International soccer’s all-time leading goalscorer Abby Wambach spoke to media outlets in Washington D.C. on Wednesday after announcing her decision to retire from football.

– INTERVIEW: FIFA candidate Champagne is in it to win it
– Also: Beckenbauer admits ‘mistake’ in FIFA payment
– FIFA: Blatter claims of fixed vote to be investigated

Wambach, 35, played on a record 252 occasions for the US national women’s team including four World Cups and three Olympic appearances, scoring a world record 184 international goals in the process.

Having won the World Cup earlier this summer, the Western New York Flash star called an end to her career this week.

“I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set out to, Olympic gold medals, broken records, hundreds of appearances for my country and that elusive World Cup Championship,” Wambach said.

“So on paper I did it all. But it doesn’t make it any easier today to say to you what I’m about to say: at the end of this year I will be retiring from the game of soccer. Wow, there I said it out loud.

“It’s actually appropriate because I started my career here in D.C. in 2002. So it makes a very fitting end to be announcing this here in our nation’s capital.”