Diana Ordóñez was traded to the Houston Dash at the beginning of the NWSL Draft on Thursday night.
Ordóñez, along with the No. 30 overall pick, was sent to Houston, while the North Carolina Courage received the No. 8 overall pick — which they used to draft Sydney Collins out of the University of California. The Courage also received an international slot in 2023, Houston’s natural first-round pick in 2024 and $100,000 in allocation money.
Sean Nahas, head coach of the Courage, spoke exclusively with The Equalizer about the decision to trade Ordóñez, which was a request by the Mexican international to be closer to home.
“To be honest, it wasn’t easy, but there’s more to it than trading Diana,” Nahas said near the draft stage. “There were back-and-forth conversations and certain things she was looking for that she expressed to us. So, at the end of the day, we need to make a decision and we wanted to make sure we took care of her, as well, for the efforts and work that she put in for our club. It wasn’t something we came into the offseason thinking that we would do. It just happened over the last couple of weeks, and we wanted to make sure we honored it.”
“She’s a family person, so I think that was a big thing for her. We thanked her for everything that she did. It’s not easy, we had a great relationship with her.”
Ordóñez will be reunited with her Mexican international teammate María Sánchez, and will be joined on the front line with Ebony Salmon.
Ordóñez was a candidate for the NWSL Rookie of the Year honor, which eventually went to San Diego Wave defender Naomi Girma. Ordóñez started 17 out of 19 appearances, scoring 11 goals in her rookie campaign.
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