For many of its formative years, women’s soccer has been held up as primarily inspirational. Titles won for club and country have been lauded as part of the fight for the next generation of young girls who need to see athletes in women’s sports achieve great things before they push progress along themselves. Even as interest in the present generation of players has risen year after year, the pulse of the sport from the top has been firmly focused on what comes next.

This summer, fans across the world got a glimpse instead at what is happening right now, as record crowds poured in to watch international soccer tournaments on four different continents.

The “little girls of the future” narrative has played out for a long time, and it still got its fair amount of shine during the four major tournaments that concluded with the Euros final on July 31. For the young ones among the 87,192 fans that packed Wembley Stadium for that game, they witnessed an ending for the ages. In a battle between two well-matched sides, England won their first major trophy on home soil, 2-1 in extra time, over a young, disciplined Germany team, and celebrations erupted nationwide.

In the weeks since, England’s Euros win has been compared to the USWNT’s World Cup championship in 1999, with the potential to usher in a brand new era of support for the women’s game. There are certainly some similarities between the two tournaments: home teams, big crowds, media coverage, and a ripped jersey celebration to cap the whole thing off.

But Brandi Chastain, ‘99 penalty kick legend, told Just Women’s Sports just this year that her iconic moment didn’t have the ripple effect off the field that it could have. ​

“You’re winning big tournaments like the World Cup, and yet you’re anonymous,” she said. “You know that you need to continue to push forward, and you feel that your own group is not taking you as seriously or holding your value the same as they hold someone else’s.”

Such is the cost of inspirational platitudes, when those in charge aren’t ready to fully invest in a future that matches the high expectations of those already striving for perfection on the field. Twenty-three years after the USWNT’s moment, similar emotions have emerged in England, which has a long history of suppressing potential. Women’s football was outlawed in the country that invented the sport from 1921-70. Even now, only 63 percent of girls can play football in PE in England. The scars of institutional neglect still show, even in victory.

Those advocating for women’s football have known this for years, but inspiration is not enough. If there’s one thing the 2022 summer of international soccer has shown us, however, it’s that the age of inspiration might actually be behind us.

Now, it’s time to enter the age of ambition.

Ambition can come in many forms: professional standards, long-term investment, smart hiring and talent identification. It requires real vision and respect toward a sporting sector that is no longer emerging, but has shown quantifiable evidence that it has already arrived. TV ratings for the Euros final were through the roof in multiple countries, hitting 17.4 million in the UK, 17.9 million in Germany, and almost breaking a million viewers in the U.S. The English FA marketed the Women’s Euros at the ground level, and both traditional and new media outlets covered it, giving the final result the weight it deserved at face value.

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On the field, that ambition played out in many ways, including in the context of the right coaching hire. England had been building the depth of their program for years, helped in large part by the growing competitive cauldron of the Women’s Super League. But the years spent with Phil Neville as manager from 2018-21 never set the team on the trajectory that matched the expectations being placed on them. Neville was not a student of the women’s game when he was hired, nor did it seem like he tactically understood the elements of cohesion and chemistry required to peak at the right time.

When the pandemic delayed the Euros by a year, Neville stepped away from the team to take a job in MLS, and the FA hired the best woman for the job: Sarina Wiegman. Wiegman led the Netherlands to the 2017 Euros title and the final of the 2019 World Cup, and she proved to be the right manager for a deep England squad that showed 100 percent buy-in. In every match, even when facing moments of adversity, the Lionesses showed a confidence that we’d never seen from them on this big a stage before.

Other nations full of footballing talent have not always had that same sense of urgency. Most dramatically, Nigeria had to boycott training prior to their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations third-place game against Zambia in order to be paid wages they’d been promised. Coaches Jorge Vilda in Spain and Corinne Diacre in France received contract extensions through 2024, despite questions surrounding the management of their squads. Mexico’s World Cup qualifying failure at home led to a round of firings, but Concacaf’s lack of desire to properly market the women’s game went far beyond the host country, leaving a massive opportunity on the table.

It would also be remiss to act like the positive sea change is only occurring in Europe.

The WAFCON tournament in Morocco proved a rousing success for the host nation, as they qualified for the World Cup for the first time in a runners-up performance to South Africa. Copa America Femenina host Colombia has also made their return to the world stage, in a similarly successful run to second place against perennial winners Brazil. Brazil, more than three years removed from Marta’s teary-eyed plea to the next generation at the 2019 World Cup, is successfully going through their own generational shift.

In the United States, the new level of ambition worldwide is sometimes framed as a threat, but as NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told reporters in Chicago this past weekend, it’s also an opportunity. She attended the final knockout rounds of the Euros and also participated in the World Leagues Forum — the first iteration of a women’s professional league counterpart to the annual men’s summit.

“[The Euros] reminded me of how I felt watching the Angel City home opener, where people were really there to watch the soccer, and people were really there because the sport was taking over,” Berman said. “And the fact that it was women’s soccer was just a bonus. It really wasn’t about a social statement or anything like that. It was really more like, this is the sport at its best globally.”

For two days in London, each league presented to the group what they currently consider their unique value proposition. They also shared best practices and, as Berman put it, “really [had] a discussion about how we can work in tandem to make this a global movement.” The NWSL has unique challenges and strengths in the global market as a non-men’s league-affiliated property, and the best approach for the four-time World Cup-winning nation has to be to meet the rising tide head on.

With the established success of Barcelona and Real Madrid, growing interest in the German Frauen Bundesliga, Lyon and PSG’s dominance in France, and a whole host of English WSL clubs poised to pounce on the Euros momentum, the NWSL has to have a clearer vision than what we saw in the league’s first 10 years. Internationally, the USWNT should always invite the opportunity to play other teams at their best. We’ve seen that this month with the scheduling of a friendly against England at Wembley in October, which was clearly in the works before the final Euros whistle blew.

More than anything, this summer presented enough evidence that if there was ever a time for a new golden era of the sport, it’s not for the girls of the future — it’s actually right now. Players have been ready for this opportunity for a long time, as have fans. It’s time for the rest of the world to catch up.

Claire Watkins is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering soccer and the NWSL. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.