The nutmeg was just one weapon in Tobin Heath's attacking arsenal, but she perfected the move so well that she didn't even need to touch the ball to deploy it.
During a warm-up game for USA ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019™, Heath bamboozled a New Zealand defender with such an audacious fake that, as she span towards goal, the ball went through her opponent's legs and she casually collected it on the other side.
That moment symbolized the outrageous skills and free-spirited improvisation that was the hallmark of Heath's long and illustrious international career.
In one of her first appearances after breaking into the USA set-up as a college player, with the University of North Carolina in 2008, Heath nutmegged two Canadian defenders in quick succession, which resulted in coach Pia Sundhage jumping out of her seat in sheer delight.
The 37-year-old went on to become one of women's football's most-decorated players, including winning back-to-back FIFA Women's World Cups™ in 2015 and 2019, as well as two Olympic gold medals. After struggling with knee problems over the past three years, however, Heath has had to officially call time on her career.
Now Heath is involved in a multitude of projects, including the successful The RE-CAP Show podcast she hosts with former team-mate Christen Press. She was also part of the Technical Study Group (TSG) at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™, where she worked alongside Arsene Wenger, Esteban Cambiasso, Aliou Cisse, Gilberto Silva, Jurgen Klinsmann, Roberto Martinez and Pascal Zuberbuhler.
FIFA spoke to Heath about her illustrious career, scoring in the Canada 2015 final and her future plans in the sport
FIFA: What are your overriding emotions now that you have officially announced your retirement?
Tobin Heath: It's hard to boil it down to one. One of my team-mates sent me a message saying, 'I hope you have peace.' It was funny because I don't know if I necessarily have peace, but I definitely am feeling (lots of emotions) and I guess that's a good start. The reaction to the retirement was actually a bit of a shock to me. I haven't played in three years and I was just overwhelmed and blown away by the reception of it because I would have thought a lot of people would have been like, 'Well, of course she's retired.'
My initial feeling with the announcement was overwhelmed a bit so a lot of my journey over the past three years and acceptance of retirement has been getting to a place where I can feel all of the emotions of happiness, sadness, disappointment, frustration and then a lot of joy and love. So I would say I was very moved by it and I'm still in the process of feeling all of it come to a close.
What was the process over the past three years to try to keep playing and then understanding that your career was over?
I found out a while back that I had a serious knee injury that was going to cause me a lot of trouble moving forward. I've lived with this superpower of believing that I can come back from anything. I was always such a durable player, even coming back from injuries. But there wasn't really anything in my career that I wasn't able to do in winning but also coming back. So I think there was a part of the process that I never really believed that I wouldn't be able to return to the pitch.
Then I went through a couple of surgeries and countless other types of treatments to be able to give myself the best possible chance. Everyone that was on my team that was trying to help me knew long before I did that I wouldn't be able to make it back. So I think that was hard for people to see me trying so hard, but knowing already medically that it wasn't going to be able to happen. Part of that was feeling for the first time very human and that was really tough.
.-This news comes from https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/articles/tobin-heath-usa-interview and is NOT for commercial purposes