It makes social networks and institutions tremble without distinction: Megan Rapinoe, two-time world champion and Olympic soccer champion, announced on Saturday that she would retire at the end of the season. A player who stands out both for her talent with the ball at her feet and for her unapologetic activism.
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On the pitch, her greatest achievement to date was in 2019: as top scorer and best player in the fourth World Cup won by the US team in France. “Pinoe”, as he is known, took the Ballon d’Or.
That summer in France it was impossible not to notice her distinctive lavender hairstyle, inspired by the actress Tilda Swinton, whom she admires. It was also impossible to stop the talented left-footed player, since she, with her six goals, played an important role in the triumph of the United States team.
The 2019 Women’s World Cup in France was also a space for expression for the Californian that allowed her to transcend sport and make her struggles known to the whole world.
“It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of this platform of international scope to try to generate changes,” he explained. And if World Cup spectators keep the memory of her open arms celebrating his goals, it was by kneeling that Rapinoe conveyed her first political messages from him in 2016, when the gesture had not yet become a global symbol.
Kneeling, an imperative
Kneeling during the US national anthem to denounce police violence against black people, following the example of former NFL football player Colin Kaepernick, “seemed more like an imperative than a choice,” says the star in his autobiography “One Life “, published in 2020.
A few months before the publication of his book, he gave strong support to the movement Black Lives Matter (Black Lives Matter), in response to the protests that took place in the United States after the death of George Floyd, an African-American who was suffocated during an arrest in Minneapolis.
![United States midfielder Megan Rapinoe (R) kneels before the women's friendly soccer match between England and the United States at Wembley Stadium in London on October 7, 2022.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/05fbc69c-1dd9-11ee-a51c-005056bf30b7/000_32KX84P.jpg)
As a feminist activist and defender of the rights of the LGBT+ community, the co-captain of the team had set her sights on the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in 2019.
She warned, on that occasion, that if she won the World Cup, neither she nor her companions would go to the “damn White House.” After an acid tweet, Trump decided not to invite the world champions to Washington.
pay inequality
Outraged by the pay gap between the United States men’s and women’s teams, the forward of the OL Reign Seattle also did not hesitate to take his federation to court.
The long battle that the four-time world champions began in court after the 2019 World Cup did not end until May 2022, when they reached an agreement with US Soccer establishing equal pay for the national teams.
The leader of ‘Team USA’ (199 games, 63 goals) finds the energy for her battles in her fiancée Sue Bird, a former women’s basketball star and five-time Olympic champion.
Megan Rapinoe is also very close to her family. Along with her twin sister Rachael, she is the youngest of six children. Born on July 5, 1985 in Redding, in rural Northern California, she discovered soccer at the age of three thanks to her brother Brian, whom she “idolized.”
“I wanted to do everything like him,” he confesses. Until Brian was arrested at age 15 for dealing drugs at school. “Heartbroken”, sad and angry, football became his escape route.
The following years saw her brother, now a drug addict, in and out of prison, while she built a professional career that took her to Lyon (2013-2014) and Seattle.
“Pinoe” says it openly, Brian’s problems, with whom he maintains a close relationship despite the sixteen years he spent behind bars, awakened his conscience: “I was his idol,” Brian confirmed in 2019, in statements collected by ESPN. “But now, and there is no doubt, she is my idol!”
AFP
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