SEATTLE — Fans on Sunday will celebrate Megan Rapinoe's career as the Seattle Reign FC retires her jersey.
The Reign will host a jersey retirement celebration ahead of their game against the North Carolina Courage.
The Megan Rapinoe Jersey Retirement Match will include a pre-match ceremony, a gate giveaway, live music and custom "RISE" merchandise. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for the 6:30 p.m. pre-match celebrations ahead of the 7 p.m. kickoff. The first 10,000 fans will also receive a reversible RISE-branded bucket hat.
Rapinoe sat down with KING 5's Arielle Orsuto ahead of her jersey retirement and expressed how surreal it feels, especially after celebrating her partner, Sue Bird, when the Seattle Storm retired her jersey.
"Being able to be there for Sue last year, having her jersey lifted up into the rafters, and knowing how special that was for her. Yeah, it's funny to be in this position, having it happen to me, but it's something that is really special," Rapinoe said. "It's hard to really, totally grasp, I think, all of what it means. I mean, I think everybody knows how much I loved playing here, and how much I care about the club and the relationships that I have here. So it really means the world. I'm a little at a loss for words, I think at times because it is such a special honor."
Rapinoe will be the first player in club history and the fourth-ever player in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) to have their jersey retired.
"First in the club, probably just means I'm one of the older ones. I know that 3 and 10 will be following me very quickly. But it is very special, obviously, the league, only being around for a short amount of time, going into 12th or 13th year now, to be one of, you know, kind of the OG members of the whole league, and certainly, this club, and to be able to have made that kind of impact in my time here, it's really special to be recognized in this way," Rapinoe said.
Rapinoe, a Redding, California native, had been with the Reign since 2013 and is only one of four Reign players to surpass 100 appearances for the club. She retired after the 2023 National Women's Soccer League season after 10 years with the Reign.
On her legacy, Rapinoe said it's for other people to write, but that she left everything she had out on the pitch.
"I left it quite literally all out there. I loved every minute that I got to play here. I love that I stayed with this club the whole time, and was able to finish my career here, I feel like I played a really fun and entertaining style. I tried to enjoy every moment. I tried to use whatever levers and platforms that I had to again, leave the game in a better place, and to show up and be really proud about being gay and being who I was. I think that's what I'm most proud of, and what I think I see kind of reflected back to me," Rapinoe said.
In addition to her accomplishments on the field, Rapinoe is known for using her voice to be a force of change. In July 2022, Rapinoe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, becoming the first soccer player to receive the award and one of just six female athletes or coaches.
Rapinoe was at the forefront of establishing equal pay for the United States Women’s National Team. Last year, the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to pay men and women equally in all exhibition games, or friendlies, and tournaments.
"Knowing that the game is in such a better place and that I was one of many people to have a really big part in that, I think my generation of players, both on the international level and in the NWSL, changed things forever whether that's equal pay or general standards in the league," Rapinoe said on what she was most proud of off the pitch. "So I think for me, that's what's most important. And most special to me is going and getting to watch these players make more money and play great stadiums and have practice facilities and be able to play at a level that we weren't really ever able to. I think that's really special."
Rapinoe’s work off the field, especially her visibility and work for LGBTQ rights, also left a legacy.
"The level of openness and candor and safe space that, I think especially here in Seattle, we were always very proud of that, and made that a point in our locker room that was a very front-facing sort of ethos of ours. And I think just the visibility and being able to present a sort of different view than maybe people had seen before. And I look out in the stands, and there's always pink and purple hair. And I feel like people being able to see an example of someone who's just unapologetically living who they are and there's certainly others in my time that did the same, but that's something that I'm very, very proud of," Rapinoe said.
As for the future, Rapinoe said her full-time job, apart from a new podcast with Bird, is being the number one fan of women's sports.
"The podcast is taking up a lot of time, so I definitely want to focus on that. And I feel like we're just kind of getting our feet wet and understanding the business of it and understanding sort of how to do it. But I feel like it's an amazing platform for us both, and something that I don't think really exists in women's sports right now, that sort of intersection between culture and sports and politics and economic, all this, all the things," Rapinoe said. "I feel like my other full-time job is just being a fan of women's sports. Apparently, I'm just the number one fan, I love it so much. I love going to all the games, I love supporting I love being able to go and just, for me, I just never take for granted how far it's come."
The Associated Press contributed to this story