Abby Wambach: The Greatest Gator You’ve Never Heard Of
Being a soccer player in America is akin to being banished to the outskirts of the American sports landscape.
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For some reason, people in the U.S. just haven’t taken to the sport like everyone else has around the world.
But being an American woman’s soccer player? Good luck if you can even make a career out that ambition.
Yet somehow, someway, Abby Wambach, perhaps the greatest athlete the University of Florida has ever produced, has remained a blip on the American sports radar.
That all changed when the USWNT won in the revenge final from 2011 against Japan in the 2015 World Cup final, winning 5-2.
Wambach has one of the most decorated soccer careers in American history:
- Three-time All-American with the University of Florida
- Helped the Gators win their first ever National Championship in soccer
- Two-time Olympic gold medalist
- 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year
- Six-time U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year
- Second highest goal total in Women’s World Cup history (14)
Wambach played for the University of Florida from 1998-2001, where even before she stepped onto campus she was heavily recruited out of high school by other top programs.
She eventually accepted a scholarship to play for Becky Burleigh because the challenge of building a Florida program that had only been in existence for three years, appealed to her more than joining the 15-time National Champion North Carolina Tarheels.
The Gators won four straight SEC conference titles during Wambach’s time at UF and Wambach left Gainesville as the school’s leader in many offensive categories, including goals scored with 96.
Despite all of this, I bet the most ardent of Gator fans would have struggled to pick Wambach out from a crowd.
But again, there she was, receiving arguably the biggest ovation from the tens of thousands of fans in Canada when she came on to the pitch in the 79th minute.
At times it seemed like fans in the crowd were more focused on when Wambach would enter the game, rather than focusing on Carli Lloyd put together the best 20 minutes an American soccer player has ever played on the international stage.
Wambach just continued to put her head down, roll up her sleeves and continue to put together the greatest American soccer amateur and professional career that most sports fans never witnessed.
Women’s soccer has always seemed to be on the fringe of the American sports psyche, seemingly never able to break through to the forefront, except during the fervor that is the World Cup.
That never seemed to bother Wambach; at least she never showed that it bothered her.
She just continued to put her head down, roll up her sleeves and continue to put together the greatest American soccer amateur and professional career that most sports fans never witnessed.
And that’s the best thing about Wambach.
She played hard, did her job and went home after every single game.
She never complained about the lack of attention or media coverage and she never seemed bitter about it.
And now Wambach retires after receiving the World Cup title that eluded her for so long.
Maybe now we can make up for lost time and take the opportunity to recognize one of the best athletes the University of Florida.
Maybe now we can take the time to appreciate one of the greatest athletes the average American sports fan has never seen.
What do you think? Is Wambach the greatest Florida Gator of all-time? We want to know!