Former U.S. Women’s Soccer player Hope Solo said the team’s radical leftist star, Megan Rapinoe, would exert personal pressure on her teammates to exhibit solidarity behind her anti-American causes.
“It’s tough,” Solo said during a recent interview. “I’ve seen Megan Rapinoe almost bully players into kneeling because she really wants to stand up for something in her particular way.”
Solo said that although Rapinoe claimed she was pushing leftist social justice values to be more inclusive, the outcome was usually more division.
“Right now what I’ve seen is there’s been so much debate about the kneeling, about the not kneeling. I know most people stand against discrimination,” Solo added. “And I live in the south, I live in a very conservative area here in North Carolina in the south. Obviously I have friends on both sides of the aisle, but I think the kneeling thing can be very divisive.”
This isn’t the first time Solo has accused certain players on the Women’s Soccer team of creating a toxic environment.
Earlier this year, she said she felt shunned when she first joined the national team.
“People were not nice to us, people were not welcoming, they didn’t invite you to sit at the dinner table. It was really difficult growing up on the national team for me in a social aspect, as well as learning the game,” Solo said.
The team was like a “mean girls club,” she added. “[Another female player] and I were very welcoming, we weren’t bullies. We were very nice to the young kids coming in, but I think it’s because we were bullied.”
Solo’s contract with the U.S. Women’s Soccer team was terminated in 2016 after she was accused of poor sportsmanship because she called the Swedish Women’s Soccer team players “cowards.”
