Charles Barkley blasted US Soccer and said he'll only wear a women's team jersey because 'the men suck'

• Charles Barkley wants everyone to know that he exclusively supports the US women's soccer team.
• During "NBA on TNT," Chuck said he wears a women's jersey because "the American men's team sucks."

Charles Barkley is riding with the US Women's National Team.

The retired NBA superstar and his "NBA on TNT" co-hosts celebrated US Soccer's massive, eight-year media rights deal with Turner Sports with custom-made jerseys Thursday night. Never one to mince his words, Barkley was blunt about the fact that he exclusively supports the US Women's National Team at present.

"I just want to make this perfectly clear: this is a women's jersey," Barkley said live on the air. "Because the American men's team sucks."

"Sucks" is a strong word, but Barkley is right to assert that the women's team has historically been more successful than the men's side, and to a significant degree. From the women's team's founding in the 1980s to today, the Stars and Stripes have won a world-leading four World Cups as well as six Olympic medals — four golds, a silver, and a bronze.

The women's side has been ranked the top national team on the planet for 13 years total and has never fallen below the second spot in FIFA's rankings. The American men, meanwhile, have never won a World Cup, haven't earned an Olympic medal in well over a century, and have never broken into the top three of FIFA's rankings.

"Listen, the men gotta do better, man," Barkley said. "The men gotta do better."

"We're the United States of America," he added. "We should not be bad at any sport."

The former NBA MVP, nicknamed "The Round Mound of Rebound" for his stature and ability to crash the boards, also congratulated the women's national team players for "finally getting equal pay." Last week, the US Soccer Federation — the country's governing body for the sport — agreed to pay the USWNT players $22 million in back pay after 28 athletes sued the federation over pay discrimination in 2019 and filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission three years before that.

Chuck's all for it.

"I'm glad to be wearing this female jersey, because the men suck," Barkley said.

Check out the "NBA on TNT" segment below: