Megan Rapinoe Elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame
The two-time World Cup champion scored 63 goals in 203 appearances for the U.S. and won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at the 2019 World Cup.
The bigger the stage, the more Megan Rapinoe embraced it.
In 2011, she sent the cross that Abby Wambach headed in to keep the United States alive in a World Cup quarterfinal against Brazil. She became the first player to score an olímpico at the Olympics (and she did it twice).
At the 2019 Women’s World Cup, she won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot as the U.S. claimed its second straight title. That same year, she won the Ballon d’Or and The Best FIFA Women’s Player award.
By the time she retired in 2023, Rapinoe had achieved almost everything a player could achieve for club and country. She was a vital member of two World Cup champions. She won gold and bronze medals at the Olympics. She was a member of three National Women’s Soccer League Shield winners and one French Première Ligue champion.
Rapinoe finished with 63 goals and 73 assists in 203 appearances for the U.S. Women’s National Team.
“The bigger the spotlight, the more she shines,” former U.S. Women’s National Team coach Jill Ellis told The New York Times. “I think spotlights can burn people, but for Megan, it just highlights who she is.”
Rapinoe was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on the Player ballot in her first year of eligibility. She will be inducted April 16, 2027, in Frisco, Texas.
Rapinoe and her fraternal twin sister, Rachael, were born in Redding, Calif., on July 5, 1985. Their older brother Brian taught them to play on a church’s soccer field across the street from their home. The sisters eventually led Elk Grove United to the Under-19 national championship match in 2003, and both went on to play at the University of Portland.
As a freshman in 2005, Megan scored 15 goals and added 13 assists as Portland won the NCAA Division I championship. Rachael moved from defender to forward during the 2006 season when Megan was injured and tallied nine goals and seven assists. Three injuries cut Rachael’s career short.
Two ACL injuries interrupted Megan’s college career and changed the way she approached the game.
“I know this sounds weird, but getting hurt was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” she told U.S. Soccer in 2009. “It really gave me a different perspective. Before, everything was going how it was supposed to be, and I wasn’t really appreciative of what I was doing and what it took to be there. … The rehab process makes you stronger on all fronts, mentally and physically. I feel stronger and a better person for it.
“I would never wish it on anyone, but I don’t wish I could take it back.”
She made her senior U.S. debut against the Republic of Ireland in July 2006 and scored her first two international goals that October in a 100 win over Chinese Taipei.
In the 2010 Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament, she scored four times and assisted two other goals in three matches. After a loss to Mexico forced the U.S. into a playoff against Italy, Amy Rodriguez scored off the rebound of a Rapinoe shot to seal a 2-0 aggregate victory.
At the World Cup in Germany, Rapinoe scored her first goal of the tournament against Colombia, then picked up an on-field TV microphone and sang the title line from Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”
“I believe I’m a fantastic player, and I try to go out there and do those things,” she told the Times.
After setting up Wambach’s equalizer against Brazil with arguably the most famous cross in U.S. soccer history, Rapinoe converted a penalty kick in the ensuing shootout to help earn the team a place in the semifinal.
She came off the bench in the second half of that semifinal against France and turned a 1-1 match on its head. She earned the 79th-minute corner that led to Wambach’s go-ahead goal and then set up Alex Morgan to finish a 3-1 win.
“Megan has a confidence in herself,” Wambach told the Times. “That’s a uniqueness she brings, having been a starter for months. … She’s not sitting on the bench pouting. She’s sitting on the bench planning.
“Megan came in today, and I just felt a difference.”
At the 2012 Olympics, Rapinoe scored twice in a 4-3 semifinal win over Canada at Old Trafford.
Her first goal that day got the world’s attention. In the 54th minute, she curled a corner kick toward the near post. It bounced once on the goal line before hitting the net as the Canadians scrambled to keep it out.
It was the first olímpico scored in the Olympics.
“It’s kind of funny because what I should have done right away was just claim it, but I didn’t,” she later recalled. “I actually thought it was an own goal.”
The U.S. went on to win gold, and the best was yet to come.
Rapinoe helped the Americans win the 2015 World Cup in Canada. Four years later in France, she scored six goals and added three assists as the U.S. won its fourth World Cup title.
She converted two penalties in a 2-0 win over Spain in the round of 16 and scored both U.S. goals in a 2-1 quarterfinal win over host France. After her free kick opened the scoring in Paris, Rapinoe stood with her arms spread, chest out and chin up, in what became her signature pose of the tournament.
“She held the pose: arms outstretched, chest out, chin up,” wrote The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas. “She looked like an opera diva, about to drop into a curtsy during a curtain call. It would be an understatement to say that Rapinoe has a flair for the dramatic.
“No athlete I can think of right now has such a perfect sense of herself on a stage — nor such a command of it.”
Rapinoe missed the semifinal against England with an injury and returned for the final, where she converted a 61st-minute penalty to put the U.S. ahead in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands. She won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player and the Golden Boot as its top scorer.
Later that year, she won the Ballon d’Or and The Best FIFA Women’s Player award, and Sports Illustrated named her its Sportsperson of the Year.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Rapinoe scored directly from a corner again — one of two goals in the Americans’ 4-3 win over Australia in the bronze medal match. Unlike the first one, the ball sailed over the players and into the net.
“I meant this one,” Rapinoe told Telemundo after the match.
During a 15-year professional career, Rapinoe played for seven teams. She started with the Chicago Red Stars in Women's Professional Soccer in 2009 before joining the Philadelphia Independence and then magicJack in 2011. After a short stint with Sydney FC (Australia), she played for the Seattle Sounders Women in 2012. She helped Lyon win the French league title and Coupe de France in 2012-13.
She returned to the States in 2013, enjoying her greatest club success with Seattle Reign FC over the next 11 seasons. She scored 54 goals in 126 matches, helping the team win three NWSL Shields.
Before the 2023 World Cup, Rapinoe decided that the NWSL season would be her final campaign.
“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people,” she said. “I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it.
“To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”
On Oct. 6, 2023, Rapinoe played her final regular-season home match in front of a then-NWSL-record crowd of 34,130 at Lumen Field in Seattle. Many of those supporters wore pink wigs, sporting the same color of hair that the star wore during the 2019 World Cup.
“I do know my impact, but it’s one thing to know and another thing to really feel it and see it,” Rapinoe told the Associated Press after a scoreless draw with the Washington Spirit. “To see some of the signs and pink wigs and see what that means to people, it’s hard to put just this deep sense of gratitude and joy and thankfulness for being able to have a moment like this into words.”
Besides her on-field heroics, Rapinoe made headlines for her support of social causes, notably as a leader in the USWNT’s successful equal pay campaign. She also received awards as an advocate for various LGBTQIA+ organizations, including GLSEN and Athlete Ally. She received the 2013 Board of Directors Award from the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Rapinoe also was included in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
In 2022, Rapinoe received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden.
“Beyond the World Cup titles and the Olympic medals, Megan is a champion for essential American truth that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect,” Biden said. “She helped lead the change for perhaps the most important victory for anyone on her soccer team or any soccer team: equal pay for women.”