Days before playing her fourth World Cup, the American Megan Rapinoe has announced that she will retire from soccer at the end of the NWSL season. Forward for Seattle’s OL Reign. Rapinoe, 38, went public with her decision on Twitter and her Instagram with the same text accompanied by a photograph of her as a child. “With a deep feeling of peace and gratitude, I have decided that this will be my last season playing this beautiful sport,” said the soccer player.
Rapinoe has been a two-time World Champion (2015 and 2019) and won Olympic gold at the London 2012 Games, as well as bronze at Tokyo 2020. “I could never have imagined the way soccer would shape and change my life forever he said gratefully.
The footballer was the most decisive player four years ago in the World Cup in France, scoring 6 goals. That allowed him to be awarded the 2019 Ballon d’Or and the FIFA The Best award.
Rapinoe will now play the World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, which starts on July 20, and then she will try to win the American league, which ends in November, with her team, a title she has never won.
The soccer star is also an influential voice in the LGTBIQ fight and an activist in the demand for the equalization of the conditions of female soccer players. She, on her day, positioned herself next to the 15 Spanish women who were asking for changes in the Federation. And she also distinguished herself in the claim of social rights and abortion in her country. “Leaving as I have decided is something extraordinarily special,” she explained.
