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In June, Hope Solo was interviewed by Ville Magazine about what the future held for her as she recovered from shoulder surgery. While she did not close the door on playing for a club or the United States, Solo said it had to stand for something bigger than just the luminaries that come with representing your country at the highest level of international competition.
I always wanted to play in the best tournament in the world and that's the World Cup. France will host an incredible tournament. I would love to play in the 2019 World Cup, but I would never play for any employer that didn't pay their employees equal wages. At this point in my career, I have accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish from getting the Golden Glove, winning Olympic gold medals and winning the World Cup. So for me, it is more important to make sure that women are treated fairly, that there is no more inequality. The US women's soccer team finished their new contracts, but US Soccer has been using the word "equitable" to describe the deal. Equitable and equal are not the same thing. So, do I want to play in the 2019 World Cup? Yes, but I also need to stand for something that is bigger than the fame of soccer and for me I'm going to stand for women. I'm going to stand for equality.
Fast forward to this evening where in a complete surprise to just about everyone, Hope Solo announced on her Facebook that she has thrown her hat into the field to become the next president of the United States Soccer Federation. Her statement announcing her campaign is below.
Posted by Hope Solo on Thursday, December 7, 2017
Solo joins a very much crowded field that has former men’s national team players: Eric Wynalda, Paul Caligiuri, and Kyle Martino, USSF Vice President Carlos Cordeiro, league administrator Paul Lapointe, lawyer Michael Winograd, and former college goalkeeper/president of Soccer United Marketing Kathy Carter.
Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl reported that through Solo’s spokesperson, she has the three required official nominations to run for the presidency that has been vacated by Sunil Gulati who chose to not seek re-election.
Hope Solo's spokesperson says Solo has the 3 official nominations needed by Tuesday to become an official candidate. If so, Solo will be in the race for full 2 months https://t.co/XV5YWSxEuG
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) December 8, 2017
Prolific player at the club and international level? Controversial? Fascinating? All of the above. The best out of the field to lead USSF into a new era? Time will tell when the election happens sometime early next year. And even then, who actually gets to vote in it is probably best described as lots of people many of us have never heard of. The bottom line is the journey to appointing a new president for US Soccer just got a lot more interesting. There are many questions to ask about each of the candidates as to why they should get the job, but quite possibly the most important one for soccer fans in the US has to be:
Can we get some presidential debates on TV?