In the autobiography of every athlete there are certain phrases, topics or themes that everyone expects to come up: special childhoods, sporting achievements and injuries.
But few expect that phrases like “FIFA is old, masculine and stale” will emerge from the writing of the probably best-known professional footballer in the world.
And even less so to read social allegations as a reflection on the fact that “the precariousness of housing among young people is the point of cohesion where other issues meet”.
The author of all of them is Megan Rapinoe (Redding, California, 35 years old), a woman who in recent years has become more than a symbol of women's football.
A pioneer in this sport in the United States, who is already one of the veterans of her national team has lived the sticks of an industry that she does not hesitate to label as unfair, frustrating and uncompromising.
But it has also made football, which is king in Europe, to be seen in the US as a sport, if not a mass sport, to be considered.
And above all, he has turned his planetary fame into a speaker.
Rapinoe released her memoir
One Life
(Dome Books) on February 3, which is a singular autobiography for a singular woman.
Proof of this leaves the quote with which the book starts: "Tell me, what plans do you have for your unique, wild and precious life?"
(Mary Oliver,
The Summer Day
).
From there, Rapinoe unravels an existence guided by football, family and a growing interest in social well-being rare in many athletes.
Something that she knows and that, in the 214 pages of the book, fearlessly ugly many other privileged like her.
The author was born into a large family in Redding, a town in California, with a multitude of brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews swarming around her and who remain her nucleus.
Especially her twin, Rachael Rapinoe.
"My soundboard, my mirror, my safety net," he describes her.
His brother Bryan also appears in the book, convicted of drug and theft crimes who has spent 16 of the last 20 years in and out of jail.
A situation that, like almost everything around her, invites her to reflect.
For her, her brother's attitude made the twins exemplary before their parents and made more effort in their sports and academic careers.
But the footballer explains that Bryan is not guilty by himself.
His surroundings marked him: his town is in a "rural area devastated by drugs" where opiates and overdoses are common.
Rapinoe is who she is because of her childhood, because of that van she used to drive through her state, match by match, every weekend.
“I loved it from the first moment.
There was something about the soccer ritual that made it special, ”he says of his life's passion.
Despite the continuous support of her parents, she argues that since she was a child she "never" considered it as "a professional career".
In fact, it points to parents who believe — and make their children believe — that because they are little prodigies, they will become adult stars.
The book describes the professional merits of the player, from his incorporation to the U-17 team to play in France to his adult achievements in the World Cup, Olympic Games or the Ballon d'Or. The most interesting thing is to observe how Rapinoe has taken over his success, and not the other way around.
From a very young age, he affirmed: "The popularity of my team gave me a platform."
And that platform has grown over the years and triumphs.
At first he talks about the closest thing: his homosexuality.
She never hid that she was a lesbian like so many other players but she decided to announce it.
"Exposing my sexuality had been the best decision I could make and I believed that it had even improved my way of playing," he writes.
It was the first step to give decency to his profession, something that can be achieved with a few gestures but which few dare, he regrets.
Coming out of the closet was the beginning, but what he gained admiration and criticism was for daring to kneel while the US anthem sounded in protest of racial violence, in a gesture imitating
the 49ers
quarterback
Colin Kapernick.
Nothing escapes Rapinoe's avid and critical gaze.
Neither that violence, nor the lack of empathy on the part of her team, nor the equal pay for which she arrived with her colleagues to file a formal lawsuit against the federation, which was dismissed and she plans to appeal.
Knowing that giving figures "is usually taboo", he starts one of the chapters (precisely entitled
Deserving
) saying: "I won about $ 500,000 in 2018."
Because for her "without transparency" the complaints do not materialize.
“I prefer to know and tell about it.
Otherwise, trying to determine how much one's work is worth is like shooting in the dark. "
But it is not about making money for earning it.
"Power belongs to those who have money and female athletes are very poorly paid," she says.
Nor does it allow questions such as "the culture of infantilization that surrounds women's sports, in which coaches have more power than female players", the poverty of the American lower middle class, the injustice of the penal system, private prisons, the Fox chain bias ... Everything goes through Megan Rapinoe's magnifying glass, she studies it thoroughly and finds an explanation.
The pink-haired, feisty woman is not afraid to attract attention. Something that has led her to attack on more than one occasion - openly but briefly - former President Donald Trump. She was the author of a "I'm not going to the fucking White House" if she won the 2019 World Cup (which the team did). As one of the phrases in his book sums up clearly and pedagogically: “When you choose to position yourself on an issue, you help many other causes that you don't even know about. When the inequality of one group is alleviated, the rest of the spectrum benefits ”.
