Welcome back to full-time with Meg Linnahan. I'm Meg, and as always, you are listening to a show

all about women's soccer on the Athletic Podcast Network. Now, on today's show, I'm talking to Susie Pertowski, head of women's team sports at Octagon and a former co-worker of mine back in the NWSL days. But we're going to talk about the NWSEL, sponsorships, the growth of the league, the role of an agency like Octagon and women's

sports, really how all of these things connect, how the landscape of women's sports is now

seeing this huge influx of money. We got into some deep stuff, but it wouldn't also be the two

of us if we didn't throw in some sneaker talk as well, since that is a pretty significant

chunk of what we text each other about. But before we get to the rest of today's episode, as always, since that is a pretty significant junk of what we text each other about.

But before we get to the rest of today's episode, as always, to show your support of full-time,

plus get all of our women's soccer coverage and everything else the athletic has to offer.

On our site and app, you can subscribe right now at theathletic.com slash full-time.

All right, on to the news.

Ada Hegerberg is back on the squad with Norway for the first time in five years and back

on the playing field with Leone after a long injury layoff, of course.

But our Katie Wyatt over on the UK desk has a huge feature on what this means with her

relationship with the Federation, how she got pulled back in, the nuance of her protest over

gender equality. The link is in the show nuance of her protest over gender equality.

The link is in the show notes. Definitely give it a read. Also on the Leone front, Champions

League action was back this week and Leone with a surprising result against Juventus after

allowing two goals to the Italian side, following a red card to defender L.A. Carpenter.

Katerina Macario scored the opener for Leone, but it ended up 2-1 in favor to Juventus. PSG was on the winning side of another 2-1 score line over Byron. Real Madrid had a first half lead over Barcelona, but Alexia and Barcelona, unsurprisingly, came back for a 3-1 win, and Arsenal pulled off an 89th minute equalizer against Walsberg to finish their

match with a 1-1-score line. Second leg fixtures for the quarterfinals will take place on March 30th

and 31st. Also, Angel City FC has the first club anthem in the NWSL, courtesy of their sponsor

Johnny Walker slash Jane Walker. Same thing. Good timing for the story, considering this discussion I'm about to have with Susie that you're going to hear in a few minutes, but I've also got the story on how this anthem came to be at the athletic. But it's part of the brand's first strides program. That's kind of an extension of what they've been doing the whole time along with their partnership with Angel City. In addition to the

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