Former United States women's national team player Allie Long wants to put the word out: she's back -- and she never really left.
Long has signed with Fort Lauderdale United FC for the remainder of the 2025-26 USL Super League season, becoming the first World Cup champion to sign with a team in the league.
Long was a midfielder on the USWNT's 2019 World Cup-winning side.
"I've never been out," Long told ESPN. "I've never announced my retirement because it was always on my heart. I'm super excited to see where this goes and what comes of it. You'll probably have to roll me off the field when I'm 49 years old. Someone's gonna have to kick me off."
She will join Fort Lauderdale United immediately as the team tries to climb back into the playoff hunt ahead of the Super League postseason in May.
Long, 38, last played a full professional season in 2023 with Gotham FC, which won the NWSL Championship that year. It was her first season back after giving birth to twins in 2022.
Between that and a torn calf that hampered her in the back half of her 2023 season, she says now that she hardly felt like herself.
"I love the game so much and I'm a competitor," Long said. "It just never left my heart. As much as I've considered what to do next, the fact that it's on my heart, it's always been on my heart -- I don't want to end on an injury. I wouldn't need an announcement or people to honor me; I just want to walk off the field that I dedicated my whole life to, in a place where I feel fulfilled in a way, in a way where I feel good leaving."
Long also won two NWSL Championships and an NWSL Shield with the Portland Thorns in the early years of the NWSL and emerged as a one of the league's most composed midfielders, which earned her a shot with the USWNT.
She made the 2016 Olympic and 2019 World Cup rosters.
Her arrival at Fort Lauderdale, even if toward the end of the season, is a big moment for the club and notable for the Super League, which launched in 2024 as a sanctioned first-division league just like the NWSL.
"Signing Allie Long is a defining moment for this club -- but more than that, it's a statement about the environment we've built here," Fort Lauderdale United chairman Tommy Smith said in a statement.
"When a World Cup champion chooses to be part of what you're creating, that means something.
"Her presence will be felt far beyond the field. She's going to be instrumental in developing the next generation of players in our girls academy, and that's what this is really about -- building a true pathway, setting a new standard for what's possible in Fort Lauderdale."
Long also played for Paris Saint-Germain in France and she played all three seasons in the now defunct WPS, which predated the NWSL.
Her contract was up with Gotham after that 2023 season, and she earned a brief opportunity with the Kansas City Current in 2024 as a national team replacement player on a short-term contract.
Long played in each of the first two editions of The Soccer Tournament (TST) in 2024 and 2025, helping a team of former USWNT stars mixed with rising stars win the $1 million prize each time. TST is played on a small-sided field, which is part of Long's roots.
Long famously spent many of her offseasons playing high-stakes amateur futsal with men in New York City. Her home now is in Missoula, Montana, with her partner, Casey, a sports physio who works with professional tennis players and other athletes.
Long said she has been playing indoor soccer and futsal in men's leagues in Missoula. It doesn't quite compare to the gyms in New York City, but it has sufficed, she said.
She put playing on pause altogether in November, however, when her father died.
"I just know that he would want me to never give up," Long said.
"I feel like he believed in me the most, of any soul on the planet. For me, not playing, he didn't really understand why. He came to TST both years and always supported. I felt like this is an opportunity for me and I'm going to take it. I feel like he'd be really proud of me."
Long said she was in the Lauderdale area for the Miami Open tennis tournament last month when the opportunity with Fort Lauderdale United arose.
She had been searching for a chance to get back on the field with a professional team, and she said she hopes she has another couple years of playing left in her.
For now, Long is taking the chance in front of her. She purposely didn't tell her friends and ex-teammates about the opportunity because she didn't want to be influenced one way or another.
Even this week, texting with former USWNT teammate Alex Morgan, Long played it cool about her big return: "I didn't tell them. They are going to be so shocked."