The Phoenix Mercury have added one other guard to their roster; Monique Akoa-Makani, a Cameroonian guard who most lately performed for the French membership Charnay Basket. On that membership, she averaged 14.6 factors, 5.3 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per recreation.
Per the WNBA transactions web page, the Mercury signed Akoa-Makani to a rookie-scale contract. She’s the sixth worldwide participant the Mercury have signed, becoming a member of Kitija Laksa (Latvia), Sami Whitcomb (Australia), Sevgi Uzun (Turkey), Murjanutu Musa (Nigeria), and Anna Makurat (Poland). The signing — whereas probably not notably consequential for the Mercury’s championship odds contemplating Akoa-Makani’s youth and relative inexperience —does sign the league’s continued transfer towards worldwide gamers.
The WNBA, whereas nonetheless largely dominated by American gamers, has trended towards extra worldwide gamers in recent times, with gamers like Ezi Magbegor (Australia), Kamilla Cardoso (Brazil), Bridget Carleton (Canada), Aaliyah Edwards (Canada), Leonie Fiebich (Germany), and Nyara and Satou Sabally (Germany) serving as just some examples of high-impact worldwide gamers. Fiebich was one of many WNBA’s most impactful rookies and was a key a part of why the New York Liberty received the 2024 championship.
Free company signings have trended worldwide in unprecedented trend; the Connecticut Sun, for instance, have signed 3 worldwide gamers, headlined by French standout Leila Lacan. The Seattle Storm have signed two — Magbegor and Chinese language standout Li Yueru. Throughout the league, entrance workplaces are more and more taking discover of abroad expertise, as the sport continues to globalize.
Girls’s basketball in France is gaining momentum
France, specifically, seems to have a number of high-profile WNBA prospects within the works. Carla Leite, a 19-year-old French guard who the Golden State Valkyries chosen of their enlargement draft, is one potential influence participant. Janelle Salaun, a 6’6 ahead, is one other. Dominique Malonga, a 6’6 middle who might dunk at 16, is without doubt one of the most fun prospects in current WNBA historical past, as detailed in a Ringer piece by Mark Schindler.
The NBA has grow to be more and more worldwide in recent times, with a few of the greatest gamers on this planet coming from abroad — like Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Nikola Jokic (Serbia), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Joel Embiid (Cameroon), Victor Wembenyama (France), and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), amongst others.
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Photograph by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Photos
Inevitably, girls’s basketball will finally comply with go well with to grow to be a extra globalized recreation — and France very effectively might be on the forefront. Within the meantime, the Mercury are the most recent in an extended listing of groups which have signed an growing variety of worldwide gamers to their 2024-25 WNBA rosters.
