It makes nets and institutions tremble indiscriminately. American Megan Rapinoe, world football star, announced on Saturday July 8 that she would retire from sport at the end of the season, at the age of 38.
“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 double world champion, who is about to compete with the United States the fourth World Cup of his career in Australia and New Zealand (July 20 – August 20).
Two-time world champion and Olympic soccer champion, Megan Rapinoe stands out as much for her talent on the ball as for her uninhibited activism. In the field, her greatest vintage dates from 2019: top scorer and best player of the fourth World Cup won, in France, by the American selection, “Pinoe” won the Ballon d’Or. That summer in France, it was impossible to miss her lavender haircut borrowed from actress Tilda Swinton, whom she adores. It was also impossible for the opposing defenses to stop the talented left-hander who, with his six goals, took a major part in the coronation of “Team USA”.
The 2019 World Cup in France was also for the Californian a space of expression allowing her to go beyond sport to make her fights known to the whole planet. “It would be irresponsible not to use this international platform to try to get things moving,” she explained. And if World Cup spectators keep the memory of his arms wide open to celebrate his goals, it was by kneeling on the ground that Rapinoe had sent his first political messages, in 2016, when the gesture had not yet become a global symbol.
Support for Black Lives Matter and LGBT rights
Kneeling during the American anthem, to denounce police violence against black people in the wake of former American football (NFL) star Colin Kaepernick, “seemed like an imperative rather than a choice”, says the star in her autobiography One Life, published in 2020. A few months before the release of the book, she had also given strong support to the Black Lives Matter movement, in the wake of the demonstrations that took place in the United States after the death of George Floyd, this African-American asphyxiated during his arrest in Minneapolis.
Feminist activist, on the front line of the fight for the rights of LGBT people since her coming out in 2012, the co-captain of the selection had alienated US President Donald Trump in 2019. In the event of coronation at the World Cup, neither she nor her teammates would be going to the “p… White House,” she warned. After an acerbic tweet, Trump had given up inviting the world champions to Washington.
Fight for equal pay in football
Revolted by the wage inequality between the men’s and women’s teams in the United States, the striker of OL Reign, a Seattle club owned by Olympique Lyonnais, has never hesitated to attack her Federation, including on the judicial field. In 2022, she won her case and US Soccer agreed to pay the women’s national team at the same level as the men’s team in an agreement with a group of players, including Megan Rapinoe , who had continued the suit.
For this edition, FIFA has announced that each player will leave with at least 30,000 dollars (27,400 euros) and the winners with 270,000 dollars (247,000 euros).
In July 2022, faithful to his commitments, the American football star pays a silent tribute to basketball player Brittney Griner, tried and then detained in Russia, during a ceremony at the White House. Since then, the basketball champion has been released and returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange.
In October 2022, Megan Rapinoe calls for changes in the management of the United States Championship (NWSL) after the “horrifying” revelations of sexual abuse and mistreatment. Rapinoe wants Fifa and national federations to introduce more stringent criteria to better protect players.
The energy of her fights, the leader of “Team USA” (179 selections, 59 goals) draws it in particular from her fiancée Sue Bird, star of women’s basketball and four-time Olympic champion. Rapinoe is also very attached to her family. With her twin Rachael, she is the last of six siblings. Born July 5, 1985, in Redding, rural northern California, she was introduced to soccer by her brother Brian, whom she “idolized,” at the age of three. “I wanted to do everything like him,” she says. Until Brian was arrested at 15 for dealing drugs in high school. “Heartbroken”, sad and angry, football then became his escape.
The following years saw her brother, who had become a drug addict, go back and forth in prison, while she built a professional career leading her notably to Lyon (2013-2014) then Seattle. “Pinoe” says it openly, Brian’s problems, to which she remains very close despite having spent sixteen years behind bars, have awakened her conscience: “I was her idol”, confirmed Brian in 2019, in remarks reported by ESPN . “But now, and there’s no doubt about it, she’s my idol!” »
