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Megan Rapinoe is the 2019 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

The U.S. soccer standout and the co-captain of the winning soccer team at the Women’s World Cup final in France, Megan Rapinoe won the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Player of the year award on Monday at Milan. This is the consecutive success after the tremendous victory of Rapinoe’s team at Women’s World Cup in July where the team won its second world cup title. Rapinoe is now the fourth American woman to have won the title of the player of the year. Besides, Jill Ellis won her second global coach award, the first she grabbed when the team won the 2015 World Cup title.

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Rudrani Gupta
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Megan Rapinoe wins

The US soccer standout and the co-captain of the winning soccer team at the Women’s World Cup final in France, Megan Rapinoe won the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Player of the year award on Monday at Milan. This is a consecutive success for the player, after the tremendous victory of Rapinoe’s team at Women’s World Cup in July where the team won its second world cup title. Rapinoe is now the fourth American woman to have won the title of the player of the year.

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Besides her, Jill Ellis won her second global coach award, the first she grabbed when the team won the 2015 World Cup title.

Key Takeaways:

  • The U.S. soccer champion and the co-captain of U.S. women's soccer team, Megan Rapinoe, won 2019 FIFA Women’s World Player of the year award on Monday at Milan.
  • The U.S. Women's soccer team had won its second World Cup title at France in July of this year.
  • Rapinoe is now the fourth American woman to have won the title of the player of the year.
  • Jill Ellis won her second global coach award, the first she grabbed when the team won the 2015 World Cup title.

The series of Success achieved by Rapinoe

The FIFA Women’s player of the year feat is an addition to the Golden Ball (MVP) and Golden Boot (leading scorer) that the 34-year-old won at the World Cup campaign at France in July. She is now only the fourth American woman to have been honoured with this award. The other American soccer players who won the award are Mia Hamm (2001 and 2002), Abby Wambach (2012) and Carli Lloyd (2015 and 2016). The other nominees for the award were Rapinoe’s teammate and American forward Alex Morgan and English Defender Lucy Bronze. The awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, Italy. Rapinoe has also made her position in the FIFA FIFPro best 11 all-star teams among five other American women players- forward Morgon, midfielders Julie Ertz and Rose Lavelle and defender Kelly O’ Hara.

Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi from Argentina won the men’s player of the year award for the sixth time. Christiano Ronaldo and defender Virgil Van Digik of Netherlands were the two other finalists for the award.

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Jill Ellis won the global coach honour

Jill Ellis, who is a graduate of Fairfax’s Robinson Secondary School and William and Mary, won the best coach award for the second time. She won the award earlier when her team won the 2015 Women’s World Cup title. 53-years-old Ellis has announced her discontinuation of five and a half years of tenure after the game against South Korea on October 3 in Charlotte and October 6 in Chicago. She hasn’t yet spoken about her further plans.

Megan Rapinoe: a strong voice against discrimination

Megan Rapinoe’s success is remarkable not only as a terrific soccer player but also as a transcendent female voice who stood against gender disparity and demanded equal rights and pay. She sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination and lack of equal pay. She never shied away from speaking for her rights and her views. When Rapinoe and her teammates  lifted up the world cup in France the audience ruptured into the loud chants of “equal pay!” “equal pay!”. Furthermore, she had also joined Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial injustice by kneeling down during the national anthem. For this, Magan was slammed by Donald Trump during the July World Cup for not respecting the country and its flag.

A woman who is outspoken about her rights and named the world’s best woman soccer player said to the crowd in Milan, “I ask everyone here: lend your platform to other people, Lift other people up. Share your success. We have a unique opportunity in football, different to any other sport in the world, to use this beautiful game to actually change the world for better. That’s my charge to everyone. I hope you take that to heart and just do something. Do anything.”

Picture Credit: Yahoo! Sports

Also Read: Megan Rapinoe Turns Author, Is Writing A Book To ‘Inspire People’

Rudrani Kumari is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.

Women footballers FIFA Megan Rapinoe Coach Jill Ellis FIFA Women’s World Player Women's Soccer Champion Women's World Cup title 2019
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