Jade Rose Signs to Manchester City After Historic Harvard Career

Former Harvard women’s soccer captain, Olympian, and defender Jade Rose signed a four-year professional contract with Manchester City earlier this month, kickstarting her career after a dominant run at Harvard.

Rose, a two-time captain for the team, appeared in three consecutive NCAA tournaments and won the team’s first-ever Ivy League Conference Tournament championship. Along the way, she also picked up two Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year nods, two All-America honors, and became the first women’s soccer player to compete in the Olympics.

In an interview with The Crimson, Rose reflected on the key moments of her development as a young player, her decision to commit to Harvard, and the path forward as she gets ready to make her professional debut.

Soccer was always in Rose’s blood. Her mother played, and before even reaching kindergarten, Rose and her younger siblings joined the family tradition. By age twelve, Rose had her sights set on playing for the Canadian national team.

She wanted to excel, but by already being the best player on her girls team, Rose felt that she wasn’t being pushed to develop her skills. So that same year, Rose joined the Toronto Power FC boy’s soccer academy.

While Rose said she first “cried her eyes out” when she started playing with the boys, she also described the experience as a “career-changing moment.”

She said it was “the best thing that could have ever happened to me, because it again opened my eyes to how much I needed to learn and how much I needed to grow.”

After two and a half years at the academy, Rose joined the Canada Soccer Development Program, where she trained with “all the best players in Ontario” in the “same philosophy that we play with on the national team.”

This experience, Rose said, prepared her for her debut with the Canadian National Team in 2021, at 18 years old.

Rose first started talking to Harvard coaches during her freshman year of high school, when she still had the same “misconceptions that a lot of people have that the Ivy League.”

She thought that “if you go to the Ivy League, then you don’t want to pursue soccer seriously,” Rose said. “I was mistaken in every single way possible.”

While she doubted Harvard’s athletics originally, Rose said that the University’s academics, which have “have always been a massive part of my life,” gave her “both opportunities,” to pursue her athletic career in an “incredible” way and to receive a top-notch education.

“The reality of women’s soccer is that it’s not yet at a point where you can only be a professional athlete and not have a plan B,” she said.

“Even just looking at life after sport, there’s so much life to live,” Rose added. “Having the opportunity to potentially go back to school is something that I’m also considering.”

Rose also said she was drawn to Harvard’s team because of its highly international roster. About half of the women’s soccer squad hails from outside the United States, an environment akin to a professional experience.

Through college, Rose continued to play for the Canadian National team, ultimately playing with the squad in Paris.

After her Olympic debut, Rose went on to have a successful senior season and capped off her collegiate career by achieving her dream: signing a professional contract.

Rose said that while signing professionally is not the “standard” coming from Harvard’s squad, “it’s becoming more of a common theme on the team.”

Rose’s contract adds to a subtle uptick in signings out of Harvard’s women’s soccer team. Last year goalkeeper Anna Karpenko signed with the Montreal Roses, and forward Nicola Golen, who graduated with Rose, signed with the Ottawa Rapid.

But Rose is the first player to head across the Atlantic in the past few years.

“There’s something about European football culture, and specifically English football culture, that is just unlike anywhere else in the world,” she said.

“I’m extremely excited to move across the pond and to make Man City my home and for the next four years, and to get out on the field and to go on to hopefully win Champions League, and just grow as a player in the next four years,” Rose said.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Caroline G. Hennigan can be reached at caroline.hennigan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cghennigan.