Forget bend it like Beckham. Young players everywhere are working to rip it like Rapinoe.
Just ask former Major League Soccer forward Mike Magee — he has seen it first hand.
Magee was a professional soccer player for 14 years, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not get his daughter to join in the beautiful game.
“Never pushed her but she simply didn’t want to play,” Magee tweeted.
Then, just last week, Magee looked outside to see his daughter kicking the soccer ball against a brick wall.
It wasn’t anything he had said or done. It was all thanks to the US Women’s National Team, who had inspired his daughter to go out and play.
The US Women’s National Team won their second-consecutive World Cupthis month in dramatic fashion. They dominated Thailand 13-0 in the opening match and went on to beat the Netherlands 2-0 to win the tournament.
Even though the World Cup is over, the legacy of the 2019 team lives on.
Directly after the defeating the Netherlands, the team released a statement demanding the US Soccer Federation address the issue of equal pay.
In March, 28 members of the US Women’s teamsued the US Soccer Federation for allegedly discriminating against the women by paying them less than members of the Men’s National Team.
The federation and the team tentatively agreed to mediation that’s expected to start now that the World Cup is over.
Magee’s tweet caught the attention of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and soccer legend Mia Hamm who both retweeted him.
“A whole generation of girls think they can do anything because the @USWNT did,” wrote Hamm in response.
Magee shared that he was just showing his daughter videos of the great Mia Hamm.
“Told her how you at any given moment could make our entire country jump up. Every single person. I fought back tears watching her watch you,” wrote Magee.
Magee’s daughter was able to watch her dad play for a couple years before his retirement, but now it’s Magee’s turn to watch her from the stands.
