PORTLAND, Ore. – Lindsey Heaps singled out Olivia Moultrie, and the Portland Thorns newbie instantly felt like part of the team.“Hey! I know you!” Heaps — then Lindsey Horan — said in 2019, making eye contact with Moultrie and extending her hand. The teen breathed a sigh of relief. She was welcome. The captain said so.The exchange took place almost eight years ago, when Moultrie, now in her sixth season with the Thorns, was a 13-year-old rookie competing in her first training camp and battling the league to be allowed to play professionally. Though it was not the first time they had met, that day was the beginning of a foundation between Heaps, an established star in the then-fledgling league, and Moultrie, a teen wunderkind hoping to break through.The two spent three years together “going at each other in practice every day,” Moultrie said, laughing at the memory. A gritty, ruthless competitor, Heaps never held back against Moultrie. Moultrie credits Heaps with helping turn her into the player she is now at 20 years old: A USWNT up-and-comer and regular contributor for the Thorns.Moultrie anticipates that soon, someone in Denver will be the beneficiary of Heaps’ leadership and competitive fire.On Saturday, Heaps will play in the Women’s Champions League final in Oslo, Norway, her last match with French team OL Lyonnes before heading to Colorado to join the NWSL expansion franchise, Denver Summit, which is a third of the way through its inaugural season.It’s homecoming for Heaps, who grew up in Golden, Colo., a Denver suburb where her parents still live. And it’s a boon for the NWSL, which has watched a handful of its top players — including Heaps — head overseas in search of different, and some would argue better, competition. For Heaps, her dream was always to compete in the Champions League.“Winning the Champions League for the first time (in 2022), that’s been a dream of mine since I was a little kid when I was watching it on TV,” Heaps told UEFA.com this month. “When I think of that, I want that moment back.”If OL Lyonnes win on Saturday against their long-time Champions League foe, Barcelona, Heaps will become the first American, man or woman to win two Champions League titles.“What she’s been able to achieve in her career, she was kind of the catalyst that went over (to Europe) at a young age first, got out of her comfort zone, played in France for a number of years and has been super successful,” Heaps former U.S. teammate Carli Lloyd told The Athletic. “The phase she is in, in her career, as a leader in the team, going into the next summer’s World Cup, I think this is going to be good for her.”It’s a full-circle moment for Heaps. As an 18-year-old, she opted to skip college and head straight overseas, a move then unheard of for an American woman. She became a lethal scorer for Paris Saint-Germain, with 46 goals in 58 appearances, then returned to the States to make her NWSL debut in 2016 with Portland. Heaps quickly became one of the league’s top players, leading the Thorns to the 2017 NWSL title and winning league MVP in 2018.Lindsey Heaps could become the first American to win the UEFA Champions League twice. (Valerio Pennicino / Getty Images)But Europe came calling again, and she returned to France in 2022, this time with eight-time Champions League winners, OL Lyonnes.“This whole thing with people leaving,” Moultrie said, sighing. “I mean, they always come back. At the end of the day, (the NWSL) is the most competitive league, top to bottom, in the world.“Obviously there are great teams in Europe, I’m not taking anything away from that. But I think players eventually want to come back because they want this competition. Nothing in this league is guaranteed. And that’s really enjoyable.”OL Lyonnes is one of the most dominant clubs in France with 18 league championships, 10 Coupe de France Feminine titles and its eight Champions League banners. But they don’t often face top competition in their domestic league. Barcelona has become an OL Lyonnes rival over the last decade, with the Spanish side winning three Champions League trophies since 2021. (Their last win, in 2024, came over OL Lyonnes.)Though Heaps credited her years in Lyon with giving her “some of the greatest memories of my career,” in January she told The Athletic that “everything seems right” for a return to the States. And she made it clear to Summit coach Nick Cushing that she plans to be an integral piece for her new club, on and off the field.Her former Portland teammates expect nothing less.Thorns goalkeeper Bella Bixby said Heaps has a “no fluff” leadership style, a quality that “makes you want to work hard for her, want to produce for her.”Heaps, 31, will return to a league that has seen an explosion in growth and popularity over the last few years, as the NWSL rides the wave of continued investment in women’s sports across America. USWNT coach Emma Hayes called her return “a win for the NWSL.”“Bringing the U.S. Women’s National Team captain back from a top European team to her home market demonstrates that players are choosing to come to the NWSL,” Hayes told ussoccer.com. “She will bring a level of professionalism from years of being a top pro.”Bixby said Heaps has already done that.“It’s interesting to think about how far we’ve come,” Bixby said. “My first few years, it really felt like we didn’t know if we’d have a job the next season. The league was sort of operating on a knife-edge. There’s a lot more engagement in our league now. It used to be just super fans, but now we have super fans, mid-tier and casual fans — and I credit that engagement in our league to players like Lindsey, who put a really entertaining product on the field.”During her time with Portland, Lindsey Heaps helped lead the team to an NWSL Championship. (Craig Mitchelldyer / Getty Images)Bixby has a special appreciation of Heaps’ game, which she describes as “old school.”“Something that draws me in about the way she plays, she’s so strong, she’s such a force on the field,” Bixby said. “She just has this timeless grit about her. She really is the heart and soul of women’s football.”Bixby, who grew up in Portland and understands the draw of home, said Heaps’ work to help elevate the NWSL, and women’s soccer as a whole, makes her return to Denver that much sweeter. She knows fans will adore having Heaps back, too. (Her Denver jersey is already the second-most sold this year behind only Trinity Rodman.) And while getting someone who “takes football so seriously” to crack a smile was often a Herculean task, Bixby joked, she’s excited that Summit fans, and players, will soon get to experience Heaps’ “contagious laugh.”The NWSL as a whole has grappled with how to compensate for some of America’s top talent leaving for Europe; USWNT regulars Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson are both with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League, for example, after previously starring for the San Diego Wave and Angel City, respectively. This year, the league created the High Impact Player rule that financially helps teams keep top talents, allowing them to spend up to $1 million above the salary cap on certain players — though the criteria for the mechanism have brought about debate.Thorns forward Morgan Weaver said players never begrudged Heaps’ decision to go back to France in 2022.“When she left, I remember getting asked, ‘Are you mad at her?’” Weaver recalled. “Why would I be mad at her? She’s doing something she’s always dreamed of, and I think that’s awesome. Was I sad? Of course. But if I’m a Lindsey Heaps fan, I’m always a Lindsey Heaps fan.”Bragging about playing with one of soccer’s best is something Weaver plans to do for the rest of her career. She knows players in Denver will do the same thing and she’s excited for them — and a little jealous, if she’s being honest.“Her coming back is super special,” Weaver said. “I mean, I’m sad she’s not coming back to Portland, but I’ll forgive her for that.”