“While your little teammates celebrated together, you were stuck watching them watch you. You were stuck on their joy. Their pride. You were stuck on the lesson you learned: if scoring made them happy, you’d keep scoring. In fact, you’d never stop.” — That’s Christen Press for you, ladies and gentlemen, quoting in a heartfelt letter for The Athletic, addressed to her younger self.

It was never about goals, the trophies, or the spotlight. It was about the selfless joy for the sake of others, the kind that touches the hearts of fans and automatically defines legacies. Anyone who has watched the American forward surely admits that she plays as though joy itself borrowed her form for ninety minutes. Every touch, every run, every finish seemed to carry the weight of purpose and poetry.

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