Former USWNT star Press announces retirement

Two-time World Cup champion guardant Christen Press announced connected Wednesday that she volition discontinue from nonrecreational shot astatine the extremity of the 2025 NWSL season, ending a 14-year nonrecreational career.

Press volition beryllium honored by Angel City FC, her existent club, connected Sunday astatine BMO Field successful Los Angeles (5 p.m. ET, ESPN). She helped the United States triumph the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and scored 10 minutes into the semifinal triumph implicit England successful 2019.

Press retires with 64 planetary goals -- ninth astir successful USWNT history. She past played for the USWNT successful 2021 aft helping the squad gain a bronze medal astatine the Tokyo Olympics. She was besides an alternate for the 2012 Olympic gold-medal winning team.

"I'm retiring from nonrecreational soccer, and I've decided that this is my past play and my past fewer games," Press told ABC's Good Morning America. "I consciousness a premix of everything. There's yes, there's relief, there's joy, there's excitement, there's fear, there's truthful overmuch grief. I person truthful overmuch grief, a portion of me, a portion of me, I'm losing her."

"I thought I would hold until I didn't privation to play anymore. But I realized that time's ne'er going to travel and I tin play, and my assemblage tin support going. And I deliberation it was truly important for maine to marque this determination for myself earlier that became a antithetic reality."

The Los Angeles native, known for her innate goal-scoring abilities, originative play, and versatility crossed the guardant position, finished her decorated vocation with her hometown club, Angel City FC. She was the team's archetypal authoritative signing successful 2021 up of its enlargement play the adjacent year.

Press, who turns 37 successful December, has had her clip this twelvemonth mostly constricted to a reserve role. She has 1 extremity successful 399 minutes. She fought her mode backmost onto the tract successful 2024 aft missing implicit 2 afloat years owed to a genu wounded and consequent surgeries.

Prior to joining Angel City, she played for the Chicago Red Stars and Utah Royals successful the NWSL, successful summation to respective stints abroad. Press' announcement follows the status of her wife and erstwhile USWNT teammate Tobin Heath earlier this year.

Both Press and Heath signed with Manchester United successful 2020 astir the tallness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under caput manager Casey Stoney, United challenged for the Women's Super League rubric that twelvemonth and finished fourth.

Press archetypal played overseas successful 2012 successful Sweden, erstwhile determination was nary nonrecreational league successful the United States. In 2013, Press joined Tyresö FF successful Sweden's Damallsvenskan alongside superstars similar Marta. She became the archetypal American to triumph the Golden Boot successful that league successful 2013, erstwhile she scored 23 goals.

Tyresö made a tally to the UEFA Champions League last successful 2014, losing 4-3 to VfL Wolfsburg successful the final. The nine folded soon after.

At the demands of U.S. Soccer, who paid the contracts of nationalist squad players astatine the time, Press returned to the U.S. to articulation the Chicago Red Stars successful 2014. She thrived successful Chicago done the 2017 NWSL play earlier the Red Stars traded her rights to the Houston Dash up of the 2018 season.

Press declined to study to the Dash and opted to concisely play successful Sweden for Göteborg FC, wherever she featured successful 2012. Utah yet acquired the NWSL rights to Press aboriginal that year, and she joined the enlargement squad successful June 2018.

She started her nonrecreational vocation successful the U.S. successful the present defunct Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), wherever she was named Rookie of the Year successful 2011 for the magicJack team.

Press had joined that squad arsenic the 4th wide draught prime aft a standout vocation astatine Stanford, wherever she won the MAC Herma...