Soccer already is the No. 1 sport in the world, but Abby Wambach can make it better.
Wambach was at her outspoken and insightful best during her appearance on Tuesday’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. Wambach and Simmons spoke for over an hour on some of the most important topics in the soccer world, including gender pay equality, her preference for playing on natural grass over artificial turf and U.S. soccer’s “knee-jerk” reaction to concussions in youth soccer.
But Wambach, international soccer’s all-time leading goal scorer, reserved some of her most incisive opinions for the topic of improving the U.S. men’s national team. She said U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati should fire men’s national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
“Oh man, I would definitely fire Jurgen,” Wambach replied when Simmons asked her how to improve Team USA. “Sorry Sunil, sorry U.S. Soccer. First of all, (Klinsmann) hasn’t really focused, I feel like, enough attention on the youth programs. He says he has, I don’t think that he has.
“The way that he has changed and brought in these foreign guys, it’s just not something that I believe in.”
Wambach, 35, is set to retire from professional soccer. She’ll play her final game Wednesday when the U.S. faces China. She hasn’t decided on a new career, but punditry seems to come naturally to her.
Thumbnail photo via Gerald Herbert/The Associated Press
