Sinead Farrelly retires, ending a career that’s one of soccer’s all-time comeback stories

Havertown native Sinead Farrelly announced her immediate retirement from playing soccer on Friday, ending a career that included one of the all-time comebacks in her sport — or any sport.

The 34-year-old midfielder was one of the key players in blowing the lid off a huge abuse scandal in the National Women’s Soccer League in 2021, with allegations that led to former Philadelphia Independence manager Paul Riley and other prominent coaches being banned from the sport. (Riley has denied the claims, but the ban remains in place.)

Farrelly stunningly returned to the field last year, after eight years away, joining Gotham FC and the Republic of Ireland’s women’s national team. She went to the World Cup with Ireland in the summer, the nation’s first in the women’s game, and won the NWSL championship with Gotham in the fall.

This year, Farrelly has played just once for Gotham, a late-game cameo on April 28.

» READ MORE: Havertown’s Sinead Farrelly caps ‘a dream’ year in the NWSL title game with Gotham FC

Farrelly is leaving the field now because of long-term symptoms of past concussions. Gotham’s news release said a neurologist advised Farrelly “to cease playing soccer due to the cumulative head injuries that she has suffered throughout her career, leaving her vulnerable to additional head injuries if she were to continue to play.”

Farrelly and a Gotham spokesperson told The Inquirer that she hasn’t been in a major incident recently but that the symptoms had been a problem lately.

There will inevitably be some sadness in the sport, including among Philadelphia-area women’s soccer fans who watched Farrelly start her pro career with the former Independence in 2011. On the whole, though, there can be no doubt that she has achieved a remarkable triumph. As she came to the decision to retire, she allowed herself time to reflect on it.

» READ MORE: Sinead Farrelly looks back at playing in the World Cup for Ireland

“This year was really important for me for that, and that’s why I’m so grateful that I had this year,” Farrelly said. “Last year, it just felt [that] there was so much that happened, and it was a lot of putting one foot in front of the other and just kind of being along for the ride. But there wasn’t that much space for me to reflect.”

She called this year “a different experience,” and said she has “really felt so much of the gratitude, the joy, the accomplishment that I feel from the last year and a half. And I just feel like I’m ending on such a positive note, even though I can see that maybe it can look another way.”

The timing of Farrelly’s exit means she won’t get to play in what would have been her homecoming game with Gotham, July 28 against Washington at Subaru Park. It’s been 13 years since Farrelly played a playoff game for the Independence at the Union’s home, one of only a few games the women’s team played there.

She’ll still be there next month, as a Gotham fan, and she’s looking forward to it.

“I was definitely looking forward to that, just because I thought it would be such a cool opportunity and all of my friends and family could come,” Farrelly said. “The fact that I can still go and support my team in my home city is just so special to me. So I’m just happy that they’re doing it at Philly, and the people of Philly can come watch them play.”

There might have been some points in the past where Farrelly would be uncomfortable setting foot in Subaru Park again. But she said that won’t be the case now.

“I just feel like I have such an appreciation of the journey now, and I can anticipate that that’s what I’m going to feel,” she said. “And know that it has been such a journey to get back here, and to have soccer be what I always kind of knew it could be for me, and finish the way that I wanted it to finish and feel.”

She then added: “Maybe previously I would have entered and had unresolved feelings, or even negative feelings in some way, because of that time in my life. And now I can just hold everything with so much gratitude for the journey. So I’m really excited to go back there.”

» READ MORE: Subaru Park will host two NWSL games in July, including one with champions Gotham FC

It definitely has been a journey. Farrelly played for five teams in her first five years as a pro, including three coached by Riley, and missed the 2016 season after a horrific car crash. When she took the field for Gotham in March 2023, it was her first professional game since September 2015.

Now she has a mantle of good memories to savor, including that World Cup trip. Even though Ireland went winless down under, just being there was historic.

“It was such a thing that I didn’t know was going to be part of this journey when I was coming back to play soccer, and it wasn’t really in my mind at the time,” she said. “So it just feels like this extra bonus. It makes me think about when you’re thinking about your dreams and what you want to accomplish, and I always say: ‘And also be open to even bigger things happening than that.’”

» READ MORE: From our archives: In 2011, Sinead Farrelly opened eyes across women's soccer as a rookie

Four months later, Farrelly played the last 33 minutes of Gotham’s triumph in the NWSL championship game.

“Also did not see that coming, or think that was possible either,” she said. “Everything was better than I ever imagined, and I feel so lucky and I don’t know how that all happened. … These two years have been so potent, and that’s so rare. So I don’t take any of it for granted, and I just feel like it was such a whirlwind, such an adventure, and I’m so happy that I decided to get on the ride and just say yes.”

An outsider might read Farrelly’s words and say such strength comes from inside oneself. And an aspiring young soccer player out there — such as the many who’ve watched Farrelly in her career — might call her a role model.

“I am able to see this more now than I could even last year, or definitely when I was playing before,” she said. “Just the impact of seeing someone follow their dreams, or do what you want to do — just seeing someone do what you thought was impossible, or whatever it is — it is life-changing. I never imagined that I would even be in a position where someone would look up to me that way.”

» READ MORE: From our archives: In 2013, Sinead Farrelly was living a dream on the soccer field

She called it “a position of privilege, and really responsibility, we have in these roles to be a role model” for young people.

“If I could have impacted one person, it is everything to me,” she said. “I’m just really grateful that I got to do that by doing the thing that I love.”

Farrelly hasn’t decided yet what she’ll do in her post-playing days. She might go into an off-the-field soccer job, or she might not. She said she definitely has “big aspirations outside of the sport world,” including a desire to to share her life experiences with other people.

“I just think I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life — as, I mean, I’m sure all we all have,” she said. “But I’m definitely the type of person that wants to go to every single edge and leave no stone unturned. And I think part of that process for me is being able to help people not have to do that, and feel the scorch of the fire or the edge of the Earth, and help them to live an easier life than I feel like maybe the path that I’ve chosen.”

She doesn’t know “exactly how that will look,” but she’s pretty sure soccer will stay part of it some form.

“I want to just keep following my calling and where that takes me to next,” she said. “Soccer in this world has been such a big part of my life, and I don’t know how I exist for the rest of my life without that being a part of me. … It’s going to be part of my future whether I’m actually doing a job in it, or I’m just living through the lessons, and principles, and everything, the values that I’ve learned here.”