Julie Ertz retires from playing soccer after 10 years as a pro and two World Cup titles

"I got to live out a dream I wish for everyone," Ertz said, "falling in love with a sport you have played your whole life and getting to share it with your son.”

Julie Ertz has called time on her playing career after making a third U.S. women's World Cup team in her 10 years on the field.Read moreAndrew Cornaga / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Aug. 31, 2023, 2:51 p.m. ET

Julie Ertz announced her retirement from playing on Thursday, ending a 10-year pro career that included two World Cup titles and a return from injury and childbirth to make this year’s tournament.

“With immense emotion and processing, I’ve decided it is time to hang up the boots,” she said in her announcement on social media. “These past 6 months have been a dream come true. After pregnancy, I never knew if I had a chance to play the beautiful game again, let alone another World Cup.”

Ertz, 31, rose to prominence at the 2015 World Cup, three years after captaining the U.S. under-20 team to an age-group World Cup title. She was a centerback at the start of her career, and she was Julie Johnston before the Mesa, Ariz., native married former Eagles star Zach Ertz in 2017.

They would go on to make Philadelphia a home, even though Julie never played for a team here. She famously played a game for the U.S. the night the Eagles won the NFC championship in 2018, and broke down in tears when informed of the news after the final whistle.

By the 2019 World Cup, she had moved up to defensive midfield, where she became an all-time U.S. great. Her ferocious work ethic, snarling tackles, and big aerial presence on set pieces made her not just a written-in-ink starter, but just about irreplaceable. On a 2019 championship squad full of big-name stars, Ertz was as important as any of them.

Though she never lost her tenacity, she lost a lot of the next quadrennial cycle. Ertz suffered a MCL tear in May 2021 and made it back just in time for the Olympics in August, but she wasn’t her full self. She didn’t play again for the rest of the year, for her club — the Chicago Red Stars — or country.

The following April, she announced her pregnancy, and in August she gave birth to son Madden.

‘You chase greatness every day’

By the start of this year, it was getting to the point where a return to playing made sense. But when the NWSL season started, she wasn’t on a team. So it was a surprise when Ertz got called up to the U.S. squad for a pair of April friendlies, some 600 days since her last game.

And it was even more notable when then-manager Vlatko Andonovski made it clear that Ertz’s return wasn’t just because the U.S. women’s team’s collective bargaining agreement mandated that players return post-pregnancy if they or the coaches wanted it.

Andonovski wanted her on the World Cup team and wasn’t shy about it. If it boxed out other players who’d been on the field more, so be it.

“If she comes anywhere near her best, that she will certainly help us win a World Cup,” he said. “If somebody’s 80 or 90% is still better than somebody else’s best, then too bad.”

In mid-April, Ertz signed with Angel City FC. She played seven games for the club before heading to the World Cup — where Andonovski had another big move up his sleeve. Instead of playing her in midfield, he returned her to centerback. This upended not just players who weren’t on the team, but some who were.

Yet while Andonovski flunked his test, Ertz passed hers with flying colors. She was one of the Americans’ best players in their four games, marshaling a defense that allowed just one goal. It wasn’t her fault that the attack failed to finish at the other end of the field.

“Representing this country on the national team has been the greatest honor,” she said. “To play for the USWNT means you chase greatness every day while you wear the crest. I hope that I was able to leave an impact that reflects that.”

‘A truly beautiful game’

Ertz admitted after the Americans’ early elimination that her national career was likely over. She hadn’t returned to the field for Angel City when she announced her full retirement, and now she won’t. But she made it clear that the club was “a huge reason” why she was able to do what she did this year.

“The support from the staff and players can’t be put into words to help me get back,” Ertz said. “I’m crushed to not be able to continue the push to [the] playoffs and that made this decision incredibly difficult. The logistics of not living in an NWSL market is challenging, and I know the sacrifices it takes to be the best you can be.”

Once the short-term frustrations of this World Cup recede, Ertz’s legacy will be clear: one of the U.S. team’s all-time greats, a surefire Hall of Famer, a champion and off the field, and the latest in a lineage of athlete mothers.

“As I have gotten older and become a mom, it’s clear the sacrifices of time away from my family no longer seem doable with so many factors at play,” she said. “These girls gave me a gift I could never repay and I got to live out a dream I wish for everyone: falling in love with a sport you have played your whole life and getting to share it with your son.”

She thanked the fans, and she knows there are a whole lot of them around here. Though Zach now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, the Ertzes still maintain a connection to Philadelphia through their vast and heartfelt charity work.

“To the fans, you have made this journey remarkable, life-changing and so fun,” she wrote. “When playing at the highest level you never truly think about retiring, and often that choice is forced upon you. However, it truly is a blessing to walk away from this game knowing l’ve given everything I possibly had to being the best player I could be. … Thank you for showing up, for buying our jerseys and making the atmosphere unbelievable.”

Ertz concluded by reflecting on the fleeting nature of life as an athlete. Age 31 is rather young to call it quits in soccer. But as she wrote, she has greater priorities in life now.

“It’s a sad thing to reflect and know the game just moves on without you,” she wrote. “The game doesn’t owe you anything but it has given me so much. What a truly beautiful game it is. I’m just grateful for the time we had.”