Kelley O’Hara, defender for the USWNT and for Gotham FC, introduced Thursday that she’s going to retire on the finish of the 2024 NWSL season, which concludes in October.
O’Hara, 35, introduced the information and a particular “Kelley on the Road” YouTube video through which she asks individuals she meets on the road about retirement.
“I’ve at all times mentioned I might play underneath two circumstances: that I nonetheless love enjoying soccer, and if my physique would let me do it the way in which I needed to,” O’Hara informed Simply Ladies’s Sports activities. “I spotted some time again that I used to be at all times going to adore it, so it was the bodily piece that was going to be the deciding issue.”
As soon as the 2023 NWSL season ended, O’Hara mentioned she gave her future critical consideration, however hasn’t had any second ideas since making the choice to maneuver on.
“As soon as I used to be like, ‘Alright, you understand what, this will probably be my final 12 months,’ I’ve had a number of peace with it,” “Really the one factor I felt was gratitude for the whole lot that my profession has been, all of the issues I have been in a position to do and the individuals I have been in a position to do it with.”
O’Hara has been enjoying high-level soccer since she was a toddler. She started representing america in 2004 as a part of the Beneath-16 group, and would proceed to take action by way of the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup. She was a part of that golden period of the USWNT together with Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and others, an period which solely just lately got here to an finish.
Nevertheless it was a golden period for a motive. As a part of that group, O’Hara was a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, a three-time CONCACAF ladies’s champion and a five-time SheBelieves Cup champion. She has additionally gained two NWSL championships.
As for what the longer term holds, O’Hara is not positive but. However she does know she needs to stay near the sport she loves so she can provide again to the subsequent technology.
“I simply really feel like I’ve a number of passions, and issues that excite me,” . “And I do need to keep as shut as I can to the sport, as a result of I really feel a accountability — and I am undecided in what capability — to proceed to develop it.”