Abby Wambach, one of soccer’s most proficient and stellar players, announced her retirement from international and club level soccer on October 27. It was a huge moment for United States soccer. With Wambach’s retirement, she’ll be playing her last games for the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) in December’s Victory Tour matches.

    Wambach will not be playing in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics next year. For her though, that doesn’t really matter for her image or status. Wambach is the number one scorer in both the male and female category on the international level with 184 goals. Following behind her is another former USWNT player, Mia Hamm, with 158 goals. A male on that list doesn’t show up until 109 goals which were scored by Iranian soccer player Ali Daei.

  With all those goals and all the success, you would expect Abby Wambach to have a large salary, maybe even bigger than United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) players or other male internationals? Well, that’s where the system is wrong.

  Right before the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Time.com did a round-up of female player’s salaries, including Wambach’s. Wambach’s salary was reported to be around $190,000 to $300,000. The thing about Wambach’s salary, which is significantly different than the salaries of male soccer players, is that all that money mainly comes through sponsorships, not from the clubs or international teams.

Another fellow star player in international soccer is Brazil’s Marta. Marta is considered, like Wambach, to be one of the best forwards in international soccer. However, Marta only makes $400,000 from her club Tyresö FF (in Sweden) and the Brazilian Women’s National Team. Her Brazilian counterpart for the men’s team, Neymar Jr., makes around $31,000,000 from is club FC Barcelona and the Brazilian Men’s National Team.

That major gap is practically the same in the United States. Michael Bradley from the USMNT is the highest paid player in Major League Soccer (MLS) with his club Toronto FC giving him $6.5 million a year. Down along the line, sitting at number three, fellow USMNT player Clint Dempsey is given $4.9 million by his club the Seattle Sounders. In addition to that, they make more with their national team salaries.

   In that stance, we’re talking about the USMNT. The same USMNT that didn’t make it out of the first round in the Round of 16 in last year’s FIFA World Cup. The same USMNT that played horribly and resulted in a fourth place finish in the Gold Cup this past summer. The same USMNT that dropped the ball against the Mexican National Team just last month in a crushing 3-2 loss that resulted in Mexico going to the Confederation’s Cup instead of the United States.

     Meanwhile, while all the worst scenarios were happening to the men’s national team, they were still getting paid more than the women’s national team players. The USMNT, who failed to even reach the semifinals of the World Cup last year, get paid more than the USWNT, who actually won the World Cup this past summer in a 5-2 win against Japan.

  It’s not just money that’s the issue either. There are so many other problems to why female soccer players might not even have the best accommodations compared to that of the males. For instance, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) teams like Sky Blue FC and the Washington Spirit play on soccer fields that look like my old high school field. Sure Hopewell High School had a decent and well maintained field, but the women have to play on a high school-like stadium while the males of the MLS play in Yankee Stadium, CenturyLink Field, and Gillette Stadium.

     I went to go see the USWNT play at Heinz Field this past August. When there, I saw so many people embracing the sport and being excited. Who knew people could be this excited to be watching women’s soccer! There was tons of chatter about how the sport is growing and how it could come to expand. And it has. For instance, a new team was announced in the NWSL, the Orlando Pride, and they will be playing where the men’s team, the Orlando City SC, play: the Citrus Bowl, which is a legit stadium. That’s a huge improvement.

  Next, they need to work on evening out the salaries. Women’s soccer is a growing sport, and the success of the USWNT has really proven that. It seems like the country during the past two World Cups was in a “soccer fever” and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that continue in Rio this next summer. However, women’s soccer has a long way to go before they get completely equal with the males. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be that way. The women have more success anyway! I don’t see the USMNT with three stars on their jersey above the United States Soccer crest.

     I’m not knocking on men’s soccer. I love the USMNT and I watch pretty much every game. I’m the proud owner of my Fabian Johnson and Clint Dempsey jerseys! But facts are facts, and the women have proven countlessly that they deserve equal pay, equal treatment, and equal respect as the male’s teams. Not just in the United States either, but around the world too. As President Barack Obama clearly stated about the USWNT, “Playing like a girl means you’re a badass.”