"I love going into games and looking at the opposition and going, so-and-so is great, so I need to be at my best. Otherwise, these players are going to kick my ass." That's Jess Fishlock, 39 years old, five-time NWSL Best XI, still hunting, still competing — and now, finally, stepping away.
Fishlock announced she will retire at the end of the 2026 NWSL season, closing out a 14-year run with Seattle Reign that stands as one of the most remarkable one-club careers in women's football history. She arrived when players were earning $6,000 a season and competing on multi-line turf fields outside Chicago. She leaves in an era of million-dollar contracts. Few people did more to close that gap than she did.
What she actually built
The numbers frame it cleanly: 2021 NWSL MVP, five Best XI selections, three NWSL Shields — including 2014, when Seattle were genuinely one of the best teams on the planet. She scored the Reign's first goal of this season on March 15, a 2-1 win over Orlando Pride. At 39. On the road.
She is one of only three players still active from the NWSL's inaugural season, alongside Chicago Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and Angel City's Sydney Leroux. She's the only one who never left her original club. That kind of loyalty is either stubbornness or devotion. With Fishlock, it was clearly both.
Head coach Laura Harvey put it plainly: "She sees things others don't." That football brain — not pace, not physicality, but pure reading of the game — is what let her compete at the top level deep into her late thirties. It's also what made her irreplaceable in a way that no one-line stat captures.
What comes next for Seattle
Fishlock said she considered retiring last year but stayed for one more season because of the young group at Seattle. That matters, because the Reign still haven't won an NWSL Championship — the one piece of silverware missing from her collection. She has a full season left to change that. Whether or not they do, her departure reshapes Seattle's midfield calculus for 2027 and beyond.
She holds a UEFA A coaching license and is working toward a master's degree in sports leadership. She believes women's clubs need to invest at the top of their staffing structures — sporting directors, technical directors — if they want sustained success. The league she helped build from amateur pitches and poverty wages is now, in her words, "the best league in the world."
Her family is in Wales. Her partner is in New Jersey. She's made a home in Seattle. Where life takes her next is genuinely undecided — but she's earned the right to figure that out slowly.
"I really lean into the journey of things rather than focus on the outcome, because without it, you'll never get to the outcome anyway."
