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U.S. women’s soccer captain Megan Rapinoe might call it quits.
Rapinoe has become a polarizing figure because, rather than focusing on soccer, she uses the field as a backdrop for her left-wing protests.
The team suffered devastating losses in the Tokyo Olympics, which ended their 44-game winning streak.
U.S. came into the Tokyo Games ranked number one before losing. Reports circulated online that all 22 players on Team USA took a knee to support Black Lives Matter before the game.
This protest during the National Anthem has sparked debates and remains a point of contention among U.S. fans.
Megan Rapinoe, known as a vocal supporter of Democrats and left-wing views, described their loss by saying the following: “We got our a***s kicked, didn’t we? I thought we were a little tight, a little nervous, just doing dumb stuff.”
Now Rapinoe told ESPN that “she doesn’t know what her playing future looks like and she will ‘need to take some time to think about it,’” the report said.
When asked about calling it quits, she said, “Just in terms of my whole career, I don’t really know yet. I need to take some time to think about it.”
“They always say, ‘You’ll know when you know,’ but it’s not really like that, because you could kind of keep going, and it’s like ‘Aw yeah, you’ve accomplished so much, you’ll be fine stepping away,’” the 36-year-old elaborated. “But the conversation is always anguished in your mind. Or people just don’t think about it. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“I feel like people just think: play as long as you can, and that’s amazing — you want to play forever — but it’s actually like, no, it is really hard to do that,” Rapinoe said of Lloyd. “There are so few athletes who play to her age or play as long as she has. It’s not just about staying healthy and being able to physically be there, which is difficult in and of itself.”
“It’s about continually growing and making sure your game is evolving. For me, it’s the fact she ended her career with an incredible brace in a medal match at the Olympics — just says it all. That’s the sort of person Carli was,” she continued. “As productive as ever.”
“She has so many appearances, so many goals. So many memorable goals as well. It’s all good and well to score five goals against teams that don’t really matter, but I think Aaron Heifetz, our media relations guy, said that every medal match Carli played in she scored a goal. That’s greatness,” Rapinoe praised her teammate. “She’s unbelievable. Showing up in the biggest moments, that’s what you want from your biggest players.”
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Notably, Rapinoe has become increasingly political on and off the soccer field, often kneeling during the anthem and wearing Black Lives Matter apparel.
She also apparently bullied players into kneeling before games in solidarity with left-wing causes, according to former U.S. women’s goalkeeper Hope Solo.
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“I’ve seen Megan Rapinoe almost bully players into kneeling because she really wants to stand up for something in her particular way,” Solo said, The Daily Wire reported.
“But it’s our right as Americans to do it whatever way we’re comfortable with and I think that’s really hard being on the main stage right now with so many political issues for athletes,” the GK said. “There’s a lot of pressure and ultimately at the end of the day our number one focus should and has always been to win first.”
