Gotham FC and Bruninha agree to a two-year contract extension | OneFootball

On Wednesday, NJ/NY Gotham FC announced that the club has reached an agreement with Brazilian defender Bruninha on a two-year contract extension. The player was in the last year of her contract and was eligible for free agency before signing this extension.

Bruninha first joined the club in August 2022 at just 20 years old and is one of six players from the 2023 Championship-winning team. Despite her youth and inexperience, she earned a spot in Gotham's Starting XI in the stretch run and through the playoffs during their 2023 Championship-winning season. And while she saw a drop in starts and minutes played last year, she has rebounded in 2025 and looks to be on pace to play close to the amount of minutes seen from her in 2023.

Bruninha's extension fills in another piece in the free agency puzzle

Bruninha, alongside Esther González, and Jaelin Howell, are three pending free agents Gotham FC has managed to re-sign before the season has ended. Gotham still has five players who could leave come the end of the season, including the likes of Midge Purce, Ella Stevens, and Geyse.

While there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered, bringing back Bruninha does help answer a few of them. As mentioned earlier, the defender saw a pretty significant reduction in minutes from 2023 to 2024. This seems to be in part due to a shift in tactical focus for Head Coach Juan Carlos Amorós, who seemed to favor defense from his fullbacks rather than attacking play. This was evidenced by both Bruninha and Jenna Nighswonger, who were the starting fullbacks in the 2023 playoffs, being replaced by Jess Carter and Mandy Freeman, two converted center-backs, for the 2024 playoffs.

Since then, Bruninha has carved out a new role for herself in the team. In a number of games this season, she has started as a winger. This allows her to play to her strengths from an attacking perspective, where she's in the upper percentiles of stats like assists, progressive passes, and carries for fullbacks. It also provides a little more defensive stability as well as tactical flexibility for Amorós during a game without him having to go to his bench.

It is clearly a role that the head coach likes and gives Bruninha additional opportunities to get on the field compared to last season. While she did miss out on making the Brazil squad for this summer's Copa América Femenina, the priority for her in that respect now shifts to the upcoming World Cup, which surely, by intent, lines up perfectly with this contract extension in 2027.

The next World Cup will be in her native Brazil, and making that roster is surely very high on her list of goals moving forward. She will only be 25 by the time that tournament comes around, and being able to add extra tactical wrinkles and flexibility to her game can surely only help her case. She has been on the fringes of the Brazilian National team for some time now, having made the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics teams, but then missing out on this summer's Copa América Femenina team.

This shows the road for her making the jump back into more of a permanent role on the national team is not very long or complicated. Also, her being able to get to the end of that road will be yet another feather in the cap of the Gotham FC developmental process, which has seen plenty of players elevate their statuses within their respective national team programs during their time at the club.