Tobin Heath, two-time Women's World Cup winner with U.S. women's national team, announces retirement

Tobin Heath, a member of the U.S. women's national team's 2015 and 2019 Women's World Cup-winning squads, officially announced her retirement on Thursday, marking the end of a decorated career.

Heath played the final match of her career in August 2022 with the Seattle Reign, who beat the North Carolina Courage 4-1 that day, while her final appearance for the national team was in a friendly win against South Korea in October 2021. The 37-year-old spent the final years of her career battling a serious left knee injury that she was ultimately unable to come back from.

"Over New Year's, I actually came to the full acceptance that I wasn't going to be playing, which was like a two-year, some might say three-year process of acceptance," Heath said on Thursday's episode of The RE-CAP Show, a podcast she co-hosts with her former USWNT teammate and partner Christen Press. "I tried f---ing everything to get back, I spent tens of thousands of dollars and [had] two surgeries, one crazy surgery. And the whole time I believed I was going to get back. The writing was definitely on the wall, I just couldn't accept I think that that was my ending."

Heath was amongst the most impactful players of her generation, notching 181 appearances for the USWNT, winning the World Cup and Olympic gold twice, as well as the U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year award in 2016. Heath is one of four USWNT players to make an appearance in three World Cup finals, including the 2011 final the U.S. lost to Japan following a penalty shootout. She also collected accolades at the club level, winning two NWSL Championships with the Portland Thorns and two NWSL Shields, one with the Thorns and the other with the Reign. Her club career also included stints with Manchester United, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.

More notably, though, Heath was easily amongst the most technically gifted players on the USWNT. She was a must-watch star at her best, notching goals and assists while mixing in highlight-reel worthy moments on the regular. The list includes 36 goals and 42 assists for the national team, including one in the 2015 World Cup final in Vancouver, where the USWNT beat Japan 5-2.

Heath has assumed a handful of roles off the pitch in the last several years. In addition to her podcast with Press, she is the only woman on FIFA's technical study group for the men's Club World Cup, which concludes on Sunday.