, is Lindsey,'” Summit FC general manager Curt Johnson said. “She was one of the key players to build this roster around that we’ve been targeting all along.”
Heaps (née Horan), who has played with Lyon in France since 2021, is expected to make her Denver debut following the conclusion of the current Première Ligue season. With Lyon, Heaps has been part of a dominant side as a pillar in winning numerous titles, including three in Première Ligue and a UEFA Women’s Champions League crown.
Her acquisition by Denver is the biggest roster splash yet for an expansion franchise that has made waves from the moment owner Rob Cohen and his ownership group plopped down a record $110 million expansion fee to land the club.
In the year since, Summit FC has broken ground on a training facility and temporary stadium in Centennial and also achieved Denver City Council approval for an initial $50 million subsidy to clear the way for soon-to-start construction on its permanent home, a 14,500-seat stadium at Santa Fe Yards at Broadway and I-25.
All of those moves, in addition to the hiring of the accomplished Nick Cushing as head coach, were considered in Heaps’ decision to return to the NWSL.
“In listening to the ownership group, listening to Curt, seeing (ownership’s) details on this project and their view on everything they wanted to do, I was very excited about the opportunity,” Heaps said. “It’s a special project that I wanted to be a part of, especially being my hometown.
“And I looked at the next few years and I looked at my goals, and I wanted to make sure that it was the right opportunity for me to put myself in the best place possible to hopefully make a World Cup roster (in 2027) as well. I knew that I needed a good coach, I needed a good environment. And so hearing (Cushing) announced as coach obviously made me very excited.”
Lindsey Heaps #10 of the United States looks on during the national anthem prior to an international friendly match against Italy at Chase Stadium on Dec. 01, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images)Heaps, 31, has played in Denver as a pro only when the national team has come to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for friendlies. The former Colorado Rush phenom previously starred in the NWSL for the Portland Thorns from 2016-21, after spending the first part of her career with Paris Saint-Germain when the 2012 Golden graduate became the first American woman to sign a pro contract straight out of high school.
Financial terms of Heaps’ deal were not disclosed, but Johnson said “her compensation package is in line with the level of player that she is, her accomplishments in terms of her resume and the fact that she’s got many more good years ahead of her.”
At the time of the last World Cup, in 2023, Forbes estimated Heaps’ salary with Lyon was $900,000. Johnson said the club is planning to designate Heaps as a High Impact Player, a new compensation mechanism that was announced by the league on Dec. 23 but has since been the subject of a rebuttal by the NWSL Players Association.
In a statement, the NWSLPA said the mechanism should’ve been “a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion.” As it stands, the new rule says each club can exceed the league’s $3.5 million salary cap in 2026 by up to $1 million for High Impact Players, an additional allotment that can be used on one or multiple players who meet certain commercial or sporting criteria.
Johnson noted the club intended to sign the midfielder regardless of that provision. If it’s enacted as currently written, the cap charge of a High Impact Player must be a minimum of 12% of the base salary cap, meaning Heaps would make $420,000 that would count against Denver’s cap and the rest of her salary would be pulled from the $1 million allotment pool. Johnson said it’s possible Summit FC could sign another High Impact Player in the coming months.
All that aside, Heaps said her focus before she dons a Summit kit is to “win everything possible with Lyon, which there’s four trophies to win.”
“And then furthermore, I just want to come into Denver and … raise the standard in my own way,” Heaps said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t going to be emotional (when I step on the pitch for) the first time.”
Cohen is counting on both of those things to be true to get the club closer to its lofty goal of competing for a league championship in its first season.
“You couple Lindsey’s skill and leadership with some of our younger women that are just coming right out of college, to have that opportunity to sit in a locker room with a player of her stature, it just it raises the level of our team in addition to being a marquee player who can get the fanbase excited,” Cohen said.
Catarina Macario #20 of the United States celebrates with Lindsey Heaps #10 after scoring against Italy during the first half of a international friendly match at Chase Stadium on Dec. 01, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images)Summit FC now has 14 players on its official roster, and has commitments from 21 total. The team expects to sign a couple more players beyond that, Johnson said. The GM added that another signing of a Coloradan will be announced this week; the club is currently at four locals with Heaps, midfielder Jordan Baggett, defender Janine Sonis and forward Ally Watt.
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