Two-time World Cup winner and former US nationwide crew captain Becky Sauerbrunn has retired from skilled soccer after a 16-year profession, the 39-year-old defender stated on Tuesday.
The four-time NWSL defender of the yr, Sauerbrunn hoisted the championship trophy within the top-flight American league thrice and gained Olympic gold with america in 2012. She missed the World Cup in 2023 because of harm.
“Sixteen years in the past I awoke dreaming and I haven’t slept since,” Sauerbrunn wrote on social media. “That makes it sound straightforward. It was by no means straightforward. Besides, I’d run it again.“
Cherished by followers and identified for her regular presence within the locker room, Sauerbrunn was the center and soul of the American backline by means of a essential interval within the US program, serving to the crew to World Cup wins in 2015 and 2019.
She performed her last NWSL season with the Portland Thorns.
“This isn’t the tip. I’ll be round. I really like this recreation an excessive amount of to go away it for good,” Sauerbrunn wrote. “However for the primary time in sixteen years I’m going to discover a quiet second and shut my eyes for a bit.“
Sauerbrunn gained 219 caps in her worldwide profession, after famously breaking her nostril in her nationwide crew debut in 2008. She is one in all 14 gamers to earn 200 or extra caps for the US ladies’s crew.
“I discovered early on that we have been all simply renting our jerseys,” Sauerbrunn stated in an announcement supplied by US Soccer. “That I bought to put on the US Soccer crest as soon as was an honor and privilege for which I’m endlessly grateful.
“The truth that I bought to do it over 200 instances is really humbling.“
She is the most recent of a number of high-profile US gamers to hold up their boots, after Alex Morgan and Kelley O’Hara introduced their retirement this yr, marking an finish of an period for the extremely adorned US crew.
Beginning goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher stated final month she was retiring from worldwide obligation however would play membership soccer subsequent yr.
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