Out soccer star Megan Rapinoe has
called on players around the world to fight inequality.
The 34-year-old Rapinoe was named
FIFA's Best Women's Player in the World. She accepted her prize
during an event in Milan, Italy on Monday.
In accepting the award, Rapinoe called
on fellow players to fight against racism, homophobia, and pay
disparity.
“If we really want to have meaningful
change, what I think is most inspiring would be if everybody other
than [Raheem] Sterling and [Kalidou] Koulibaly, if they were as
outraged about racism as they were, if everybody was as outraged
about homophobia as the LGBTQ players, if everybody was as outraged
about the lack of equal pay and investment in the women’s game
other than just women, that would be the most inspiring thing to me,”
Rapinoe said.
“That’s my ask of everybody. We
have such [an] incredible opportunity, being professional football
players ... we have so much success … we have incredible
platforms,” she said. “I ask everybody here to lend your
platform, to lift people up, to use this beautiful game to change the
world for [the] better.”
Rapinoe has also spoken out against
President Donald Trump's policies and lent her support to Colin
Kaepernick's protest against social injustice.
(Related: Megan
Rapinoe to Trump: Your message is excluding people like me.)