Closing the Book on a Legendary Career Still Being Written
An open letter to the captain who has defined our club and our city.
Earlier this week Sacramento Republic Captain Rodrigo “Roro” López announced that he would be retiring from professional soccer at the conclusion of this USL Championship Season. If you have followed the Republic, you are aware of his exploits on the pitch, he is a league legend and the undisputed G.OA.T. of our hometown team. Supporters have openly lobbied to have a statue in his likeness be placed at the team’s new stadium due to open in the 2027 season. His impact on the team and the community is immeasurable. For those of us who passionately follow the beautiful game, his retirement is bittersweet. We all knew this day would surely come, but we are never quite prepared to see the brightest stars walk away from the game since they can never truly be replaced.
If we focused solely on his athletic achievements, that would be enough to fill a book, but the profound significance of the efforts he made in our community go way beyond that. As the face of the franchise, he was a fan favorite to both English and Spanish speakers, to old guys like me, and to the thousands of kids he has made time for over the years. Whether it is after a game, at a camp or a community event, he always makes time for young fans, something his fellow teammates know is expected of them and has become entrenched in the DNA of the team.
When he suffered a potentially career-ending injury he documented his rehabilitation, not to shine the light on himself, but to demonstrate the lengths he was willing to go to fulfill a commitment he made to his son, Roman, and to deliver another championship star to our community.
When you think of sport stars who are linked with the cities they starred in, names like Derek Jeter in New York and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles come to mind. Sacramento is a much smaller market, but maybe that’s what makes the relationship we have with López so special to us.
Think of the most monumental and memorable moments in Republic history, Roro played a starring role. Not all stars want the ball when the game is on the line, but Lopez is one of the special few who never shies away from the leader’s responsibility. During the inaugural season when the club was on the ropes in the conference semi-finals against their rivals from Los Angeles, Roro almost single-handedly brought the team back from a two-goal half-time deficit. His second half hat-trick to seal a trip to the championship game went down in Republic lore as the Miracle at Bonney.
The Republic went toe to toe for 110+ scoreless minutes against MLS side Sporting Kansas City with a berth in the 2022 US Open Cup Final on the line. After extra time, the game would be decided on penalties. Who but Roro would step up to take the deciding penalty with the weight of not just the team, but 11,000 fans in the stands and a national streaming audience on his shoulders? The crowd went silent as he placed the ball on the spot and moments later erupted as the ball hit the back of the net.
I saw tears in the eyes of several people around me and I know I wasn’t the only one without a voice the following day. We remember these moments like 49er fans remember “The Catch” or golf fans remember Tiger Woods dropping the impossible chip on the 16th at The Masters. Once you experience even one moment like that, you attend future games with the hope that maybe this is the night we something else special out of our talisman.
Years from now, we might be walking up to the new stadium in the Sacramento Railyards and one of our children or grandchildren might look up to a statue of a player with the number 8 on his back asking, “Who’s that?” We will smile and share our memories of El Capitán and how lucky we were to see him play.
Tonight will be the last regular season game that Roro plays for the Republic. The beauty of sports is that you never know how these things will end. But after watching his career, who among us would bet against another special chapter being written in the coming weeks? When he walks off the pitch as a professional for the last time, the legacy of success he leaves will have been firmly established and we will all be grateful to have witnessed the greatest player to have ever worn a Republic shirt.
On behalf of all of us fortunate enough to have seen you play, thank you Roro, for all the memories, for never giving less than 100% in representing the Republic and our community with a level of class we are all proud of, you will always be our Captain. Gracias mi amigo por todo.