Lindsey Heaps comes home to Denver after a career built abroad
The USWNT captain is set for her Denver Summit debut after years in France, a World Cup title and a pioneering jump to the pros at 18.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Lindsey Heaps is back on Colorado roads she once knew as a kid chasing club soccer, and this time the destination is an NWSL training ground.
The U.S. women's national team captain is expected to make her Denver Summit FC debut Saturday, ESPN reported, giving the league expansion club a hometown star with a résumé that stretches from Paris to Portland to Lyon.
Heaps, 31, grew up in Golden, Colorado, and left the state 14 years ago for France. In 2012, she became the first American woman to go straight from high school to a professional contract overseas, skipping college at a time when the NWSL did not yet exist.
She told ESPN the return feels strange because she is once again driving Interstate 25 to soccer, the same highway she used as a young player. Her move is also a tidy full-circle moment for a career that helped crack open a path now used by elite teenage players.
A teenage choice that changed the map
Heaps signed with Paris Saint-Germain at 18 and passed on a scholarship to North Carolina, then the gold-standard college program under Anson Dorrance. ESPN reported that Stanford and other top schools had also recruited her.
Her father, Mark Horan, told ESPN that Heaps had shown fierce focus from childhood, saying that once she set her mind on something, she did it. Her mother, Linda Horan, said she even had to answer some recruiting emails for her daughter and pushed her to visit campuses.
Heaps said soccer consumed her thinking at the time. She told ESPN she believed anything outside the sport took away from getting better, which made the professional route fit her ambitions.
After PSG, Heaps returned to the United States in 2016 with the Portland Thorns. ESPN reported that she was named NWSL MVP in 2018 and helped the USWNT win the 2019 World Cup. She later went back to France in 2022 with Olympique Lyonnais, now OL Lyonnes, where she won a UEFA Champions League title and became a regular in midfield.
ESPN noted that several current USWNT players, including Olivia Moultrie, Jaedyn Shaw, Gisele Thompson and Claire Hutton, began as teenagers in the NWSL after the league began allowing under-18 players in 2021.
Denver made its pitch
The NWSL Board of Governors approved Denver as the league's 16th franchise in December 2024, according to ESPN. The Summit played their first match in March, and the club made clear early that it wanted to bring Colorado talent home.
Heaps told ESPN she did not want to sign only because Denver was home. She said she still has goals in her career, including the World Cup next summer, and wanted to be somewhere that would help her compete for that team.
Summit head coach Nick Cushing told ESPN that adding the national team captain and a proven winner should lift the squad's mentality. He also said Heaps gives Denver tactical flexibility, with the ability to play deeper, as a No. 10 or closer to goal.
The club's new training center has opened, and ESPN reported that a temporary stadium beside it is scheduled to debut Saturday. Denver also plans a permanent stadium it expects to open in 2028.
Heaps shared the decision with her parents during a holiday visit, and Denver later announced in January that she would join after the European season. Linda Horan called the move “like a dream come true” in comments to ESPN.
For a player who left home before the American pro game had a stable stage, the stage is now in Colorado. Denver gets its headline act, and Heaps gets a homecoming built on the career she dared to start early.
This story draws on original reporting from ESPN.com.