U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe will retire at end of NWSL season
CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. girls’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe is able to retire after an illustrious profession through which she gained an Olympic gold medal, two World Cups and by no means shied away from utilizing her platform to highlight social points.
Rapinoe, 38, introduced Saturday her fourth World Cup on the finish of the month shall be her final and she or he’ll formally retire with the OL Reign on the finish of the National Women’s Soccer League season.
She made the announcement on Twitter, saying she “never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape & change my life forever.”
“It is with a deep sense of peace & gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game,” Rapinoe mentioned.
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Rapinoe and the U.S. staff are aiming for a 3rd consecutive title when the Women’s World Cup kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand. The U.S. performs Wales in a closing tune-up match on Sunday in San Jose, California, earlier than leaving for the World Cup.
“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,” Rapinoe mentioned in a news launch. “To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”
At the 2019 World Cup in France, Rapinoe scored six targets over the course of the event, together with a penalty in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands within the closing. She additionally completed with three assists and claimed the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for the most effective total participant. Rapinoe additionally took dwelling the Ballon d’Or and the Best FIFA Women’s Player awards – the sport’s prime particular person honours – for her play in 2019.
Rapinoe is tied with Abby Wambach for third all-time in assists for the U.S. Women’s National Team and is one in all solely seven gamers in staff historical past with greater than 50 profession targets and assists. She first performed for the U.S. senior staff in 2006.
Rapinoe has performed her total 11-year NWSL profession for the Reign. She has scored the sixth most targets in league historical past with 48.
An outspoken advocate for equal pay in girls’s soccer and supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, President Joe Biden final 12 months awarded Rapinoe the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Rapinoe was the primary white athlete and first feminine to kneel through the nationwide anthem in solidarity with former NFL participant Colin Kaepernick, based on U.S. Soccer.
She is engaged to be married to girls’s basketball icon Sue Bird.
“She has produced so many memorable moments for her team and the fans on the field that will be remembered for a very long time, but her impact on people as a human being may be even more important,” U.S. girls’s staff coach Vlatko Andonovski mentioned.
