There comes a time in every player’s career when there is no next season. No more training sessions, no more game days, no more road trips with the team. Some don’t get to choose when that time comes.
The lucky ones do.
For Orlando Pride midfielder Maddy Evans, that time will be Saturday. After five years of professional soccer, she’s retiring. Evans is taking a job back home in Pennsylvania.
“The toughest part of walking away is knowing that I still have something to offer,” she said.
Evans played in 27 games for the Pride since the team’s inaugural season. And though she didn’t often show up on the score sheet, that’s hardly the best way to measure her contributions.
“Her influence, her interaction with the supporters, in the community, has been absolutely huge,” head coach Tom Sermanni said. “She’s been such an unbelievable team character – almost irreplaceable in that sense. A lot of sadness to see her go.
“It’s rare to get that kind of player who then also contributes as well as she contributes on the field.”
She was a consummate professional in her time with the Pride – and in her three years in Boston with the Breakers. It was there that Sermanni first noticed Evans, and when asking about her ahead of the expansion draft, he knew he had his player.
“The first thing that attracted me to her was the feedback I got from other people who knew her,” Sermanni said. “Everybody I spoke to spoke unbelievably highly of her, both on and off the field. Her work ethic is first class. Her ability to pass the ball is excellent.”
Only for an opportunity like the one she has – a chance to go back home, be close to family and put her Master’s degree to use – could she decide to leave the game she always dreamed of playing at the highest level.
“I love training,” she said. “I love going out with the team and working hard towards something. We have a really, really special team, so that’s hard to walk away from.
“If I followed my heart, I’d keep playing for another 2, 3, 4, 5 years, just because I love it so much.”
As for the next stage of her life, Evans hopes to combine her qualifications in the classroom with her experience playing professionally with some of the best players in the world to help mold the stars of the future.
And though she’s leaving the business, she’ll never leave the beautiful game.
“I think I have a great opportunity to give back to the game. I’ve learned from some of the best coaches out there. I hope that my experience as a club player and college player and then five years of being a pro will give some insight into what it means to believe in something, work hard and then achieve it, because that’s what I feel like I’ve done here.”
