The soccer world is about to become a colder, darker and meaner place.
On Tuesday, Angel City’s Ali Riley will announce she is retiring at the end of this season. And when she leaves, all the joy, fun and beauty she brought to the field will leave with her.
Set aside, for a moment, her accomplishments, which are considerable: She played in five World Cups, made five Olympic teams, played in four of the biggest leagues in the world and captained Angel City in the club’s first game.
What she’ll be remembered for the person she is.
Angel City captain Ali Riley, center, extends her arms to celebrate scoring a goal against San Diego Wave FC in 2022.
(Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
“She really is an incredible person,” said Kelley O’Hara, who played with Riley at Stanford and with the Pali Blues before they both made four World Cup rosters. “She always brought enthusiasm and positivity to every locker room and every field she was on.
“She is going to be remembered for the quality of her character, which is very high.”
Few athletes in any sport treated others better than Riley did. That doesn’t mean she was a pushover or naive; she took names and kept receipts of those who had done her wrong. Then she killed them with kindness.
After leading New Zealand to its first World Cup victory in the opener of the 2023 tournament in Auckland, Riley was approached postgame by a couple of local journalists who had trashed her and the team before the game. She smiled through tears and said “I bet you guys are surprised.”
“I have all their articles saved,” Riley, who captained the New Zealand national team a record 50 times, said last week. “I’m not petty, but that was one of the hardest things of my career. For my character to be attacked like that ahead of the World Cup, a home World Cup, and then they totally change when you win a game? But I didn’t change.”
Riley’s whole career has been about proving others wrong. She took Harvard-Westlake to the CIF final in her senior year, then played at Stanford alongside O’Hara, Christen Press and Rachel Buehler and on the Pali Blues with O’Hara, Press, Tobin Heath, Ashlyn Harris, Lauren Holiday and Whitney Engen.
All those other women went on to the U.S. national team. Riley was never invited to training camp.
So Riley’s father John, a New Zealand national, sent a DVD of his daughter’s highlights to Auckland. That landed her a tryout and two decades later, her 163 international caps are second-most in history for her national team.
Angel City captain Ali Riley dribbles the ball under pressure from Bay FC’s Scarlett Camberos during a game at BMO Stadium on March 17, 2024.
(Katharine Lotze / Getty Images)
During the prime of Riley’s career, there was no professional league in the U.S., so she played in England, Germany and Sweden — where she qualified for citizenship and met the man who would become her husband.
Even her wedding to former Swedish player Lucas Nilsson last January was a moment of celebration amid calamity. Five days earlier, her childhood home in the alphabet streets area of Pacific Palisades had burned to the ground. But her parents simply decamped to Santa Rosa, where the ceremony took place amid sadness and joy.
Riley hobbled down the aisle, hampered by the chronic nerve injury in her left leg that has forced her to announce her retirement a month shy of her 38th birthday. She has been dealing with the injury since late 2023, when she took an awkward fall during a training session with her national team, but it didn’t drive her to the sidelines until the summer of 2024, when she was forced to withdraw from the Paris Olympics just before New Zealand’s opening game. As a result, she hasn’t played for club or country in 16 months.
She was removed from the NWSL’s season-ending injury list in July and has training with the team and suited up for games, but she has yet to play. However Angel City’s next three games are at home, and with the team unlikely to make the playoffs, Riley is hoping she’ll get a chance to run out on the field before family and friends at least one more time.
“It’s something I desperately want. And it would be such an amazing final milestone to achieve,” she said. “To be in that team huddle, to wear the jersey again, that is where my head has been for the last probably five weeks.”
Riley figures to be as busy in retirement as she was as a player. She’s done several podcasts and social-media shows and would like to try broadcasting. But she’s also a certified health coach who has written a cookbook. Then there’s a possible undefined role with Angel City.
“I found a voice and I realized how much my platform could give back to communities,” she said.
What Riley won’t entertain, however, is second thoughts. For months she was unable to walk without pain and thought she might never kick a soccer ball again. Now she wants to be sure she can walk freely in old age, remain active and maybe one day chase after her children should she choose to start a family.
“It’s a privilege to say you got to go until the wheels fell off,” Riley said. “Knowing that I can’t keep doing this long-term has made this the easiest decision. I can’t wait to not be in chronic pain.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
