{"id":2194779,"date":"2025-12-11T10:39:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T10:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2194779"},"modified":"2025-12-11T10:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T10:39:18","slug":"urfc-signs-goalkeeper-deaira-jackson-midfielder-aria-nagai-to-salary-cap-exempt-contracts-for-2026-nwsl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/urfc-signs-goalkeeper-deaira-jackson-midfielder-aria-nagai-to-salary-cap-exempt-contracts-for-2026-nwsl-season\/","title":{"rendered":"URFC Signs Goalkeeper DeAira Jackson &#038; Midfielder Aria Nagai To Salary Cap-Exempt Contracts For 2026 NWSL Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>HERRIMAN, Utah (Wednesday December 10, 2025)<\/strong> \u2014 The Utah Royals have signed goalkeeper <strong>DeAira Jackson<\/strong> and midfielder <strong>Aria Nagai<\/strong> to salary cap-exempt contracts for the 2026 NWSL season, the Club announced today. Both players will occupy off-budget roster spots, offering roster flexibility while securing two high-upside young talents ahead of the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h2><strong>DEAIRA JACKSON \u2014 GOALKEEPER<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Jackson returns for her second season in Utah after joining the Club as a free agent midway through the 2025 campaign. The young goalkeeper originally entered the NWSL with the Orlando Pride on a short-term contract earlier in the year, marking her first steps into professional soccer before signing with the Royals.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>A standout collegiate goalkeeper at Grand Canyon University, Jackson completed a historic 2024 senior season in which she earned All-WAC First Team honors and was named the WAC Goalkeeper of the Year. She set a new GCU single-season shutout record with nine clean sheets, finishing her career as the program\u2019s all-time leader in shutouts (16).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Jackson impressed throughout her first months in Herriman with her shot-stopping ability, comfort playing out of the back, and overall progression within the Royals\u2019 goalkeeper unit.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Hometown:<\/strong> Fontana, California<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>College:<\/strong> Grand Canyon University<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Accolades:<\/strong> WAC Goalkeeper of the Year, All-WAC First Team, GCU shutout records  <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Pathway:<\/strong> Entered NWSL via Orlando Pride short-term contract before signing with Utah as a free agent in 2025<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h2><strong>ARIA NAGAI \u2014 MIDFIELDER<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Nagai signs her new contract following a steady and impressive rookie campaign in 2025, during which she quickly established herself as one of the Club\u2019s most reliable young midfielders. The 23-year-old appeared in 11 matches (7 starts), logging 582 minutes in her debut professional season.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>A reliable option in the midfield, Nagai contributed as a possession-focused midfielder with strong defensive instincts and composure on the ball.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p>Across the final stretch of the season, Nagai made four consecutive starts and played significant minutes in competitive fixtures, demonstrating growth as a ball-winner and connector in midfield.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3><strong>Bio<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Hometown:<\/strong> Herndon, Virginia<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>College:<\/strong> Princeton University (2021\u20132023), University of North Carolina (2024)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Accolades:<\/strong> First-Team All-Ivy (2023), 2024 NCAA National Champion<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Pathway:<\/strong> Joined Utah as a preseason trialist \u2192 signed 2025 cap-exempt contract \u2192 re-signs for 2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h2><strong>2025 SEASON STATISTICS \u2014 ARIA NAGAI<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"oc-c-body-part oc-c-body-part--text  \">\n<p><strong>Pass Completion:<\/strong> 71% (131\/187)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rsl.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HERRIMAN, Utah (Wednesday December 10, 2025) \u2014 The Utah Royals have signed goalkeeper DeAira Jackson and midfielder Aria Nagai to salary cap-exempt contracts for the 2026 NWSL season, the Club announced today. Both players will occupy off-budget roster spots, offering roster flexibility while securing two high-upside young talents ahead of the 2026 campaign. DEAIRA JACKSON [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2194780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[240735,348414,188835],"class_list":["post-2194779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-urfc-latest-news","tag-urfc-player-news","tag-utah-royals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/URFC-Signs-Goalkeeper-DeAira-Jackson-Midfielder-Aria-Nagai-To.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2194779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194781,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194779\/revisions\/2194781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2194780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2194779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2194779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2194779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}