USWNT star Rapinoe announces retirement after next season

An emblem of the USWNT, Megan Rapinoe announced on Saturday that she will hang up her boots after next season, making the coming World Cup her last.

The time will come next November, the end of the National Women's Soccer League in the USA, where she plays her club football with OL Reign. The player herself announced her decision in a message posted to her social media profiles.

"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", wrote the American.

Before the end of her long and illustrious career, Rapinoe will play in her fourth World Cup in July 2023, held in Australia and New Zealand. She first represented the USA in 2011 in Germany, followed by key roles in 2015 in Canada and 2019 in France, famously helping win the last two World Cup titles.

She has amassed a remarkable 199 caps and has scored 63 career goals with 73 assists. USWNT head coach, Vlatko Andonovski said she is "one of the most important players in women’s soccer history", and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2022, the first football player to be honoured with such an award.

In 2019, she was FIFA's Women's Player of the Year and also received the Ballon d'Or. Rapinoe has long been an advocate for equality in sports, as well as protection of LGBTQ+ rights and is engaged to former WNBA star Sue Bird.

 

July 8, 2023