US soccer star Rapinoe scores book deal

Co-captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team Megan Rapinoe will author a book with anecdotes from her life, The New York Times reported.

Rapinoe said she hopes the book, scheduled to be published in the fall of 2020 by Penguin Press, will inspire readers to help others in their communities. 

“I hope this book will inspire people to find what they can do, and in turn inspire other people around them to do the same,” Rapinoe told The New York Times.

{mosads}Penguin Press president and editor-in-chief Ann Godoff said that while she watched Rapinoe help lead her team to a World Cup victory earlier this month, she knew Rapinoe “felt comfortable in her skin” and with her own authenticity.

“She’s just operating from this very honest and straightforward and ‘This is who I am’ place,” Godoff told the Times. “I think that’s what many people aspire to.”

“Coming from that very honest and authentic place and being able to find a way to put that on the page,” Godoff continued, “I think will make a very lasting book.”

Godoff declined to share how much Rapinoe will be paid for the book. The soccer star will also do a book for younger ages with Penguin, which will address “the power young people have within their own communities and the world at large,” according to a media statement, The New York Times reported.  

Rapinoe has been outspoken about politics and LGBTQ issues throughout her career.

She was the first white athlete to join former San Francisco 49ers football player Colin Kaepernick in 2016 in kneeling during the national anthem as a protest of police brutality and racial inequality in America. She has also been an outspoken leader on arguing for pay equity between the U.S. women’s and men’s soccer teams.