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Boston Legacy adds second player, signing forward Aïssata Traoré
Traoré will remain with her French team on loan before joining the Legacy in 2026.
The Boston Legacy announced their second player signing Thursday, inking Malian forward Aïssata Traoré to a three-year deal.
Traoré will remain on loan with FC Fleury 91, her club in the top French division, and will join the Legacy for the 2026 preseason.
In Traoré’s first season with Fleury in 2024-25, she scored nine goals and added four assists in 20 games. Before Fleury, she played five seasons with French club Guingamp, and in 2019, she won a championship with Turkish club Beşiktaş J.K.
The 27-year-old forward, who hails from Mali’s capital city of Bamako, debuted with the Mali senior women’s national team in 2018 and appeared in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations that year, helping Mali advance out of the group stage to semifinals.
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She is the first player from Mali to sign with an NWSL team.
“Aïssata is a versatile striker who can play multiple positions close to goal,” Legacy general manager Domè Guasch said in a release. “She is comfortable on either foot, can score with her head, and is a goal threat from range as well as in the box. Most importantly, she is a team player that will help other players score goals, as well.”
Traoré joins Annie Karich, a 21-year-old defensive midfielder from Surfside, Calif., as the first two players on the Legacy’s inaugural roster.
Karich, who is playing in Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, spent the last two seasons with Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga team SC Freiburg and signed with Boston as a free agent.
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The Legacy will begin play in the NWSL in March 2026, playing home games at Gillette Stadium before eventually moving to White Stadium in Boston, which is under renovation.
The team recently announced Filipa Patão of Portugal as its first coach.
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