Longtime U.S. women’s national team star Christen Press has expressed her disappointment that there were no repercussions for Korbin Albert after her anti-LGBTQ+ social media activity was discovered in March.
The USWNT midfielder was forced to apologize after fans discovered her TikTok account had either shared or reposted a host of anti-LGBTQ+ content.
Despite the firestorm around her, Albert was called into USWNT camp in April and has appeared in all 10 of the team’s games this year.
A number of USWNT players past and present criticized Albert amid the controversy, with co-captains Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan issuing a joint statement rebuking the 20-year-old in April.
On her podcast “The RE-CAP Show,” Press aired her belief that the statement wasn’t enough, especially after Pride Month celebrations that have seen both the USWNT and USMNT wear rainbow numbers on their jerseys.
“You have an opportunity as an institution, I’m talking about U.S. Soccer, to show a good way to create a culture that doesn’t just monetize Pride, but actually protects people’s feelings and psychological safety and physical safety,” Press said.
“And you could actually create that culture, but you have to do so in a way that’s consistent and in a way that’s not reactionary. And instead of any repercussions [for Albert] — because as far as I know there was none at all — it fell on our captains to do a press conference and be expected to have some miracle. But it’s not an individual code of conduct. It’s U.S. Soccer’s code of conduct.”
One particularly galling element of the Albert situation for Press is that U.S. Soccer is currently auctioning off her jersey, along with every other USWNT and USMNT player, to benefit a charity that works with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think that maybe the most slap-in-the-face thing that happened here was that this is all happening during Pride Month, that the team wore Pride jerseys including Korbin, and then they auction them off, including her jersey,” the Angel City forward said.
“That just means they’re going through the motions,” she added. “We’re going through the motions. ‘Oh, we have a Pride Night. Oh, we sell the Pride jerseys.’ OK, so great, glad to do that. Everyone loves a good Pride party. Right? Right.”
In April, USWNT players and interim coach Twila Kilgore said that the entire matter would be handled internally. That, once again, didn’t feel acceptable to Press, who last played for the USWNT in 2021 as she nears a return from a long-term knee injury.
“I think that’s a hard thing to say, when it was an external matter,” Press said. “The tweets, TikToks, Instagrams, those are external. So I think to a certain extent it needed to be handled publicly. And I also think that there’s an opportunity to show how to handle this.”
“Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and be educated, and there are institutions here that are responsible for creating that environment for themselves and for the brand,” she added.
“And I think that’s where I was disappointed. The women’s soccer community is beyond disappointed. And what I would like to say to all of the people that have been so hurt is there are so many of us USWNT players past and present, club, professional players past and present, that we are side by side with you in this. You are not our fans, we are your community together, and we share the hurt and the sadness of what this series of events brought to us.
“We’re going to continue to do everything that we can as players to protect your safety and our safety, and to make the team and women’s soccer at large as safe and inclusive and as diverse and beautiful and interesting and challenging as we possibly can. And that’s our promise to you.”
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