Megan Rapinoe announces her retirement following the 2023 NWSL season

SAN JOSE, Calif. — But first, an announcement: Megan Rapinoe will retire after this NWSL season and this, her fourth World Cup. She announced it upon arrival Saturday morning at the news conference previewing the USWNT World Cup send-off match set for Sunday here against Wales.

The 38-year-old star mainstay entered the news conference, sat down next to Coach Vlatko Andonovski and began the proceedings with “a really deep sense of peace and gratitude and excitement” in giving the news. She stated it now, she said, partly so it would be out of the way before the USWNT travels to New Zealand on Monday to begin trying to win a third straight World Cup title. She will complete this World Cup and her season with the OL Reign in Seattle.

“I could never have imagined where this beautiful game would have taken me,” she said. “I feel so honored to have represented the country and the foundation for so many years.” She said, “I understand it is incredibly rare for athletes of any stature to go out in their own way and on their own terms.”

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She said she had known for “probably like a year or something,” and said playing a World Cup at 42 in 2027 would be far-fetched: “That’d be a whole scene.” She said her close witness to the basketball retirement of her wife, Sue Bird, had meant she had “processed a lot.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/08/megan-rapinoe-announces-retirement/