Christen Press felt like a ‘villain’. The ex-USWNT forward played long enough to become a hero
By Meg Linehan
Oct. 15, 2025
To watch Christen Press play soccer is to watch joy, bound only by the human form.
Case in point, the goal she scored this May for Angel City FC, her first at home after recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear that took four surgeries and two years to overcome. Watch the way it took 24 seconds from the time she entered the field, the way she drives, cuts, and gets the ball to her left foot, even though she almost loses her footing.
Watch the way it sails to the top corner, finding that 90-degree angle and slicing through it, past an outstretched glove until it sinks, blissfully, into netting in front of a sea of ecstatic faces. Watch the way she turns and begins to sprint, joy overriding her coordination, limbs everywhere, her face split open with exhilaration, a smile that maybe feels a little like a scream, a little like relief and a lot like love.
To watch Christen Press in 2025 is to watch the end now, too.
On Wednesday, the former U.S. women’s national team forward announced her retirement at the close of this season. With Angel City sitting six points outside the playoff picture, that may be sooner than many had hoped. Retirements call for flowers, but also reevaluation. Press’ career defies neat storylines of success on and off the field, even as she retires as a two-time World Cup winner.
These days, Press feels the love and support of the women’s soccer community, but that has not always been the case. She has made multiple decisions throughout her professional career to prioritize her needs, desires and mental health. This has not always been celebrated.
“What is a stubbornness, what is an ego, is also a sense of self-worth and bravery, and those things are all true. I have all of them,” Press told The Athletic, calling from her car on her commute home from the Angel City training facility.
Read through the comment sections of articles from over the years, and you’ll find a range of adjectives: spoiled, selfish, entitled, difficult — that old chestnut. There’s worse, too. It’s the internet after all, and Press is a Black queer woman.
But looking at her choices now, Press was ahead of the curve.
Her pro career has been shaped by so many forces, from toxic work environments to being traded without consent, to expansion drafts and her rights being held, to the seeping influence of the systemic abuse across the NWSL. She was fighting for autonomy in a sport that held it just out of reach, and fighting the public’s perception that she was only out for herself.
“At the time, I remember, in every situation, I felt like the villain,” she said. “It’s been a really long time since I felt that. And now, when I walk into any stadium, I feel like I have been celebrated above what my soccer skills have done for people’s lives because people have come to see why I am the way I am.”
Press is used to walking into rooms and feeling an immediate tension — that people on the other side of the desk were waiting for her to launch into yet another complaint, when in her eyes, she was simply trying to make things better. And not just for her, for everyone. She got used to the feeling that something was trying to dim her light as she was fighting to shine.
“Sometimes you have to take all the criticism as a sign that you’re going in the right direction,” she said.
Her wife, Tobin Heath (former teammate, co-host of the RE-Cap Show and co-founder of their media company RE), uses the word “conviction” when describing Press. It’s hard for Press to change her mind, especially if she thinks something is right or wrong — something she got from her mother, Stacy, who passed away in 2019 at age 58.
“My mom could argue the stupidest thing for hours and hours, like nobody’s business, whatever she believed in. I did not agree with my mom on a lot of things, but whatever she believed, there was no changing her mind,” Press said with a laugh, noting she herself found it hard to live with at times. “I learned through her that when you do what’s right, you will weather the storm like you have to.”
The storms found Press, whether she was looking for them or not.
Look at Press’ professional club career after her time at Stanford, the only through line is the fractured nature of her career.
She played her rookie season with magicJack in WPS before the league shuttered. “Probably the worst environment I was ever in,” Press said earlier this year. “A lot of toxic and unprofessional things went down here.”
Next came her first decision to head to Europe, made in four days at her parents’ house. It was a leap of faith, hoping a career would be on the other side.
She struggled to find much detail about the Damallsvenskan, the highest division of women’s soccer in Sweden, but she went to the city of Gothenburg anyway. In her first season, she won the Swedish Cup with Goteborg FC before making the move to league champions Tyreso for 2013. The team was stacked with talent, with a starting forward line of Press, Marta and Spain’s Verónica Boquete. She’d finish that season as the Damallsvenskan’s leading scorer, though the team would come up just short in the Champions League final against Germany’s Wolfsburg.
In 2014, Press returned to the U.S., joining the Chicago Red Stars as an allocated player two months into the season. By 2016, she captained the team. But by the close of 2017, she was on her way out following a NWSL Best XI-caliber year.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2021 that her experience in Chicago was fully revealed. Press had tried to report then-head coach Rory Dames for a toxic environment as early as her first season with the team. The reports went nowhere. She was long gone by the time the NWSL gave Dames a lifetime ban for his part in perpetuating a culture of abuse.
“The second time I went back to Sweden was after I was traded, without consent in my sleep, from Chicago to the Houston Dash,” Press said.
She woke up to the news on Twitter, with the massive three-player trade of Press, Carli Lloyd and Sam Kerr dominating the headlines of the 2018 college draft in January.
Press never acknowledged the trade. Coverage of whether she’d go to Houston, of who said what and when between the Red Stars and the Dash, and her representatives and even Press herself in terms of her preferred landing spots in the NWSL spiralled. Press got a healthy portion of the blame. She didn’t report to Houston’s preseason.
“I was with Tobin in Portland. There was a preseason tournament where Houston, Chicago, Portland and Seattle were all in Portland. I was hiding out in the city of Portland from my own preseason, dating someone in another preseason, and my former team were also there. I was hiding from everyone,” she said.
Her conviction took her back to Sweden.
“I believed that I was a full human and that I didn’t have to go to a team, being shipped off like cattle. Most people at the time felt what I was doing was wrong and rude.” She said people considered her ungrateful. Press wanted — “deserved,” she says now — a life beyond football, but her decision to stand her ground had consequences beyond needing to return to Sweden. It impacted her standing with the national team under former head coach Jill Ellis ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
She made the 2018 SheBelieves roster, but only picked up about 30 minutes as a substitute — then was left off the next roster entirely. In 2018, Press only earned 445 minutes in 10 appearances; by the next year, her playing time had rebounded to nearly three times that at 1181 minutes.
Her second stint with Goteborg was cut short after Houston made a deal with the Utah Royals, sending Press to Salt Lake City in June 2018, the same month she returned to the USWNT roster.
That chapter ended with COVID-19 disrupting the 2020 season. The NWSL was the first pro league to come back during the ongoing pandemic, something the league was touting.
She and Heath opted to wait for the start of the Women’s Super League (WSL) in England, signing with Manchester United. By November, the Royals left her rights unprotected in the expansion draft for Racing Louisville FC. She (and Heath) were selected. No one in Louisville confirmed they’d want to head there, she said. Neither of them went.
“Europe, for the early days of my career, was freedom,” Press said. “I kept choosing my own freedom.”
Eventually, Press’s rights were traded to the newest NWSL expansion team.
“#BringCP23toLA wasn’t just a hashtag — Angel City signed me because of you,” Press wrote in her retirement letters on The Athletic, describing how the fans advocated for her return.
What should have been the triumphant closing act in her birthplace of Los Angeles instead went sideways. Press tore her ACL in a 2022 match against Louisville.
Press said she never felt like her career was easy, adding that no decade-long national team career is easy. As she phrased it, it “never looked like a dream come true.”
When she spoke to her Angel City teammates this weekend, she told them that no one would write the final chapter like this: tearing an ACL, riding the bench, scoring a couple of goals and playing 15-minute spells to close out matches.
“It does, in a way, feel true to my life,” she said. “It’s not fair, and it’s not a storybook. This is also not the final chapter of my life. It’s a chapter, and the lessons and the pain and the circumstances teach me and help me feel things that are important to get to my next place.”
When Press returned from the ACL injury, she wanted to be herself, putting the team on her back, scoring goals, and winning trophies. That’s always been the expectation.
Even though that’s not what the final season has looked like, does she still feel like maybe it was a middle finger to the injury — proof that she could come back and end it on her terms?
“I’m trying really hard not to write a happy ending to this,” Press said, though she wouldn’t actually change it. She didn’t return to her old form, but she did play as her “happiest version”.
“I laugh every time I score in practice, I take time, I care about how other people are feeling,” she said. “I don’t have to disconnect and be so honed in on scoring on the weekend and doing my job that I can actually be a mentor, a friend, a listener.”
This, too, belongs in the full evaluation of Press’ career, along with what she has helped to build in her time with the USWNT and as a professional player — made all the more important by the public misconception that she was only out for herself.
“I got this season to play in a fully professionalized environment and in a lot of ways, it feels like the house that we built,” she said. “Now other people get to live in it. That’s such a gift that I got to live in it for a year and see the fruits of our labor.”
Press is moving out, but like many of the other builders of her generation, she isn’t going too far.
Press has a four-point list of what’s next: stay fit, she’s still 90 minutes match fit, with some measure of relief she could keep going if she wanted to; embrace the wanderlust, with four months’ worth of travel already lined up across the globe; have more time to focus on her and Heath’s media company; and a break. A real one, an escape from that ever-present sense of being dimmed.
“I want to spend six months around people who think I’m awesome,” Press said. She wants to find people with an abundance mindset, do think tanks, friend trips, “just be around love.”
She doesn’t want to hold her tongue. She wants to shine. She wants, simply, to be herself.
Before she can start on that list, there are still at least a couple of games to go — and time not just for Press to get her flowers, but a full appreciation of her career with a revised accounting for the choices she made.
It never looked easy because it wasn’t. That didn’t stop her joy.
Nobody ever asked you if you wanted to play. At three, the gift of soccer was laid at your feet. At four, talent became a responsibility you carried, and scoring the way you made others proud. Especially your parents.
From their spots on the sidelines, they jumped for joy and cheered until their lungs ached, all because you put the ball in the back of the net. Not because you dribbled without tripping on your too-big jersey or because you’d picked enough daisies for a flower crown. Because you scored.
While your little teammates celebrated together, you were stuck watching them watch you. You were stuck on their joy. Their pride. You were stuck on the lesson you learned: if scoring made them happy, you’d keep scoring. In fact, you’d never stop.
At five, you learned to smile, to lace your cleats, to keep going—because you could. You could do what no one else around you could. So how could you stop? How could you let it go when everyone watched you with awe and expectation? For all those years when nobody thought to ask what you wanted, you did play beautifully. And though it was hard, and though it came at a cost, I am proud of you.
Only in the twilight of my career did I realize you’d been with me all along — the little Girl in the Backseat, riding to training every day. I learned to glance in the rearview mirror and do the one thing nobody had done for us: ask. “Do you want to play today?” And every time, your eyes lit up. Yes, you wanted to play. But even more, you wanted to be asked. That “yes” was yours. It was ours. And that’s the joy we finally found together.
Now I have something new to ask. And despite the weight that this question carries, I feel prepared, supportive, and nurturing when I do. “Are you ready to say goodbye?” Not to the joy, or the game, or the play … but to the life we built around it. To the early morning drives. To the hairspray and sunscreen we wear like armor. To the laughter born of botched languages in foreign locker rooms.
To the barefoot walks after training. To the weight of the crest pressed against our chest. To the pre-match texts from Dad. To the sound of the whistle that always felt like it was asking, “Are we really doing this again?” To looking up after games into a sea of 23s. To the ache of loss and the wild joy of a win—reminding us that we’re alive, living the full human condition. To the little girl in the stands who reminds me of you. To the post-match hug from our dear one, always proud that we tried.
For a long time, I didn’t want to be famous. I didn’t want to be stopped at dinner with my family. I felt used for a picture or an autograph. The iconization pulled me out of my own body and made me worry about how I looked from your eyes.
But now, when I look up into all of your faces, I feel at home. I see a tapestry of my 15-year career reflected back at me. I see a community of people that I helped build and that have helped build me. I see people that know me. That read my writing. That listen to me yap on The Re-Cap Show. I see people that curse any coach that doesn’t start me, for goodness sake!
Sometimes when I see you at the end of the game, I look up and wonder: where did you come from? It still feels unreal for you to be wearing my kit and shouting my name.
You’ve filled stands, crossed continents, held up signs both clever and ridiculous, shouted my name, and sometimes shouted at me too. You carried me when I was tired, celebrated me when I was flying, and reminded me — again and again — that I was never doing this alone.
You’ve been my chorus, my critics, my community. You were the voice in my ear when I ran to warm up, the collective gasp when a shot bent wide, and the roar when it didn’t. You’ve been relentless in your love, even when I fell short of our expectations. I haven’t forgotten “Dogs for Christen.” IYKYK
And somehow, you always seemed to know more than I was trying to share. You caught shadows in photos, drew conclusions in comments, and believed in Tobin and me before we ever said the words ourselves. You even changed the course of my career. #BringCP23toLA wasn’t just a hashtag — Angel City signed me because of you. And oh so sadly, I’ll retire without fully knowing if it was “CP two-three” or “CP twenty-three.”
I’m one of the last of a generation — the ones who lifted the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, who stood arm in arm in the fight for Equal Pay. Leaving has been hard because I know what it symbolizes: an era closing. But I hope you see it as the beginning of another one, too — one you helped build with your voices, your faith, and your relentless belief in what this game could be.
Thank you — for the letters, the chants, the awkward selfies in airports, the thoughtful gifts celebrating Bob and my love of “Wicked”, the words that reached me when I needed them most. Thank you for making me feel seen, not just as a player in a jersey, but as a person trying, failing, learning, and beginning again.
You taught me that being someone’s favorite player isn’t about the goals. It’s about showing up — again and again — even when it’s hard, even when it’s messy, even when it hurts. And in return, I hope I gave you belief, courage, joy, a sense of possibility… and some pretty nice goals to celebrate!
I won’t leave this game believing I was ever the best player in the world. But I will leave feeling like I was one of the most loved. And that is the gift you gave me, one I’ll carry forever.
So this is my wave to you: thank you for everything.
We’ve been together a long time, haven’t we? You’ve been my greatest teacher, my toughest critic, my longest love affair. You gave me family born from strangers — even rivals. You gave me scenes I could never have scripted, and a passport stamped with dreams. You also took things from me — sleep, knees, peace of mind on penalty kicks — but isn’t that the price of devotion?
I remember winning Regionals in Hawaii at 13, sprinting across the field with my teammates, leis swinging around our necks, certain nothing could ever top that joy. It hasn’t.
I remember dragging my family to the track on Christmas Eve, running from something scarier than Scrooge: the January camp beep test.
I remember scoring goals that felt like destiny, and missing ones that haunted me just as long. I remember the header when I swear my mom borrowed my body for a moment, guiding the ball home herself. (I hope she’ll come back for one more.)
I remember trying to ground myself on a frozen, muddy Manchester pitch, the sting of cold feet somehow settling, after hours of idly chasing perfection.
I remember subbing into the end of a match with nearly fifty thousand people roaring, and tears streaming down my outside back’s face. With one squeeze of her hand as I came onto the pitch, I told her: I’ve got you.
And, I remember meeting Tobin, who came from an opposite map of sports: she, pure love of the game; me, driven to be great, to make my family proud. We met in the middle and filled the spaces the other left open. From her, I learned that joy itself could be reason enough — that the game could be loved without needing to be justified. From me, she learned that our gifts could be carried for others — that the work we poured in could ripple far beyond ourselves. Together, we discovered that there is no single way to belong to this game. There are many paths to the same field, and walking them side by side made us braver, fuller, and truer.
People will say, this isn’t goodbye. But for me, it is. I need it to be—to explain the conflict and sadness and immensity that sit in the pit of my stomach. “See you around” doesn’t capture that. The lessons you taught me—how to run toward fear, how to lead and follow, how to lose and still be whole, how to see life through the eyes of a Rookie — those are forever.
I have a confession: I don’t think you were ever my Dharma, my destiny, or my purpose. You were, simply, my way. I believe I was given the gift of this game so I could be something else: a fighter for progress. For women, for queer folks, for people of color. For love and freedom and equality.
Somehow — despite never making a youth national team, despite lacking the will to tackle, head the ball, or run through walls — I became a mainstay on the best team in the world for over a decade. And I believe it was all so I could be there, behind the scenes, during our fight for Equal Pay. To learn how to organize, to unite, to lead in the name of justice.
So, Football, to you I say: thank you. Thank you for getting me into those rooms. And in return, I promise — I won’t leave.
US soccer star Christen Press announces retirement: 'I feel a mix of everything'
At 36, Press has cemented her legacy as one of U.S. soccer's all-time greats.
By Shafiq Najib
October 15, 2025
Christen Press, one of the most celebrated players in U.S. women's soccer history, is officially hanging up her cleats.
At 36, the two-time World Cup champion and Angel City FC forward announced her retirement from professional soccer, sharing the emotional news in an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired Wednesday.
"I'm retiring from professional soccer, and I've decided that this is my last season and my last few games," Press said. "I feel a mix of everything. There's yes, there's relief, there's joy, there's excitement, there's fear, there's so much grief. I have so much grief, a part of me, a piece of me, I'm losing her."
Over the course of her remarkable career, Press earned 155 caps and scored 64 goals for the U.S. Women's National Team, helping lead the squad to two FIFA Women's World Cup titles.
Known for her speed, technical precision and calm under pressure, Press became a defining figure of the USWNT's golden era.
Her influence extended well beyond the field. As a trailblazer for equity in women's sports and a founding member of Angel City FC, Press helped shape the next generation of women's soccer in Los Angeles.
Three years ago, Press suffered a devastating knee injury that sidelined her for more than a year.
Despite a determined comeback and return to the pitch last season, she said her decision to retire came from wanting to choose her moment, not have it chosen for her.
"I thought I would wait until I didn't want to play anymore," she explained. "But I realized that time's never going to come and I can play, and my body can keep going. And I think it was really important for me to make this decision for myself before that became a different reality."
Press will play her final Angel City home game this Sunday, fittingly, not far from where her journey first began.
Soccer, Press added, has always been a family affair.
Her father, a former college football player, was the first to spark her love for the game.
"He had three girls, and so this is how he connected to us," she shared. "And I think because of that, it became so important to my mom to have that connection between my dad and I."
But it was her mother, Stacy, who became her source of strength during the most difficult moments of her career.
In 2018, as her mother battled brain cancer, Press didn't want to leave her side until her mom insisted she rejoin the national team. That same week, she scored a game-winning goal against Spain.
"My dad was upstairs watching the game on his iPad, and he ran downstairs to my mom to show her the goal," she recalled. "And my dad told me that my mom took his hand and she smiled and she actually passed away that night. And I think in some ways it gave her a little peace."
Press's next chapter will be one of partnership -- both in life and in passion.
Earlier this year, she and former teammate and longtime partner Tobin Heath revealed that they are married, after quietly tying the knot years earlier.
"There was a time where a lot was off limits and Tobin and I's approach was wanting to keep our relationship sacred and out of the public eye," she said. "We actually have been married long before this year. And you know, my manager, my family [were] just as surprised as you were, but everyone knew that I was in [a] committed relationship."
Together, the couple co-founded a media company and co-host The RE-CAP Show podcast, where they talk candidly about life, love, and the game that brought them together.
"It's authentic, because it is just the same conversations we often are having here at the house," she said.
Heath retired from soccer earlier this year, and Press admitted that her wife's decision influenced her own.
"She would absolutely hate me saying this, but a lot," she said. "I think it is time for my family to move on to our next chapter, we're going to be a part of this game forever, but it's time for it to look different for us."
As she is about to step off the field for the last time, Press said she feels grateful for her career, her family, and the city that raised her.
"I get to leave this game with a family, a dog, a wife, a house in the city that I grew up in that I love, and that feels like a really soft landing," she said.
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