Bye Bye Abby (Abby Wambach interview)

Abby Wambach closes a fourteen-year international career in New Orleans having won virtually every honour available: Olympic gold, a FIFA Ballon d’Or and, in 2015, a World Cup. The biggest thing she feels is complete, she says, with no question it is the right time; the moment she announced her retirement she could shed her soccer skin, which she calls one of the best gifts she has given herself. She has fond memories of playing England, praising Faye White as a tough competitor and calling Kelly Smith an icon and one of the top five players ever to step on a field in women’s soccer. She never set out to break Mia Hamm’s record, she insists: the goal was simply to win games. Megan Rapinoe supplies the tribute.