Did you always plan to write about your struggles with addiction once your career ended?

No, I didn’t. But the D.U.I. happened in April, and the book was supposed to be finished a month later. At first, I was just so embarrassed about what I had done, my mug shot being all over the place, all of it. But after a while, I felt like there was no choice: In the addiction world, any secrets are the kiss of death. So how could I write this book without writing about it? It was just serendipitous that it happened when it did, in some ways.

Can you trace the root of it?

It started with me using my prescription pain pills for medical reasons, and then I started to abuse. My alcohol abuse was during off-seasons or before days off, mostly, and I would binge drink. It was my habit. In the end, when things spun out of control, I was nearing the end of my career; I was struggling in my marriage — I’m divorced now. I was having an existential crisis. I didn’t know what I would be without soccer as my main identity. I started to use more to counterbalance the pain I was feeling of not knowing how to deal with those emotions. I was out of control.

And it got worse after you stopped playing?

It did. I was doing all these speeches, I was supposed to be inspiring people — inspiring people! — and late at night, in my hotel room, I was drinking myself to sleep. It just piled up and perpetuated the addiction even more. I was just self-medicating myself through my problems, through my divorce, through moving out of the house.

Have you kept up with Coach Jill Ellis and the national team through all of this?

I’ve followed them, of course. I’m excited to see what Jill can do with the players she has for the next three years. It’s going to be exponentially more difficult to win in 2019 than it was in 2015. The talent around the world is always growing.