Megan Rapinoe Says She Is Retiring After 2023 NWSL Soccer Season

US Soccer great Megan Rapinoe has made a shock announcement days out from the 2023 Women’s World Cup, confirming her plans to retire at the end of this soccer season. 

The American soccer player spoke out at a press conference on Saturday, ahead of Sunday’s game against Wales in San Jose where she said she would be retiring from football and saying goodbye to her time in the football league. 

“I just want to say thank you to everybody. I could have never imagined where this beautiful game would have taken me”, Rapinoe told reporters. 

The 38-year-old will be playing her fourth and last World Cup with the Stars and Stripes this month. 

Rapinoe posted the retirement announcement on Twitter, with her caption reading, “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”. 

Coming Out

Rapinoe came out as gay in July 2012 and has been a long-time outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, gender and pay equality and racial justice.

Rapinoe and her fiancé, 11-time WNBA All-Star Sue Bird got engaged in October 2020 after three years of dating and became the first openly LGBTQI couple to appear in the ESPN “Body Issue” in 2018.

Both women were among athletes who signed a letter voicing their opposition to H.R. 734, a federal bill that would ban transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s school sports.

Published by Athlete Ally, the letter was sent to House of Representatives legislative directors, stating a collective belief in the importance of gender equity in sport and an urge for the policymakers to turn their attention to causes which women athletes have been “fighting for decades”, including equal pay, an end to abuse and mistreatment, uneven implementation of Title IX, and a lack of access and equity for girls of colour and girls with disabilities. 

“Our deepest hope is that transgender and intersex kids will never have to feel the isolation, exclusion and othering that H.R. 734 is seeking to enshrine into law”, the open letter read. 

One Of The Most Important Players In Women’s Soccer

 The winger has played 199 games over a span of 17 years, playing for the United States,  and won a gold medal at the London  Olympics in 2012. 

Rapinoe shared her gratitude for the opportunity to have a long-lasting professional sporting career, “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,” she said. 

USA head coach Vlatko Andonovski described Rapinoe as one of the most important players in women’s soccer history with a personality like no other.

“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 maybe even more important”, Andonovski said.