departure

Well, one of the veteran has decided to leave the team. Best of luck to her, but she left the team in somewhat disappointing matter. She has been part of the team since the inception and obvious leader.
With her age past 30 and her strength obviously and visibly dropping, she worked hard to find her playing time on the team. Without her, the team average age drop to about 22.
She wasn't getting stronger, and team was going younger, her playing time diminished considerably. But with her experience, she was still valuable player and made some good impact when she came on. Yet, she didn't try to work on the area, which the head coach told her in order to get more playing time.
So she in a way abused her seniority (big thing in Japan) to intimidate and manipulate to get her way. As the season went on and she wasn't getting her way, she became somewhat critical of our management. And finally after the season was suspended for Summer and World Cup, she told the team that she was leaving and transferring.
It's her life so best of her luck, but very unprofessional in my view. She has a vast experience and knowledge of the game, and the history of the team. She's been here since the beginning!! So she could just work it out until the end of the season and show a true professionalism by working hard and show good example to the younger player... but what she did was contradict what she has been saying and doing. I'm sure the players will be thinking differently, but that's the norm. I'm sure the head coach will talk to the team when the time is right.
I was personally looking forward to working with her, because she had a strong relationship with our goalie. I wanted to improve myself and rapport with goalie and I saw her as someone I can talk to and get pointers. We had a chat once and this departure really contradict with what she told me. So I am disappointed with her action. I think she made the mistake, and with her age, I am not so sure if there will be a team that will take her and another thing is I am not sure if she will find a decent paying job that would accommodate her soccer career. Unless her family is loaded....

life goes on.