Gotham FC player Midge Purce’s second NWSL title adds to her extensive résumé

Gotham FC player Midge Purce has a robust résumé.

After suffering a season-ending ACL injury in March 2024, she returned to the pitch in April and Saturday helped lead Gotham FC to their second NWSL championship in the past three seasons.

The 2023 NWSL championship MVP is also a former Harvard soccer standout who now serves on the university’s Board of Overseers and is a co-founder and board member of the Black Women’s Player Collective (BWPC), a not-for-profit organization created by the Black players in the NWSL. She’s also a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, the creator of “The Offseason,” a reality television miniseries, and an advocate for equal pay and climate change.

Prior to Saturday’s victory, she spoke with Andscape commentator Ari Chambers about life on and off the field. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You never cease to amaze me by how you’re able to elevate and reinvent yourself. How do you have the vision to continuously do that?

People are asking me if I’m preparing for life off the field. I’m just like, no, I really enjoy soccer. I love it. It’s something I’m good at. I have other things that really fulfill me, and one of those things is creating and building. Just as different opportunities have presented themselves, and I’ve had different interests to explore, I’ve been able to tap into those different sectors and really find a space that’s for me.

In some respects, you are art, and then you create art, and you execute art through your footwork, too. Which form do you enjoy most?

It depends on the day. I know when I feel really, really good, I’m about to do some fun [one-on-one] things. There’s nothing like that. I don’t think there will ever be anything like that. But also building things with “The Offseason” has been really fun. And I have a couple announcements that are coming out at the beginning of next year. [I enjoy] that feeling, too, of building something that I’m really proud of, and I think people are going to really enjoy.

With all the knowledge and skill set that you have, you have a way of being so selfless about the things you build. The Black Women’s Player Collective you started, what is it?

The Black Player Collective is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that’s committed to elevating the image, access, and exposure of Black women at all levels of sport. It’s something I’m passionate about because we have been able, over the past five years, to touch Black girls on an individual scale and en masse around the United States in ways that have really been life-changing for a lot of them in terms of not just confidence and self-image, but in the career routes and community that was not so accessible to me at that age.

When you have something that you love that’s not as accessible to you, how do you have the audacity to pursue it?

It’s the most logical thing to do – just go against the grain. It’s like, oh, it’s not here? OK, let’s put it there. And I think what’s really special about the BWPC is that when I founded it, I found enough like-minded women in the league who were committed to also doing the exact same thing. I was really sad when I stepped down as the executive director a few years ago, but when I’m able to go to the events and hop on some of the meetings, I [realize] this ship is running and I’m really proud of it.

I saw your discussion with your dad. He advised against you pursuing professional soccer, but you did it anyway. You were so defiant in your presence, and it was bold. It was powerful, and it resonated with me. Where does your defiance come from?

I was just talking to some of the rookies about this. My defiance absolutely comes from [my dad] James Purce. That man has created a monster. He always told me, from a young age, I don’t have to do anything that I don’t want to do. There might be consequences, but I don’t have to do anything. And just the other day, some of the younger players were like, “They said we had to do this, XYZ.” And I looked at them and said, “You don’t have to do anything. Don’t let anyone here tell you that you have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

They just kind of looked at me and I saw kind of a shift in their mindset. I said, “There might be consequences, they might not be favorable, but you don’t have to do it.” And I think the opposite of that rings true for me, too. I can do anything that I want to do.

What’s so special about having that relationship with your dad? We don’t talk about single fathers enough. How do you think that shaped you?

I think it would be harder to find a way that it did not shape me than to explain how it did. I am so privileged having a father who is so wise and so intentional with how he raised a girl and a Black woman in this world. He was so considerate of all the messages that he was sending me and how it may play differently for me versus someone else. And he’s just the best. You know, he’s here [at the NWSL championship]. He flew out this morning and he’s just having the time of his life.

Sometimes we don’t know what we have until it gets snatched away from us. You previously said you don’t feel like success should be defined by things that were removed from you, but did you have a different perspective when you had your injury? How did your injury redefine your definition of success?

That injury was hard for me. I think it’s really easy as an athlete to define success the way everyone else defines success for you, which is your stats, rings, championships. But I don’t think people really know how hard it can be mentally to be an athlete and what the ups and downs are. So I definitely define my success by how I respond to my failures.

How would you rate, on a grading scale, how you responded?

I’ll give it a seven. There are some things I want back, but if we win the championship, I’ll bump it to a nine.

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