Dear Tobin Heath, congratulations on your career, but your crafty moves and annoying adeptness at navigating the final third cost me a second national championship, and for that, I will never forgive you. But also the rest of the world and your stats tell me you’re a legend, so again…congrats.
Tobin Heath is one of the most decorated USWNT players of all time as a 2x World Cup champion and 2x Olympic gold medalist. Then there’s club championships, shields, national championships, etc., etc. She’s embarrassingly rich in the trophy department. But she hasn’t played in 3 years.
That same body that outperformed many of the world’s best athletes time and time again finally said I’m done. And then three years later it said, no really…I’m DONE.
Three years is an excruciatingly long build-up to retirement. Three years of waiting, wishing, wanting, hoping. Of desperation followed by a reluctant acceptance.
Tobin Heath’s style of play is uniquely her
I don’t know Tobin Heath personally, but I’ve seen her work up close, and you only have to see her once to understand why it took her 3 years to give up the game. It meant everything to her, and she gave it everything.
I experienced the college senior version of Tobin Heath. She was hungry for the ball, hungry for the goal, and insanely focused.
She saw the whole field while never losing sight of the ball at her feet. She had no fear of taking risks by trying something new or taking on an obscene number of opponents at one time.
Her cheeky ball maneuvering didn’t work every time, but when it did, she posterized her opponents and produced moments of pure brilliance.
Tobin Heath was undeniably a dominant force on the soccer field. As a rule of thumb, the better player you are, the less joy opponents have when playing against you. Tobin Heath was one of the best. And that cold December day in 2009, my teammates and I were, well…joyless.