From Audi Field to Ashburn, five players are carrying their home countries into DC, Maryland and Virginia sports this season
At a glance
- Washington Spirit currently fields at least five African internationals, more than any other club in the NWSL, according to ESPN’s reporting on the club’s Alimata Bélem signing.
- Three of them, Deborah Abiodun, Gift Monday and Rosemonde Kouassi, are competing in Morocco this week at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
- The Washington Commanders carry two African-born linemen, Jeffrey M’Ba of Gabon and T. J. Maguranyanga of Zimbabwe, both products of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program.
- No African-born player currently sits on the active rosters of DC United, the Wizards or the Mystics, based on team and biographical records available at the time of writing.
Washington’s sports conversation has spent the summer on the World Cup and on AFCON’s expansion to 28 teams. Less discussed is the roster already standing in front of the region, players actually born on the African continent who suit up for DC, Maryland and Virginia teams every week. Here is where that group stands right now, ranked by current on-field impact.
Gift Monday, a forward for the Washington Spirit, was born in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, on December 9, 2001. She broke into professional soccer with COD United Amazons before stints at Bayelsa Queens and Spain’s UD Tenerife, joining the Spirit in 2025. Monday has represented Nigeria’s Super Falcons since 2019, and this week she is in Morocco chasing the country’s eleventh Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title, a tournament that reaches its quarterfinal round on August 9.
Her teammate Deborah Abiodun, born in Ibadan, Nigeria, made her senior Nigeria debut in September 2022 and has since played at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. Since joining the Spirit in August 2025, she has made 20 appearances with a goal and an assist, according to the club. Abiodun holds Nigeria’s Order of the Niger honor and is also away this week with the Super Falcons.
Rosemonde Kouassi rounds out the Spirit’s tournament trio, representing Ivory Coast in a quarterfinal one day ahead of her Nigerian teammates, on August 8. Kouassi made her senior international debut during Confederation of African Football Olympic qualifying, helping Ivory Coast reach the semifinals before falling to eventual runner-up Cameroon, and she scored in the country’s 2026 FIFA Series win over Turks and Caicos this spring.
That concentration of talent is not an accident. Washington Spirit has built one of the deepest African rosters in the NWSL, a pattern that stands out even against the broader wave of African players who reshaped this year’s World Cup. Burkina Faso defender Alimata Bélem signed a four-year deal with the club this summer, a move ESPN reported pushed the Spirit’s African international count to five. Bélem remains on loan at Spain’s SD Eibar through the end of the 2026 calendar year and will not report to Washington until preseason, so she is not yet on the field, but the signing underscores how deliberately the club has recruited from the continent compared to its league rivals.
On the football side, the Commanders carry two African-born players whose paths could not look more different. Jeffrey M’Ba, born in Libreville, Gabon, on September 14, 1999, attended Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore before a college career that ran through Independence, Auburn, Purdue and SMU. He joined Washington as an undrafted signee in 2026, a roster spot with roots that trace back to a Maryland high school, not just this season. T. J. Maguranyanga, born in Harare, Zimbabwe, took an even less conventional route, spending his early career as a rugby wing for ASM Clermont Auvergne in France’s Top 14 before switching codes entirely. He signed with the Commanders in April 2025 through the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, the same pipeline that has increasingly funneled rugby and Australian talent into the league.
That leaves a notable gap elsewhere on the DMV’s pro landscape. DC United’s most recent African-born player, Senegal’s Dominique Badji, moved to Phoenix Rising FC earlier this year. Wizards forward Alex Sarr is often assumed to fit this list given his Senegalese heritage, but he was born in Bordeaux, France, and holds French nationality, a distinction worth making given how often ancestry and birthplace get conflated in sports coverage. No Mystics player currently on the roster was born in Africa either.
The pattern that does hold is the DMV’s deep and growing Nigerian diaspora community, which has become one of the most visible African populations in American sports at the club level, and it dovetails with how AFCON’s expansion to 28 teams has already reshaped how local fans follow the men’s game. This week gives that fan base something rarer: three hometown players competing for continental titles at the same time, on the same team, in the same tournament.
FAQ
Are any DC United, Wizards or Mystics players currently African-born?
Not based on the most recent team rosters and biographical records available at the time of writing. DC United’s most recent African-born player, Senegal’s Dominique Badji, moved to Phoenix Rising FC this year. Wizards forward Alex Sarr is of Senegalese descent but was born in Bordeaux, France.
Where can DMV fans watch the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals?
Ivory Coast’s quarterfinal is scheduled for August 8, 2026, and Nigeria’s for August 9, 2026, both in Morocco. Check CAF’s official broadcast partners for U.S. air times closer to kickoff.
How many African internationals does the Washington Spirit have?
At least five, the most of any NWSL club, according to ESPN’s reporting on the Alimata Bélem signing.