On Tuesday an American soccer icon who left an indelible mark on the USWNT’s back-to-back World Cup-winning era announced her retirement from the game. At 39, Becky Sauerbrunn leaves behind a 16-year professional legacy as an Olympic and (twice) World Cup champion, a NWSL lifer and undisputed leader for club and country, whether with a ball at her feet or a book in her hand.

“It’s time,” she wrote, in a beautifully composed social media post that felt reflective of the voracious reader and effective communicator we knew her to always be.

She looked back on a dream-like career, defined by ambition and hard work: “Nothing will compare to the last sixteen years. How could it? The challenge of chasing victory. The bravery to fail. The willingness to suffer. The joy and relief when you achieve it. The drive to go again.”

Sauerbrunn was a thoughtful leader and a stoic source of calm for a national team so often under the scrutiny that sporting dynasties (and vocal advocacy) inspire in the public and press. She led by the example of her unshakable grace and the evidence of her hard work.

She also led by her reliable defensive presence in any backline, marked by her disciplined positioning, steadfast defending and the well-timed touch that kept opposing forwards at bay.

Related: Former USA captain Becky Sauerbrunn retires after glittering 16-year career

Many will fondly remember her emergence in the international game. Of course, in her debut for the senior USWNT on 16 January 2008, she memorably broke her nose after a fierce aerial battle with a Canadian fore, departing the pitch early. The injury might not be the fond part, but her unshakable physical courage and stolid response was a sign of things to come.

In the early 2010s, Sauerbrunn worked her way into a veteran-heavy squad, contributing to their runner-up performance in the 2011 World Cup in Germany, and making an impact off the bench in their Olympic gold-winning run the next summer in London.

It would be years later, downwind of her relentless work and demonstrable merit, that Sauerbrunn broke into a starting role with the deep and decorated US women’s national team. By the 2015 World Cup, she’d laid claim to a default role in the US backline and played every minute en route to the program’s third World Cup trophy and first since 1999. Four years later, she held things down again in France, fending off the world’s top teams in every game except their first against Thailand, as the team willed their way into repeat World Cup renown.

Sauerbrunn started in 167 of 182 appearances from 2013 to 2024, and retires having played the ninth-most minutes in program history. Sauerbrunn’s 219 caps make her one of just 14 players to appear more than 200 times for the USWNT. In a statement released by US Soccer, the center-back nodded to this lofty mark with a humility and gratitude emblematic of her nature.

“I learned early on that we were all just renting our jerseys,” she said. “That I got to wear the US Soccer crest once was an honor and privilege for which I’m forever grateful. The fact that I got to do it over 200 times is truly humbling. I competed with and learned from some of the greatest players and leaders this sport has ever seen, and I consider myself beyond lucky to have been able to play a small part in this program’s storied history.”

Defenders don’t always get the glory. But the name Becky Sauerbrunn is inseparable from the US women’s national team at the height of their double World Cup-winning powers. Sauerbrunn was as essential to US supremacy in a decade of trophy-laden success as any single player.

She was deserving of the spotlight, even if she never sought it.

In fact, Sauerbrunn’s retirement is a carefully timed attempt to forgo the spotlight entirely. As she told former teammate and fellow World Cup champion Sam Mewis on The Women’s Game podcast, she preferred to bid the beautiful game adieu in a quiet moment at the end of a strong season.

“It was such a good year,” she said, noting that it started with a W Gold Cup trophy. Then in what would be her final season in NWSL, Sauerbrunn said: “I got a full season where I just got to battle with Portland.”

Sauerbrunn has played in every single NWSL season since the league’s inception, winning three titles while battling it out for FC Kansas City, Utah Royals and her final club home, the Portland Thorns. Her impact on the success of domestic club soccer in the United States is as worthy of recognition as her storied international career.

Telling Mewis about her final battle in professional soccer, after 16 years, Sauerbrunn says: “I love that we got to push for the playoffs, that I got to make the playoffs one last time. And that, that last game against Gotham, I got to leave my soul on the field. That’s what it felt like.”

Sauerbrunn’s farewell comes at the close of a year that’s seen five of the USA’s starters from their 2019 World Cup final hang up their boots, a group that includes Mewis, Alex Morgan, Kelley O’Hara and Alyssa Naeher.

Their departure feels like the close of a massive chapter in the story of the USWNT. It was an era defined by dynastic success at the international level and dedicated growth in the domestic club game. For those of us watching as they charted their careers, it’s been a delight to take in the inevitable highs and lows of their dream-like exploits, as they achieved remarkable heights and helped grow the game. Now her playing days are nothing, with no regrets left behind.

“Ninety-minutes finished, steam rising off our bodies – the sense of a job well done,” Sauerbrunn said. “Dirty jerseys and scraped legs, all in the service of clean tackles and cleaner sheets. Knowing that if I step here, they’ll go there, and now I can win it. The tilt of a head and a raised eyebrow that tells my teammate everything that needs to be done. Of course I’d do it all again. In a heartbeat.”