Megan Rapinoe got the news as she stepped off a plane. Family and friends were waiting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to tell her she had been elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, one of four big names the Hall announced on November 12, 2026, alongside Julie Ertz, Jozy Altidore and Sir David Beckham.
All four will be inducted on April 16, 2027, in Frisco, Texas, where the Hall is based.
Rapinoe and Ertz: first-ballot picks
Rapinoe and Ertz both went in on the Player ballot in their first year of eligibility, which is about as clean an endorsement as the voting allows.
Rapinoe ends with 63 goals and 73 assists in 203 games for the US women’s team. She won two World Cups, in 2015 and 2019, plus Olympic gold in 2012 and bronze in 2021. At the 2019 tournament in France she scored six goals, converted a penalty in the final against the Netherlands, and took both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot, before adding the Ballon d’Or later that year. She also scored the first olímpico, a goal straight from a corner kick, in Olympic history, against Canada in 2012, then did it again in the 2021 bronze medal match.
Ertz, born Julie Johnston in Phoenix, won those same two World Cups from two different positions. In 2015 she played center back as the US let in only three goals in seven matches. By 2019 she had moved to defensive midfield. She scored 20 goals in 123 appearances and was twice named US Soccer Female Player of the Year, in 2017 and 2019.
Altidore: from a 16-year-old sub to MLS Cup MVP
Altidore’s 42 goals for the US men rank third in team history, from 115 appearances. His first big moment came at 16, when he came off the bench for the New York Red Bulls and won a 2006 match against Columbus with a shot from 28 yards.
His peak came in 2017. He helped the US win the Gold Cup, then led Toronto FC to the Supporters’ Shield and opened the scoring in a 2-0 MLS Cup final win over Seattle, earning MVP of the final.
Beckham: the rule that changed MLS
Beckham was elected on the Veterans’ Ballot, mostly for what his 2007 move to the LA Galaxy did to the league. His arrival helped create the Designated Player Rule, often called the Beckham Rule, which lets clubs sign players whose pay goes beyond their salary-budget charge. The Hall lists Thierry Henry, Andrea Pirlo, Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi among the stars who followed.
On the field he won back-to-back MLS Cups in 2011 and 2012, finishing with 18 goals and 38 assists in 98 regular-season games for LA. Off it, he became a founding co-owner of Inter Miami and helped bring Messi there in 2023.
The four, side by side
- Megan Rapinoe: 203 US caps, 63 goals, two World Cups, Player ballot
- Julie Ertz: 123 US caps, 20 goals, two World Cups, Player ballot
- Jozy Altidore: 115 US caps, 42 goals, two World Cup squads
- David Beckham: 115 England caps, 17 goals, two MLS Cups, Veterans’ Ballot
Put together, the three Americans bring 441 national-team appearances and 125 international goals into the Hall in one go. Rapinoe and Ertz were also teammates on both World Cup-winning sides, so the 2027 class will carry two starters from each of those title runs.
For more football, see our story on Andy Robertson chasing Kenny Dalglish’s Scotland caps record, and the rest of our Sports section.
The induction ceremony is set for April 16, 2027, in Frisco.
Image: Lorie Shaull, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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