ABC News(NEW YORK) — Abby Wambach said she intended to write her memoir about her soccer career, including being the leading professional goal scorer of all time, but her April DUI arrest changed the course of the book.
“This has to be part of the story and now I have to actually really tell it,” Wambach, 36, said Tuesday on Good Morning America of her realization. “I think it’s a story that needs to be told.”
Wambach was arrested in Portland, Oregon, in April after allegedly failing to stop for a red light and failing a sobriety test. She was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and pleaded not guilty.
Wambach had announced her retirement from soccer just months earlier, in December 2015, shortly after the U.S. women’s national team celebrated its 2015 World Cup victory at the White House.
Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion with the U.S. women’s national team. She won the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award six times and was honored earlier this year at the ESPYs with the Icon Award.
Wambach’s memoir, Forward: A Memoir, is available in bookstores now.
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