Soccer great Megan Rapinoe today announced plans to retire from the game. She made the announcement at a new conference today befire a U.S. exhibition game against Wales in San Jose, California.
The 38-old, Nike-signed athlete has been a member of the U.S. national team for 17 years and will play in her fourth and final Women’s World Cup, which begins in July. She is a three-time Olympian and won gold with her team at the 2012 London Games.
On Instagram, she wrote,”It is with a deep sense of peace and 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 and change my life forever.”
Always ready to fight the good fight, she has used her platform to speak out in support of LGBTQ rights and equal pay for female athletes. In 2016, she kneeled at a game in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s efforts to protest the oppression of Black people in America.
Who can forget when she went toe to toe with Donald Trump when she let it be known in 2019 she wouldn’t go to the White House if the team won the World Cup. After being criticized by Trump on Twitter and coming under fire from his following, she scored twice against France in the quarter-finals enabling the team to go on to the semi-finals and eventually the championship, which the team won.
Megan Rapinoe Announces Retirement, Preps For Fourth And Final Women’s World Cup
