U.S. Soccer Captains Adams, Sauerbrunn Pay Tribute to Grant Wahl

Editors’ note: This story has been updated to reflect that Grant Wahl turned 49 on Dec. 2.

The captains of both U.S. national soccer teams expressed their condolences on Twitter over the loss of former Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl.

First, USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn tweeted a statement late Friday night mourning Wahl’s loss and thanking him for his work covering women’s soccer in his time as a writer.

“The soccer community lost a real one today. And for women’s soccer, one of the originals who helped drive our game forward,” Sauerbrunn said. “Grant Wahl never shied away from asking the tough questions, the right questions, the ones that got to the heart of the matter. He will be greatly missed.”

Wahl covered the USWNT when the team won back-to-back World Cups. That included profiles of both Carli Lloyd and Abby Wambach during the 2015 tournament, which was the country’s first World Cup title since 1999.

Then USMNT captain Tyler Adams tweeted a statement early Saturday morning, sending his thoughts to Wahl’s wife and family, along with others who are mourning the loss.

“As players we have a tremendous amount of respect for the work of journalists,” Adams wrote, “and Grant’s was a giant voice in soccer that has tragically fallen silent.”

Wahl, 49, died while covering the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar. He spent 24 years at SI, ultimately becoming the primary soccer voice and working his way to become a senior writer for the sport in ’00.

Following his work for SI, Wahl continued his soccer coverage with his Substack, “Fútbol With Grant Wahl,” along with work for Meadowlark Media. He also worked with Fox Sports as an on-air soccer personality and wrote three books on the sport: The Beckham Experiment, Masters of Modern Soccer and Football 2.0.

Adams and Sauerbrunn are only two of the many in the soccer and sports communities to pay tribute to Wahl on social media.