Megan Rapinoe, huge American football star and at the forefront of feminist, LGBT + and anti-racist struggles, announced this Saturday July 8 that she will retire at the end of the season. After an immense career, punctuated by two World Cup titles, an Olympic title and militant use of her media coverage, Rapinoe will play one last World Cup with the United States and bow out.
American Megan Rapinoe, world football star and influential voice in the fight against inequality and discrimination, announced on Saturday that she would retire from sport at the end of the season at the age of 38. A talented player but also a feminist activist and defender of the LGBT+ cause, she is one of those athletes who have put their notoriety at the service of causes beyond the scope of their sport.
“It is with a deep sense of peace and gratitude that I have decided that this season will be my last playing this magnificent sport.”wrote on her social networks the American striker, who is preparing to play the fourth World Cup of her career in Australia and New Zealand (July 20-August 20).
An immense international track record at the service of activism
Double world champion (2015, 2019), Olympic champion in 2012 in London and winner of the Golden Ball in 2019, the striker with 199 caps (and 63 goals) spread over 17 years is also a committed activist. It has brought to the fore the responsibility of sportsmen and sportswomen to take a stand in public debates.
“It would be irresponsible not to use this international forum to try to get things moving”, she said during the World Cup in France four years ago. The left-hander had also splashed the pitch with her talent, finishing as the best player and scorer in the competition.
Rapinoe was thus one of the first to kneel in 2016 during the American anthem to denounce police violence against members of the black community, in the wake of former American football star (NFL) Colin Kaepernick. In 2016, she also did not hesitate to attack the freshly elected Republican President Donald Trump frontally, calling him a representative of “white supremacists”. Before the 2019 World Cup, she warns that her teammates and she will not go to the White House in the event of victory. Promise kept.
One last challenge
The American has also achieved great advances for women’s football, particularly with regard to equal pay between the men’s and women’s teams in the United States. A fight that resulted in May 2022 in an agreement with US Soccer establishing equal salary treatment in selections. Last fight to come: the Women’s World Cup under the colors of the country of Uncle Sam (July 20-August 20), after which she will finish the season in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) with OL Reign and draw her reverence.
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