I’d made the decision that I was going to retire after the World Cup in the summer and, while my future played on my mind during that last campaign, the focus was always on the team and the job at hand.
Winger Guro Reiten will have had her Chelsea future in the back of her mind this season, knowing her contract was expiring in the summer. She’s now cleared up that uncertainty with her transfer to Gotham, which is a brilliant move for her.
Reiten spent the best years of her career at Chelsea and has won 13 trophies — a remarkable haul. But a club and player deciding to part ways is all about alignment as opposed to emotion; are you both going in the same direction? Do your ambitions match? What do you want? These are questions I asked myself throughout my career.
During my final year at Chelsea, the club were driving for more and more success, and I had to consider: can I get to the line at the next pre-season? Can my body and mind do it all again? I knew I wasn’t in a position to give everything anymore, so my decision was made.
When I left Birmingham City in 2015, even though it was the club I’d grown up supporting, progressed through the academy at and won the FA Cup with, I had to take the emotion out of the decision and ask: am I going to win the league here? The answer was not right now, and I had an offer from Chelsea waiting. You only have one career; often players and clubs have to remove sentimentality from the decision-making process when it comes to transfers.
There’s a similar pragmatism to Reiten’s move. She’s been at Chelsea for six and a half years and has won every trophy there is to win in England. But she’s started just three times in the Women’s Super League this season, her contract was expiring in the summer and she was offered a three-year deal at Gotham. Reiten and Chelsea were diverging, but it seems like she has found that alignment again at Gotham.
No one wants to see a player who’s going to leave at the end of the season sitting there and not playing when they’ve still got plenty to offer, so it’s a move that suits all parties.
When she announced she was leaving Chelsea, Reiten recalled how scared she was initially to join the club in 2019 as it meant leaving Norway for the first time and moving away from her family. She’s six and a half years more experienced now, but moving to the United States for the first time will still be another challenge and it’s a big adaptation.
I struggled initially and found it hard to settle when I moved to the U.S., joining the Chicago Red Stars from Arsenal in 2009. There’s the time difference, so communicating with your family back home can be a challenge, and you’ve got to adapt to a different style of football too. But the way Reiten was able to adapt and make Chelsea her home will stand her in good stead for this transition.
Reiten joined Chelsea the summer I retired. I was sad we never played together but I enjoyed watching her play and have such a huge impact. She’s such an intelligent player. She was the perfect winger to get the best out of striker Sam Kerr because her delivery is spot on. Kerr is at her most dangerous in the box, and Reiten could pick her out time after time.
Guro Reiten has today completed a move to NWSL side Gotham FC.
Everyone at Chelsea would like to sincerely thank Guro for her huge contributions to our success over the last six-and-a-half years, and we wish her well during the next chapter of her career. 💙 pic.twitter.com/SWJ7fcm1dx
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) March 12, 2026
I’ve always admired how efficient Reiten is. She’s not the type of winger who is going to jink past multiple players because she knows she doesn’t have to. She has the intelligence to know when to put the ball into the box, and a left foot to execute a pinpoint cross. The 19 assists she registered in 39 appearances during Chelsea’s 2022-23 season demonstrated just how effective she is.
Reiten was a great fit for the Chelsea group too; her personality comes across in interviews, she’s got a cheeky side to her, which former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes would have loved.
Her reduced game time this season and departure points towards what I wrote about last month; how this campaign Chelsea are transitioning from Hayes’ era into a team in Sonia Bompastor’s image. With Hannah Hampton, Lucy Bronze, Sam Kerr, Aggie Beever-Jones, Millie Bright and Rebecca Spencer all out of contract at the end of the season, it’s a trend that could continue this summer.
I’m excited to see how Reiten adapts to life in the NWSL. She will suit Gotham, with her excellent technical ability, playing alongside similarly technical players such as Rose Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw. Beyond her quality on the ball, Reiten brings a winning mentality and work ethic — traits drilled into her from spending five years playing under Hayes. In training at Chelsea, Hayes was really hot on winning your duels. That was the standard set every day, and primes Reiten to slot into an NWSL championship-winning team.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chelsea, Gotham FC, NWSL, Women’s Soccer
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