American soccer star Megan Rapinoe disclosed Saturday that she intends to retire after the current National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) 2023 season and the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Rapinoe broke the news during a press briefing in San Jose, Calif., where the U.S. Women’s National Team will play Wales on Sunday.
“This is gonna be my last season, my last world cup and my last NWSL season,” Rapinoe said. “Obviously there’ll be more to come further down the road after. Hopefully we get done what we want to get done. But I just want to say thank you to everybody, to you guys, to Vlatko, to U.S. soccer to — literally everyone that I’ve played with, all of my coaches.”
Rapinoe has played forward on the U.S. Women’s National Team since 2006. She has taken home two Olympic medals and two World Cup championships with her teammates. Rapinoe announced with her imminent retirement that the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be her final tournament. The upcoming Women’s World Cup will take place in New Zealand and Australia from July 20 to Aug. 20.
Rapinoe followed the initial announcement with a tweet, captioning a photo of her as a child: “It is with a deep sense of peace & gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game. I never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape & change my life forever, but by the look on this little girl’s face, she knew all along.”
In addition to confirming her retirement in a news briefing and via Twitter, Rapinoe also made a statement to U.S. soccer, “I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people.”
“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. To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”
Rapinoe has also made a name for herself off the soccer field, shifting her attention to exposing inequities that both women and the LGBTQ community face within sports.
