US women’s team star Megan Rapinoe on Saturday announced on social media that she would retire from soccer at the end of this season.
“It is with a deep sense of peace & gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game,” the 38-year-old wrote.
“I never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape and change my life forever,” she added.
Photo: AFP
The two-time World Cup winner, well known for her activism, is part of the US squad for the upcoming women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
She plays in the National Women’s Soccer League for Seattle-based OL Reign — their season concludes in November.
The winger has 199 caps over a span of 17 years playing for her country and also won an Olympic gold medal in London in 2012.
She was awarded the Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2019, but her fame came as much for her espousal of causes and her campaigning as for her skills on the field.
Rapinoe publicly came out as gay in July 2012 and has been a high-profile campaigner on social issues including LGBTQ+ rights, racial inequality and gender and pay equality.
She was a leading voice in the US women’s team’s successful fight for equal pay and conditions, which resulted in a lawsuit and a new collective agreement being struck in 2021.
“I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it,” she wrote.
In July last year, she received the highest civilian honor in the US when US President Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She was the first soccer player to receive the award and one of just six female athletes or coaches.
Former US men’s international turned television pundit Alexis Lalas questioned the timing of Rapinoe’s announcement in the buildup to the World Cup, where the US are seeking a record-extending fifth title.
“I do think it’s a little weird to announce it before the World Cup and put that kind of attention on her,” he said on Fox Sports.
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