United States forward Megan Rapinoe scores a goal between Spain and the United States in the round of sixteen match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, Reims, northern France, 24 June 2019 .
Lionel Bonaventure | AFP | Getty Images
American football player Megan Rapinoe announced on saturday She will retire after the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season.
Rapinoe wrote in a statement: “It is with deep peace and gratitude that I have decided that this will be my final season playing this beautiful sport. I could never have imagined the way football would be. Shaped and changed my life forever.” instagram post Saturday.
Rapinoe is a highly regarded and well-loved player with 63 career goals and 73 assists. She won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics and is a two-time World Cup winner.Her performance at the 2019 World Cup earned her Best FIFA Women’s Player 2019 and Women’s Ballon d’Or 2019.
Rapinoe, who came out as gay in 2012, is also an active advocate for the LGBTQ community, gender equality and voting rights. She was the first football player to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022 and was named to Time Magazine’s Women of the Year list in 2023.
“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, the game has taken me all over the world and met so many amazing people,” Rapinoe said in a statement. american football. “I’m so grateful to have played the game for so long, to be as successful as we were, and to be part of a generation of players who, without a doubt, left the game better than they found it.”
Rapinoe will play her final World Cup this summer and finish the season with her old club OL Reign. Her club said it would pay tribute to Rapinoe and her “illustrious career” in the final game of the regular season on Oct. 6.