The past five years, women’s soccer has made waves of progress on an international level, conquering goals like growing their sport, fighting for equal pay and winning elite tournaments. What was once a niche interest has become one of the world’s favorite sports.
The National Women’s Soccer League has grown immensely in the last five years, reaching a 42% growth rate in attendance in the summer of 2024. This can largely be attributed to the U.S. Women’s National Team winning the 2019 Paris World Cup tournament. This tournament featured some of the best athletes in one of the world’s most prestigious cities. This is where many U.S. women players gained a lot of traction.
In the next World Cup in 2023, the USWNT went “down under” to feature fan favorite athletes like Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and more in what could be the last time for many of them to play in a major international tournament.
There has been a recent wave of U.S. women’s professional soccer players retiring. Unfortunately for fans, many of these professional players were on the U.S. Women’s National Team roster they’ve grown to love. With three coaches in the past five years, the national team has definitely undergone changes, but losing famous veterans could cost them some fans.
Megan Rapinoe, national team and club player for Olympique Lyonnais Reign, announced her retirement at the end of the 2023 season. However, she had been slowly removed from the U.S. roster after the 2019 World Cup. Rapinoe was known for her on-field celebrations and off-field fierce advocacy for political and social justice issues.
Midfielder Julie Ertz also retired at the end of 2023 to spend more time with her family. In January of 2024, fellow midfielder Sam Mewis shocked fans by announcing an early retirement due to ongoing knee problems. Mewis was on the younger side of these veterans at only 31. Shortly after, defender Kelley O’Hara announced her retirement at the end of the 2024 season, however, she was placed on the season ending injury list making her game on Sept. 8 her last. O’Hara has had ongoing injuries since 2019 but still played major tournaments, including the 2020 Olympics and 2023 World Cup.
Most recently, the moment fans have been dreading arrived. Alex Morgan announced her retirement at the end of the 2024 NWSL season in early September, saying, “It has been a long time coming, and this decision wasn’t easy, but at the beginning of 2024, I felt in my heart and soul that this was the last season that I would play soccer.”
Like many other veterans, Morgan played in the 2020 Olympics and 2023 World Cup but was left off the 2024 Paris Olympics roster. Morgan played her final professional game on Sept. 8 as captain for her club team San Diego Wave. Morgan started the game but was subbed off in the 13th minute.
Morgan became a fan favorite early on in her career and, like her teammates, paved the way for younger girls around the world. Morgan has had a legendary career, finishing her national team career with 224 appearances, 123 goals, 53 assists and two Olympic gold medals and two World Cup Championships. Additionally, Morgan announced her second pregnancy with her retirement. She and her husband Servando Carrasco welcomed their first daughter, Charlie, in 2020 after Morgan’s second World Cup win. They are now expecting their second child in spring 2025.
Among these retirements are some legendary players who have seemingly retired from the national team but have not made any retirement announcements. Tobin Heath, another fan favorite and longstanding veteran known for her incredible ball-handling skills, has not made an international appearance since 2021. Heath has been rehabilitating a cartilage injury and has not even played at the club level since playing half a season with OL Reign, Seattle’s NWSL club, in 2022. Heath has been very private about her injury and plans to return to the pitch, and fans are hoping 2022 was not the end for her.
Comparatively, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kristie Mewis and Christen Press are all active club players and national team veterans. However, they were all snubbed off the 2024 Olympic Roster.
When asked if she planned on coming back to the national team, Sauerbrunn said, “I think having this podcast and co-hosting it with Sam [Mewis] and Lynn [Williams], kind of having this twilight of my career, but then also having this, like, a gateway to something that could be very new and very amazing and very much a part of the next chapter of my career, makes it easier.”
Though Sauerbrunn had hinted at retirement, Press, who had complications with an ACL injury, made her first appearance with her club team Angel City this August after more than two years, giving fans hope that they still have some time with their favorite veterans. Though the national team just won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with new players, and a new coach, losing star veterans like Morgan has fans wondering what’s next for the team? The retirement of favorite star athletes is always bittersweet, but it paves the way for young stars.
