Kelyn Rowe, a midfielder for the Sounders, announces his retirement.
The image that people remember most about Kelyn Rowe is of him shirtless in a two-toned green faux fur jacket that has checks on it, covered in alcohol and wearing ski goggles on his head. The Sounders midfielder, who has decided to retire from soccer, will remember the kind of memories that come with winning a CONCACAF championship.
The announcement was made by 32-year-old Rowe on social media on Friday morning. The native of Federal Way played in the league for 12 years, the last three of which were spent in Seattle, after being chosen third overall by New England in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft.
When speaking of friendships with former teammates who retired before him, Rowe remarked, “It’s never a game that you speak of.” You talk about long flights, the locker room, jokes and pranks, nights out, and situations where you had to take a seven-hour bus ride because your plane was canceled due to snow. You talk about a wide range of topics, and games are not one of them.
“Thank you for your contributions on and off the field, both when I left other clubs and now that I’m leaving. I feel best about that. I was a person, not just a soccer player. I hope that these teams and clubs are in better shape now than when I arrived.
The Bogey Boys apparel line by Macklemore included Rowe’s well-known jacket. Before facing Liga MX team Pumas UNAM in the pivotal CCL match at Lumen Field in May 2022, Rowe claimed he made the purchase to lighten things up in the locker room.
When the normally quiet dresser entered the Lumen Field clubhouse, teammates erupted in laughter. Rowe replaced an injured Nouhou in the eleventh minute of the game and went on to play 79 minutes in the 3-0 victory. After being drafted by the Revs, Rowe’s professional career included stops in Real Salt Lake and Kansas City before culminating in the CCL trophy.
The thrilling season was succeeded by an agonizing 2023. In April, during a road match against RSL, Rowe sustained a left knee sprain in the second half of stoppage time, which caused him to miss nearly a month of soccer. The reserve left back, who played a drastically diminished role, strained his right quadriceps against Houston at Lumen in July.
Rowe’s season was cut short by a career-low 360 minutes across all competitions, which came to an end in November when he came on for six minutes against FC Dallas during the postseason. The growth of former academy players Cody Baker and Reed Baker-Whiting as fullbacks presented another challenge to Rowe’s return to the starting utility reserve position.
In the offseason, Rowe had not planned to retire. He tested his agility in games while he continued to rehabilitate his quad and knee. Rowe said he couldn’t perform to his standard and that the last two weeks had been the hardest of his career.
“I managed to get myself back into shape,” Rowe stated, adding that he had been in contact with several teams regarding his availability for the season. The question was, “Do I want to call it quits and start a new life where I can walk pretty happily every day without having to struggle, or do I want to push my body even more so for maybe one or two years? It was difficult for me personally because I don’t want to risk injury-plaguing a team for the majority of the season.
It’s great to be in the locker room. Playing on the field is incredible. However, the fact that you have to spend weeks, months, or even years at a time in that training room mentally drains you because you no longer feel like you are a member of the team. You experience these separations, which are difficult to deal with. My goal was to finish on a positive note and ensure that my body felt good every day.
Across all MLS competitions, the U.S. international made 325 appearances, totaling 32 goals and 50 assists. With the American men’s national team, he earned four caps and contributed to the team’s 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup victory.
