Abby Wambach announces retirement
In women's soccer, there was nobody bigger than Abby Wambach.
Not merely physically, although at almost 6-foot her muscle-bound body towered over most of her overpowered peers. And not just in terms of her large personality, because sometimes it was hard to get the youngest of seven children from a tight-knit family in upstate New York to stop talking.
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It wasn't just the scope of her legacy and importance to the national team program, becoming its face after Mia Hamm retired. Or her trophy haul – the NCAA title and the WUSA title and the two Olympic gold medals and the FIFA World Player of the year and, finally and cathartically, the 2015 Women's World Cup this past summer.
She was the biggest because she scored the most goals. Because with Wambach, as in the entire sport of soccer, it always boiled down to the goals. In her first three competitive games, back when she was five years old up in Rochester, she scored 27 times. She played with the boys from then on.
Wambach scored more goals since then. From high school onwards, she bagged just over 500 of them, including this iconic one.
Now, she has 184 international goals for the U.S. women's national team and counting – a number that got so high that it required its own Wikipedia page. That's a record for both the U.S. women's and men's national teams. And for any other national team in the world as well. Nobody in the history of the sport has scored as many international goals, woman or man. Wambach has 26 more than Hamm got and has so far done it in 23 fewer games.
Wambach will probably play in four more matches in December as part of the women's national team's Victory Tour. And then, at 35, after 15 years on the national team and in the spotlight, she will retire from a sport she helped build.
"After much deliberation and talking with my friends, family, teammates and our coaching staff, I've decided to finally bring my soccer career to an end," Wambach said in a statement. "While we still have more work to do for women's soccer, after bringing the World Cup back to the United States this summer, I'm feeling extremely optimistic about the future of our sport. It's been an amazing, wonderful ride and I can't wait to see what the next chapter of my life brings."
She has spoken in the past about having children with her wife and perhaps flipping and designing houses for a living. Somewhere away from the game that gobbled up so much from her life, but to which she gave so generously in return. With her highlights, hard-nosed play and her famous intensity. And with her unceasing willingness to promote and grow the game, speaking to anybody, giving endless interviews, answering the same old questions thoughtfully and usually with a smile.
With her World Cup finally won on her fourth attempt, after an obsessive pursuit, she can walk away. She doesn't feel the need to hang around for next year's Olympics and a potential third gold medal. She has nothing left to prove.
"Abby is a player who has transcended our sport and her legacy as one of the world's greatest players is set forever," said U.S. head coach Jill Ellis. "What she has done for women's soccer and women's sports overall with her amazing talents on the field and her personality off it has been inspiring to watch. I am just extremely happy that she could end her career with that elusive World Cup title and go out on top, right where she deserves to be."
Wambach will be remembered as one of the greatest women to ever play soccer. Along with Hamm. Along with Michelle Akers. Along with Brazil's Marta. She'll be remembered as a forward who could do just about anything on the field, who was an unmatched aerial threat with her hammered headers, but whose soft feet were just as remarkable if they lacked that same recognition.
But most of all, Wambach will be remembered for those goals. For the 45 times she scored at least one of them in a game for the USA. For the five hat-tricks. For the two four-goal games. For that five-goal game against Ireland back in 2004.
And then there's this to remember her by: When Wambach scored for her national team, the U.S. won 116 times, tied eight games, and lost just twice.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
