The United States Women’s National Team opened the 2025 calendar with a second-place finish at the SheBelieves Cup, dropping the final match to Japan (1-2). Several young players were able to gain valuable experience, ideally building toward a greater role with the program. After a standout rookie year with the Kansas City Current, Claire Hutton picked up her first appearance at the tournament. The 19-year-old defensive midfielder is considered a top prospect and should continue to deliver on her initial promise, demonstrating prowess at a position typically held by wily veterans.
Born in Bethlehem, New York, Hutton competed at the club level with Albany Alleycats in the regional division of the Elite Clubs National League while also captaining the US Youth Futsal National Team. She then jumped to World Class FC and was named an All-American in 2022 and 2023. In addition to participating with the US Club id2 and the Olympic Development Program’s national group, the United Soccer Coaches also listed her as an All-American. Channeling an “addictive personality” to improve, observers praised her “athletic, fearless” nature and ability to “cover a ton of ground.”
At the high school level, Hutton joined the Bethlehem High School varsity team in the seventh grade, reaching the state finals and earning all-state honors while displaying a high work rate well beyond her years. At 13, she contributed 36 goals and 19 assists, winning a sectional title and being named New York’s player of the year. After missing significant time during her freshman and sophomore seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic and international duty, her junior campaign was spent with the boys’ team, adding four goals and one assist in 14 matches; the “once-in-a-generation” player was able to adapt to the “speed of play, competitiveness, and physicality” with ease.
“[Playing with the boys’ team] has been amazing,” Hutton shared with the Times Union in 2022. “I can’t put into words how great it really has been. I didn’t know going into it how I would be treated with the kids on the team. They treated me like one of them, which I am so grateful for. If they treated you like a girl going on a boys’ team, that is where things (get twisted). When we’re practicing and someone goes for a tackle on me, they are not pulling up. We’re all just here to play soccer. I think it is amazing that they are accepting of me.”
Graduating high school one year early, Hutton trained with multiple National Women’s Soccer League teams. After spending time with the Kansas City Current and believing that the “great people and facilities” would “provide the next steps to get better,” she signed a three-year deal with the club through the Under-18 Entry Mechanism, eschewing a commitment to the University of North Carolina. Former USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski cited her “incredible” potential, describing her as an “amazing talent.”
In her first professional season, Hutton was in the starting lineup on opening day and made 29 total appearances, registering the game-winning headed assist in a 1-0 victory over the Utah Royals. Her first goal came in a 4-1 win against Tigres in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, which the Current would eventually claim. Despite receiving “relatively little fanfare” to open the campaign, she exceeded all possible expectations as the league nominated her for Rookie of the Year, with the teenager “looking like a hard-nosed, grizzled veteran in a position that often requires experience.”
“The role Hutton plays isn’t very conducive to the counting stats,” KC Stewart-Hall penned for View from the Streetcar. “If you watch the Current’s goals back, she’s involved in so many of them. She’s winning the ball in the heart of midfield, carrying it up the field, and making a well-timed pass before the final ball. She’s spotting the winger in space and giving her the chance to go one-on-one against her defender. She’s creating the pressure which forces the opposition into an ill-advised pass that one of her midfield partners jumps on. When you’re watching from the stands, she’s pretty much guaranteed to have a few different actions during the game that just ooze quality, that make you clap your hands together and go ‘Oh my god, she’s incredible.’”
At the international level, Hutton was with the United States program from an early age and scored six goals on the way to winning the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship; being left out of the ensuing U-17 World Cup was a “make-or-break experience” that provided “one of [the] biggest fuels” for her success. She subsequently served as the captain at the 2023 Pan American Games (taking third place) and started five out of seven matches at the 2024 U-20 World Cup during the run to a bronze-medal finish. After being invited to January’s Futures Camp, a first senior call-up came during the 2025 SheBelieves Cup. Her debut came in the 2-1 victory over Australia: starting, playing 70 minutes, and setting up the game-winning goal with an incisive pass into the box.
Standing at five-foot-six, Hutton is one of the NWSL’s most-impactful players, with top numbers in tackles, interceptions, clearances, and successful aerial duels while also beating opponents off of the dribble. She is exalted as “a player who could define [the defensive midfielder] position in the decade ahead” with a desire “to be everywhere all the time,” constantly join the attack, “and sprint to make every tackle.” The “game-wrecker” can “thwart the other teams with her physical presence and ignite the counter-attack with her precision passing.”
“As a holding midfielder, Hutton is excellent at reading the game,” wrote Ameé Ruszkai for Goal. “Physically and in terms of her soccer IQ, the 18-year-old by no means looks out of her depth in the team… and she has some real flair, too… It’s her ability to [dribble], owing to wonderful technical skill, that regularly catches the eye when watching this talented teenager play. So often she spins away from the press, dances her way past a couple of opponents and gets herself, and her team, out of a sticky situation in an instant.”
Having made her club and international debuts, Hutton has the benefit of a long lead-up until the next major competition. She can continue to develop over the next two-and-a-half years before ideally being included on the roster for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. Incorporating new players into the existing structure can be a difficult task for some managers, but Emma Hayes appears to be keeping an eye on the future, with several talented options ready to step into the limelight.
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