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 Despite Women's Professional Soccer suspending operations for the 2012 season, Leslie Osborne (Brookfield/Waukesha Catholic Memorial) will continue her professional soccer career.
The 28-year-old midfielder re-signed with the Boston Breakers, who will play in the new Women's Premier Soccer League Elite League. The league was created earlier this month in response to WPS halting play, citing the cost of ongoing litigation with former WPS team owner Dan Borislow.
The future of the Breakers, a founding member of WPS in 2009, was in doubt over the winter, but the team found new investors – Osborne was part of the group that worked with potential investors. Then the league faced extinction, but received sanctioning from the U.S. Soccer Federation despite having just five teams committed to play in 2012. After the announcement, she said in an interview that if the league had folded, she would've retired from pro soccer.
The WPSL Elite League will be based in the Midwest and East Coast for 2012 and currently has eight teams, including former WPS clubs in Boston, the Chicago Red Stars and the Western New York Flash.
The ASA Chesapeake Charge, Aztec MA, FC Indiana, the New England Mutiny and the Philadelphia Fever also have committed to the new league. Teams have the option of using all professional players or fielding a mix of professional and amateur players. - Striker Steffen Vroom, a former DePaul forward who now calls Kohler home, signed a two-year contract with Ljungskile SK in Sweden's second-division Allsvenskan. The Illinois native bagged 54 goals in 56 matches in all competitions for Wolves FC in Australia's second-tier Brisbane Premier League over the past two seasons and scored for Ljungskile in a preseason friendly last weekend.
- Midfielder-defender Katie Kelly (Marquette) signed with Lokomotive Leipzig of the Frauen Bundesliga, Germany's top women's league. The 24-year-old Kelly played for FC Indiana in the WPSL last summer, then joined Hammarby in the Swedish Damallsvenskan and scored one goal in nine appearances. Kelly also previously played in Sweden for Kristianstads DFF. Leipzig (3-8-0) is in 10th place in the 12-team Frauen Bundesliga heading into the second half of the season, having been outscored 31-8. Their match against second-place FCR Duisburg scheduled for Sunday was postponed.
- Sarah Hagen (Appleton North/UW-Milwaukee) will have to wait at least another week to make her debut with German club Bayern Munich, as its match against Hamburger SV on Sunday also was postponed. Bayern is set to play host to Freiburg next Sunday.
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