Megan Rapinoe has ended one of the most glittering careers in women’s football history with an assist to help the US beat South Africa 2-0 in a friendly.
On her 203rd and final cap, the winger took the corner to set up Emily Sonnett’s header as her country rallied in Chicago for her final game after a disappointing World Cup performance. She will play a few more games for OL Reign, the Seattle based team for who she plays her club football.
Rapinoe will be remembered for winning two World Cups and the Olympic Games title but will also be treasured for her support of LGBT rights, racial justice and equal pay.
“It says a lot about us that everything on the field I feel pales in comparison to what we’ve achieved off the field,” Rapinoe said.
GETTING SAUCY IN CHICAGOOOOO pic.twitter.com/iRFOJZAtlu
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) September 24, 2023
“But I think even in the years prior to that, being so vocal about racial justice and gay rights and just feeling like the team really stepped into a new era of itself and took upon itself to be so much more than what we were on the field.”
It is the end to one of the most vibrant careers in women’s football history - and not only for Rapinoe’s striking hair, which was a turquoise shade for the World Cup but is now blonde. But while her days of running up and down the left wing are ending, this is unlikely to be the last we see of her.
Here are some of the reasons why she has become so loved, and loathed, in the US and beyond.
It’s Ra-PINO, not Rap-In-O
First things first, you do not want to mispronounce her name, a mistake made by then-US Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro in 2019.
“Carlos had the biggest bag fumble of all time,” Rapinoe recently told Time magazine. “Just cringey.”
The mishap came after Rapinoe and her teammates had lobbied their federation for women’s players to be on equal pay with the men.
Their case went back and forth for a drawn-out period. But it was a worthy effort, with the US becoming the first football federation to announce identical compensation for both men’s and women’s national team competitions while also splitting prize money equally.
Her twin was also a footballer
Rapinoe grew up in Redding, California, with five siblings - including her twin sister Rachael, who also went on to become a professional footballer.
Rachael Rapinoe has now retired after playing in the 2000s and making the US Under-23 team in 2006.
Rapinoe has won just about everything there is to win in football - and in style
Rapinoe has scored 63 goals in her 203 games for the US, an incredible return for a midfielder, including six in the 2019 World Cup to be named the top scorer. She won that tournament and also the 2015 World Cup with the US, as well as a host of titles with OL Reign and Lyon in France - for whom she played since the 2013-14 season.
But she has also won fans for her creativity, attempting to cross with a rabona flick - one foot sweeps behind the other - in one of her early games for the US. Skill moves are often at odds with the physically-focused approach of the American game, but Rapinoe has continued to play her own way.
And she must have a knack for unconventional goals and skills, having scored directly from a corner to help the US win their 2012 Olympic semi-final against Canada.
Former US teammate Abby Wambach said of her: “Megan is always trying to creatively figure out what’s the best way, the most fun way, to get the job done.”
Just because she is retiring doesn’t mean she will be going out of style
It’s not just Rapinoe’s hair colour (previously pink and blonde) that has turned heads; her fashion style has seen her mix designer and high street brands.
Rapinoe has “the swagger and attitude of a style icon” according to Vogue and has posed in the famed swimwear edition of Sports Illustrated.
At the 2021 Met Gala, the footballer wore a red silk suit with a blue and white starred shirt - an outfit that screamed “USA, USA” as well as the “In gay we trust” message written on her purse.
She has said on Instagram she wants to be a designer when she “grows up”.
She is an advocate for LGBT rights as well as racial equality
And trans rights! In fact, Rapinoe is a supporter of many great causes and has told Time magazine of her passion: “No matter how hard you try, out of nowhere, this freakin’ purple-haired lesbian is going to come in and be like, f**k you.”
Rapinoe came out as a lesbian in 2012 and has been with former US basketball player Sue Bird since 2018. They have been engaged since 2020.
She has been a big supporter of LGBT rights and also the trans community - recently calling out those questioning transgender participation, such as Martina Navratilova and ESPN anchor Sage Steele.
Her aforementioned Met Gala outfit was made by black designer Sergio Hudson, with Rapinoe wanting to support racial equality within fashion.
Former US soccer player Julie Foudy said: “In the past, a lot of female athletes—in our generation, for sure—were told to sit down, to be quiet, to be grateful. What Rapinoe has brought to the equation is the idea that we’re going to have to boldly disrupt. History has shown that women like her lead people over that line.”
She is hated by Trump but loved by Biden
Rapinoe’s views have made her a target of the American right but the player has not backed down, even when she has offended a president.
During the 2019 World Cup, Rapinoe said that if her team won they would refuse any potential invitation “to the f***ing White House” under the Trump administration.
The president told her to “win before she talks”. Rapinoe followed this up by scoring a free kick against France in the next World Cup game and celebrating with a pose to the crowd.
She also irked the conservative-leaning US by supporting Colin Kaepernick’s movement of kneeling during the playing of the national anthem - becoming the first white pro athlete to do so in the US. This led to her being subject to abuse, and even her fiancee Bird received texts from friends and family asking for Rapinoe to stop kicking the hornets’ nest.
But her activism did earn her a fan in current US President Joe Biden and his invitation to the White House was accepted earlier last year when Rapinoe attended to become the first footballer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Plans for her retirement are uncertain but exciting
As for what’s next, it’s to be decided, but it is hard to imagine Rapinoe settling in alongside Roy Keane and Micah Richards on the pundit sofa.
She and Bird have started a production company called A Touch More but told Time last month she would not run for office, despite her brush with presidents.
