GOAL sat down with the longtime USWNT star to discuss how she balances it all ahead of the 2024 season
"I just feel like it's been such a crazy, crazy life."
That's Sydney Leroux putting it lightly. Calling it "crazy" feels like an understatement. So much has happened. So much good, so much bad. And, as she nears the end of her playing career, she's starting to reflect on it all just a little bit.
It takes time to develop that perspective. As a young player, or just as a young person in general, life always feels like it's on the move. For Leroux, doubly so. There was always the next game, the next U.S. women's national team camp, the next trophy. When you're a professional athlete playing at that level, you aren't allowed the freedom of reflection.
She has that luxury nowadays, just a bit at least. She can sit back and think about the highs: the World Cup, the Olympic medal, the moments in the spotlight. She can think about the lows, too: the difficult decisions, the loneliness, the emotions, the injuries.
And, as she reflects, she sees herself viewing her own life through a different lens. For years, she looked backwards through the lens of an athlete. Now, she looks back through the lens of a mother. And, having looked through that lens for a few years now, she still can't quite fathom what she sees.
"I moved away from my mom," she tells GOAL. "I was just basically alone since I was 14. I feel like you do all of these things because you have this huge dream ahead of you, but I also look at it now, and I'm like, 'wow, I accomplished so, so much but I also gave up so much'.
"I've been thinking about that lately because, of course, I'm nearing the end. I'm not there yet, don't worry! But, still, I'm like 'oh, wow'. I think back to what my mom did for me. She was unbelievable. If my 14-year-old daughter came to me and was like 'I have this dream, I want to do all these things, will you send me away so I can do that?' I don't know what I'd say. I just don't know."
Ahead of the 2024 NWSL season, Leroux sat down with GOAL to discuss her changing perspective, the public and private moments of motherhood that she loves so much, and what's left for her to achieve before her time as an athlete comes to an end.
GettyFinding perspective
It's easy to pick out the big moments of Leroux's career. She's spent so much of it in the spotlight, after all. Part of that came from her status as a member of the U.S. women's national team, one of the most discussed groups on planet earth.
Part of it, though, was Leroux's own doing. Her personality naturally saw her gravitate to putting herself out there. So much of her life was lived in front of others through both soccer and social media. In the 12 years since she broke through as a 21-year-old rising star, it feels like the public has gotten to know Sydney Leroux, even if they never even met her.
They saw her peaks – the 77 caps with the USWNT, the 2012 Olympic triumph in London and the 2015 World Cup win in Canada, most notably. Any player would give just about everything to achieve the things Leroux achieved on the field. The world saw the lows, too, both in her professional and private life.
As she looks back at it, though, the highest of highs for her weren't the moments you'd expect; it's what has come after. Lifting a World Cup was life-changing, of course, but so was seeing her eight-year-old son lose his mind when she scored a bicycle kick for Angel City last season. It's a different feeling, a different emotion, but one she thinks about often.
That goal came nearly seven years after her last USWNT cap. The World Cup and Olympic runs were so long ago, but the passion is still there, even if it's now kind of built upon the emotions of two young children.
"It's so funny because I look back on my career and I see that I have an Olympic gold medal and a World Cup," she begins. "You would think that those are the highlights of my career, but I don't see them as the highlights. I see the highlights being my son crying, like being brought to tears, after I came back after an injury or the kids running up to me after a game that we won. Those are like my 'Aha' moments. It's just crazy because I feel like I'm so proud of what I've accomplished, but I think, even more, I'm proud of what they've been able to see me accomplish while I've had them here, too."
Leroux now approaches the game differently because of it. Her son, Cassius, and her daughter, Roux, are her foundation. For years, all she worried about was what she could do to be in and stay in the USWNT; nowadays, she's playing to impress two little ones who look for very different things from her when she is on that field. She's a little bit less stressed about her goal return than she once was; her focus is now on impressing her two smallest critics.
"It's perspective, right? I think the kids have given me so much perspective," Leroux said. "Before them, soccer was like, my life. That's all it was. It was soccer, soccer, soccer and now I'm like, 'oh, wow, it's just a game'. It doesn't have to eat you alive. When you play professional sports and you've been doing it for so long, you know that there's this constant grind and constant need to be perfect. It's stressful. You're always living with high stress, and I think the kids made me realize that it's just a game.
"I can find balance. It's given me a lot of balance. Of course, I love soccer so much, but it's not life or death for me anymore."
AdvertisementLiving life on social media
From the beginning, Leroux decided that she was going to be one of the few athletes to really put themselves out on social media. It was, and still is, a risk, for sure. Particularly for female athletes, the world of social media can be so toxic and debilitating. There's a reason many choose to stay off it.
Leroux, though, never thought twice.
She's amassed millions of followers on both Instagram and Twitter, where her humor can shine through a bit. Her International Women's Month posts go viral every year. Her frightened reaction to her EA FC player model led to a profile picture change. Fans of soccer and people who know nothing of the sport line can both be found lining her comment section to discuss her private life, as Leroux has crossed over into social media celebrity territory.
"I've always used social media as a way to live my truth and be honest," she says. "It's not always the good stuff, and I think that that's really important. I think social media can be so like, 'oh, you're only seeing the perfect parts of my life', and I don't do that. I think that's really helpful for moms, seeing that, 'oh, she's going through the same sh*t I am!' I understand and I think that's really important for me to be able to be honest and be myself while having fun with it as well."
'My daughter thinks they're there for her!'
A big part of Leroux's social media presence is tied to her kids. So often, Cassius and Roux are the stars of the show. Their entire lives have been lived in front of Leroux's fans, many of whom have become emotionally invested in the two's childhood.
They've seen the clips of Cassius playing with his mom in the backyard in various soccer jerseys. They've seen Roux putting on a show in her princess outfits. They've seen the school pictures, the holiday outfits, the dancing videos. And, as a result, Cassius and Roux are nearly as famous as their mother.
Both Cassius and Roux know it, too, at least to a degree. They feel the love whenever they're seen in public, even if they aren't fully aware of why.
"I honestly think, my daughter, when she goes to the Angel City games and there's like 20,000 people in the stands, she thinks that they're there for her," she says with a laugh. "The fans have always been amazing to the kids. I feel like they've watched them grow up and they're always super respectful. At the games, they sing Happy Birthday, and there are people who bring the kids birthday presents. It's just unbelievable."
The quieter moments
Outside of the public eye, though, Leroux enjoys the quiet moments. Much of her life is lived in the spotlight, and that makes those times when she's out of it all the more special.
Cooking, for example, is one thing she enjoys. It's not just an opportunity for her to check out and focus on something away from soccer, but also a chance for her to connect with her kids in a shared activity. As a mother balancing life with being a pro athlete, those moments are everything to her.
Inspired by that love of family cooking time, Leroux recently partnered with Barilla to promote the company's new Protein+ Cellentani, which she says is a staple of pasta nights with her two kids.
"With cooking, just like us having time together, my kids love pasta," she says. "Making Barilla Protein+ pasta gives us something that we can all eat together that I know is healthy. It's fun for us to do little things. They'll make their own little pasta. I like it spicy, they don't like spicy, but we have a good time together.
"It's important to just find ways to spend time together outside of Cassius' sports or what Roux wants to do with her princesses and all of my things with my soccer. It's just about us finding time together and I would say cooking is one of those things."
Even in those quiet moments, the ones in the kitchen or playing princess or whatever other activities Leroux plans out, the competitiveness does tend to come out. The apples don't fall far from the tree in that regard.
"We have dance competitions," Leroux says. "Those can get emotional because stakes are high! Stakes are so high! Even though my daughter is not into sports, she's very competitive with other things. Anytime there's something to win or we're playing a game, we're making it competitive."
She adds: "I just try to make it fun. We have a good time. We have a lot of fun. We have a lot of laughs and I think laughter gets us through a lot."
